Plan
Target paces · 18:45 goal

Run every gear at the right pace.

These are the paces you're building toward. Early on, run easy days by feel and let the quality paces come down as fitness rises — forcing goal pace too soon stalls progress and invites injury.

Easy / recovery

8:45 – 9:45 /mi

80% of your running. Builds the aerobic engine. Fully conversational — if you can't chat, slow down.

Long run

8:30 – 9:15 /mi

Relaxed and steady. Time on feet builds endurance and fatigue resistance. Last mile can drift faster.

Steady / progression

7:15 – 7:45 /mi

Comfortably hard. Used to finish long runs strong and bridge easy and threshold.

Tempo / threshold

6:40 – 7:00 /mi

'Comfortably uncomfortable' — the pace you could hold ~1 hour. Raises your lactate threshold.

5K goal pace

6:02 /mi (18:45)

Race-specific rhythm. Practice it in intervals so it feels controlled on race day.

Intervals (VO₂max)

5:45 – 5:55 /mi

Hard 3–5 min reps near 3K–5K effort. Lifts your ceiling so goal pace feels easier.

Reps / strides

5:15 – 5:40 /mi

Short, fast, relaxed bursts (15–30 s). Sharpen turnover and economy without big fatigue.

Where you're starting

You ran a 1-mile at 9:50 on a 2.5% incline — a solid honest starting point. The gap to 6:02/mi for 5K is real, so think in months and blocks, not weeks. Build the aerobic base first, stay consistent, and these paces become reachable. Re-test with a short time trial every few weeks and these targets will adjust down with you.

Log your runs →