5K Training Pace Calculator
Calculate your target pace per kilometer and per mile for a 5K race.
Enter your goal finish time and get recommended easy, tempo, and interval training paces.
Your 5K race pace is the cornerstone of a structured training plan. Once you know your race pace, you can calculate every other training zone from it.
Race pace (per km) = target time (seconds) / 5 Race pace (per mile) = race pace (per km) × 1.60934
From there, the standard zones based on Jack Daniels’ running formula:
Easy / recovery runs: race pace + 60 to 90 sec/km. Most of your weekly miles should be here — conversational, aerobic, low stress. Easy runs build the aerobic base without taxing recovery.
Tempo / threshold runs: race pace + 10 to 20 sec/km. Uncomfortable but sustainable for 20-40 minutes. This pace trains the lactate threshold — the speed above which lactic acid accumulates faster than you clear it.
Intervals / track repeats: at or slightly faster than race pace. Run 400m or 800m repetitions with recovery jogs between. This is the sharpest training — it improves VO2max but requires full recovery.
Long runs: race pace + 75 to 90 sec/km (similar to easy). The long run builds endurance, not speed.
The 80/20 rule of thumb: roughly 80% of weekly volume at easy pace, 20% at harder paces. Most recreational runners run too hard on easy days and not hard enough on hard days.
To run a 5K in 25 minutes, you need a 5:00/km pace. Easy runs at 6:00-6:30/km; tempo runs at 5:10-5:20/km; intervals at 4:50-5:00/km.
How we build and check this calculator
This calculator runs entirely in your browser, so the numbers you enter stay on your device. The math behind it is written by hand and tested against worked examples and standard references before the page goes live.
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