Running pace converter.

A pace and a speed are the same fact seen from two sides: 8:00 per mile is 7.5 miles an hour, which is 4:58 per kilometre or 12.1 km/h. Treadmills and bikes think in speed; watches, race plans and most coaches think in pace. Type the one you have and read the one you need. The table underneath shows what the pace produces over the standard distances, which is a quick way to see whether a training pace matches a race goal.

On a treadmill, set the incline to 1% to match the energy cost of running outdoors at the same speed. The belt moves under you, there is no air to push through, and the classic study from Jones and Doust (1996) found 1% closes the gap at paces of about 7:00 per mile and faster; at easy paces the difference is small enough that 0.5–1% is fine. If the treadmill reads in miles per hour and your plan says minutes per kilometre, this page is the translation. Remember that most treadmills are optimistic by a few percent, so trust effort and heart rate over the display.

Keep easy days in minutes, not miles. The biggest use of a converter is honesty: when your plan says 60 minutes easy at 9:30 per mile, the pace converts to 5:54 per kilometre, and that is slower than most runners feel they should go. It is supposed to be. Pace is a ceiling on easy days and a floor on hard ones; the converter just makes sure you and your watch are speaking the same language.