Triathlon Race Pace Calculator
Plan your swim, bike and run pacing strategies for triathlon events
By MyProCoach
Use this triathlon race pace calculator to plan your pacing strategy for your upcoming triathlon or IRONMAN event.
Whether you’re new to triathlon, or a seasoned athlete, a well planned pacing strategy can make or break your race. The most common mistake is starting too fast, and then blowing-up later in the race. We’ve all done it.
Using this calculator, you can create a realistic pacing strategy, based on your current fitness. It uses “thresholds”, which are simply a yardstick of your current fitness. One example is Functional Threshold Power (or FTP), which you may have heard of. Or you can keep things simple by using Rate of Perceived Exertion, which is a score out of 10.
So, go ahead and give it a try! And remember, the more accurate your thresholds are, the more accurate your pacing guide will be.
Choose your event distance
Step Two
Select an intensity measure for each discipline
Step Three
Enter your current threshold or level
Race Pace Calculator
Swim
Bike
Run
Performance Level?*
* How Will You Measure Effort?
- Bike Power
- Run Pace
- Heart Rate
- Rate of Perceived Exertion (feel)*
*Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a measure out of 10, that describes how hard you’re working. A score of “1” represents your easiest exercise effort, while 10 represents your hardest. As you exercise, ask yourself “how difficult does this feel?” and give it a score out of ten. The harder it feels to maintain, the higher the score.
- Rate of Perceived Exertion (feel)
From a practical point of view, rate of perceived exertion works best.
Racing in open water can have many varying factors (such as chop, wetsuit/non-wetsuit and more). These make it hard to relate your swim speed in the pool to what you might achieve on race day.
- Power (watts)
- Heart Rate (bpm)
- Rate of Perceived Exertion (feel)
Use a power meter (if you have one) to pace yourself on the bike, with heart rate and “feel” as back-up measures. If you don’t have a power meter, just use heart rate and “feel” instead.
- Pace (min:secs/km or mile)
- Heart Rate (bpm)
- Rate of Perceived Exertion (feel)
To gauge your intensity on the run, use a combination of heart rate, pace and “feel”. None of these measures are completely reliable in isolation, because there are so many things that can affect them – such as wind direction, gradient, terrain, weather and cardiac drift (an increase in heart rate due to heat stress).
* Performance Level
There are six performance levels for you to choose from when using heart rate or RPE as a measure. The ‘+’ sign indicates you are towards the upper range of your chosen level.
- Advanced +
- Advanced
- Intermediate +
- Intermediate
- Beginner +
- Beginner
In the absence of a known performance threshold (such as pace or power), the calculator uses your performance level to offer guidance for heart rate ranges and feel.
Select your performance level carefully according to your ability and race experience. For example:
- If you have raced at your goal event distance before and expect to finish in the top 25% overall you might choose Advanced or Advanced +
- A mid-pack finisher would more likely be Intermediate or Intermediate +
- If your goal is just to finish, then choose Beginner or Beginner +
Be realistic and choose your current performance level (rather than one you aspire to be).
When using Heart Rate as a measure, you will need to choose a performance level that closely reflects your ability and experience.
The calculator will use your threshold and performance level to show your guide average bpm for the bike and run.
For RPE, select a performance level that closely reflects your ability and racing experience.
The calculator will show you how your effort should ‘feel’ in each leg (from ‘very easy’ to ‘very hard’).
* What Is Your Current Threshold?
Thresholds are a way to benchmark your fitness and ability. Using your bike and run threshold data, the calculator determines a guide race pace/effort according to your event distances.
Your Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is your best average power output for a one-hour steady state time trial. Your Bike Threshold Heart Rate is your average heart rate over the same one-hour time trial.
If you don’t want to perform a one hour time trial, find out more about how to test and calculate your FTP and Bike Threshold HR using this 20-minute Functional Threshold Power (FTP) Fitness Test.
Your Threshold Run Pace is your current best average pace (min/km or mile) for a 60-minute race. Your Run Threshold Heart Rate is your average heart rate over the same 60-minute race.
If you don’t have a recent race time, calculate your pace and heart rate thresholds by performing this 30-minute Threshold Run Test
FAQ's
Unique characteristics of your event and other influencing factors can affect your outcomes on race day, such as:
- Total elevation and gradients
- Swim environment and conditions
- Race climate and weather
- Route specifics (such as terrain, narrow course, start type)
- Success of nutrition strategy
- Proper taper, recent illness, interrupted training, sleep quality in taper week
When putting your pacing strategy together, consider what may affect your pace on race day. For example, if you run is hilly, you will better to measure effort with Heart Rate or RPE.
Stay in control of your effort and be prepared to make adjustments.
Your finish time will depend on many factors, including your training and racing experience, and your target race course and conditions.
With appropriately levelled and professionally structured training, you should expect to see an improvement in results over time (all things being equal).
Improvements depend on the quality of previous training and where you are on your performance improvement curve (usually, the more experienced you are, the more this flattens).
With the many variables that can affect your pacing, performance and outcome. You may need to adjust your strategy on the day, prepare to be flexible.
Stay calm and efficient in transition. Sprinting through, will elevate your heart rate, which will add fatigue meaning you may lose more time later in the race.
The calculator will give the best results if you use accurate and up-to-date threshold data (bike power and run pace).
If you don’t know your current thresholds, you will need to enter your Performance Level guide for your pacing strategy.
In MyProCoach training plans you will find fitness tests scheduled to determine your current thresholds.
In developing the algorithm for this calculator I used this blog by Joe Friel as a starting point (which references an IRONMAN bike pacing table by Rick Ashburn). I then applied our experience of working with 70,000+ amateur triathletes, to include swim and run calculations, plus guidance for all the main triathlon distances.
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- Beginner, Intermediate & Advanced versions
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