Distance & Pace Calculators

Once you have decide on a training plan, and you have start walking and/or running, or as Mary calls it, wajing (walking/jogging) you will probably want to know how far you have gone and the mile pace you have managed to do it in. There are a few very useful links I have found to get this information. I know they work for the United States, but Kate, you may have to search for a similar site for Europe/Germany. Another alternative is to do your workouts by time instead of by distance.

Distance calculators are what you use to calculate the distance you have gone in a particular workout, or to decide the route for an upcoming walk/run/waj. The best ones I have found are:

www.geodistance.com

and

www.mapmyrun.com

These are both excellent sites and both work well. The only significant difference between them for the purpose of distance calculating is mapmyrun will also tell you the elevation you have climbed on a given route. So if you are going to be doing some hills, use mapmyrun and you can see how many mountains you have climbed!

The pace calculators are what you will use to find out the pace you ran/walked/jogged on a particular route. Your pace will be important because the marathon will have a cut-off time after which they will close the course and participants will not be allowed to finish. Once the Nike Women's Marathon site has been updated these time limits and schedules should be posted. But you need to know your pace so you know when you will be finished. It is also fun to watch yourself improve as you go through your training! There are many pace calculators out there, but the one I use is:

http://www.coolrunning.com/engine/4/4_1/96.shtml

Another useful feature of this calculator, is if you know approximately the pace you walk/run/waj you can enter that in the appropriate field, enter the distance you will be going and it will tell you approximately how long your workout will be on a given day. This gets to be more useful as the workouts are longer and it is harder to calculate when you will be done.

I think this is the last of the basic tools you will need to get started on your training. But don't wait until the training schedule itself starts. Get out there today, or start on Monday the 21st. You don't need to do a lot, but walk/run/waj for 30 minutes per day. You will start building muscle, it will be a gentler beginning to training for your body than jumping straight into the training schedule the months before the race, you will be healthier and much less injury prone starting sooner and easing into it. I will have another post soon on base miles, which is what this gentle easing and training before the race training schedule begins is. It is important and rewarding, so get out there and get exercising!