Marathon Math

My new headphones did not arrive in time for my Saturday long run. I had a lot of time to do math as I ran. I was thinking about pacing for CIM. I was running in heart rate zone 2 and averaging 10:30/mi. My original goal for CIM was to run 9:20/mi. However, I am still determining my pace for the race.

I started calculations with a 10:00/mi. pace and determined that it would take 262 minutes to run a marathon at that pace. (10 x 26.2 = 262) That’s 4 hours and 22 minutes, and it would be a PB for me.

Then I realized that for every minute faster, you could take 26.2 minutes of the total time. (You move the decimal place over to the left one place.) A 9:00/mi. pace would be about 3 hours and 56 minutes.

Extending this principle, for every 1/10 of a minute (6 seconds) your average pace drops, you can take 2.62 minutes off your total time.

Next, I realized that for every 30 seconds faster, you could take 13.1 minutes of the total time. A 9:30/mi. would be about 4 hours and 9 minutes.

After that, I realized that for every 15 seconds faster, you could take about 6.5 minutes of the total time. A 9:45/mi. would be about 4 hours, 15 minutes, and 30 seconds.

So, no matter what pace I decide to run at CIM, I can calculate my finish time provided I can maintain my average pace at the time of calculation.

What do you do on your long runs without headphones? Do you do math? Please let me know in the comments below.

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