Converting pace to km/h

by Linda
(Norway)

Converting pace to km/hr.

"Hi Marius.

First I would like to thank you for sharing your knowledge and advice through your 100-Day Marathon Plan. By following your program I ran my first marathon with success last year. I followed the 4:30 plan and my goal was to cross the finish line and to run all the way. I finished at 4:28:48 – with a big smile!

Now I’m entering Copenhagen Marathon 20th of May 2012 and I’m following your sub 4:30 hrs program again. I’m planning to change to the sub 4 hrs in a few weeks and my goal is to finish around 4 hrs.

I’m running your program by pace and I’m doing my interval sessions on treadmills. Unfortunately most of the treadmills don’t show pace, only km/h. Therefore I have found this site to convert pace to km/h: http://www.runnersworld.com/cda/paceconverter.

I’m not sure if this is correct, and the reason for my doubt is that the treadmills that shows both pace and km/h, actually show a different km/h than the km/h suggested by the pace converter.

Are you familiar with this pace converter? Do you think I should trust the pace converter and ask the gyms to check their treadmills? Or perhaps you have another method to use for converting pace to km/h?

Since speed is crucial for the marathon training I would really appreciate your comments on this. Thank you in advance ☺

Kind regards,
Linda, Norway"

Answer: Hi Linda and thanks for your question.

Taking a quick look at the Runners World Calculator it seems right (for example 20 km/hr equals 3 min/km). I would think that the treadmill is also correct, I've yet to see a treadmill show the incorrect pace.

You may have careful about placing the right decimal into the Runners World Calculator - such as 3:20/km would probably be 3,3 numerical. If you think this is too technical, stick to what the treadmill shows - like I said : I've run on a VERY large numbers of treadmills and yet seen one that shows the wrong pace:)

(EDIT 6th of March) : I got a tip from Amby Burfoot of Runners World on another option, that looks very good MyPaceCalculator - and you may try this one instead)

I wish you all the best,
Marius