Free Running Resources
Runner's Toolkit
Free running calculators, training tools and practical coaching guides to help you understand your running, plan your training and make better-informed decisions about how you train. From pace and heart rate to your first 5K, 10K training and choosing between a running app and a coach, everything here is designed to give you useful information you can apply to your own running.
Pace & Time
Running Pace Calculator
Calculate your running pace, finishing time or distance using the information you already know.
- Convert race times into pace per mile or kilometre
- Calculate finishing time from a target running pace
- Useful for training sessions and race planning
Race Planning
Race Time Predictor
Use a recent race or time trial to estimate potential finishing times across other common running distances.
- Estimate 5K, 10K, half marathon and marathon times
- Compare performances across different race distances
- Set more realistic targets for future races
Training
Training Pace Guide
Understand different running intensities, what they are designed to develop and how pace can be used alongside effort.
- Easy and recovery running
- Steady and threshold running
- Interval and faster training
Training Intensity
RPE Guide for Runners
Learn how to use Rate of Perceived Exertion to judge running intensity without relying entirely on pace or heart rate.
- Simple 1 to 10 running effort scale
- Understand how different sessions should feel
- Adapt effort for terrain, weather and fatigue
Heart Rate Training
Running Heart Rate Zone Calculator
Calculate personalised running heart rate zones using lactate threshold heart rate and understand how those zones can support your training.
- Calculate zones from lactate threshold heart rate
- Learn about laboratory and field-based threshold testing
- Understand how heart rate can guide training intensity
Getting Started
Practical Guide to Running Your First 5K
A practical guide to starting running, progressing from run/walk and building gradually towards completing your first 5K.
- Get started with running and run/walk
- Understand Couch to 5K and gradual progression
- Know what to do once you can run 5K
Developing Your Running
Coach's Guide to Running a 10K
An evidence-informed guide to stepping up to 10K, developing endurance and understanding the training that can help you prepare for the distance.
- Progress from 5K towards 10K
- Understand easy runs, long runs, threshold, intervals and hills
- Prepare for race day and work towards a faster 10K
Choosing Your Training
Running App vs Running Coach: Which Is Right for You?
Running apps can be very good, but there may come a point when you want something more individual. This guide takes a balanced look at apps, training plans and personalised running coaching.
- Understand where running apps can work well
- See what personalised coaching adds to a training plan
- Recognise when you might want something more individual
Choosing a Coach
Why Pay for a Running Coach?
What are you actually paying for when you hire a running coach? A practical look at coaching costs, qualifications, support and what to consider before choosing a coach.
- Explore what running coaching typically costs
- Understand what you are paying for beyond a training plan
- Know what to look for in qualifications and coaching support
Use the Numbers as a Guide
Pace, heart rate, race predictions and training data can all be useful, but they need context. Fitness, fatigue, terrain, weather and the purpose of a session can all affect what the right effort looks like on a particular day.
These free running tools and guides are designed to help you understand your training. They cannot account for everything that makes you an individual runner or replace personalised coaching built around you.
Run Fit Coach
Want Training Built Around You?
Calculators, apps and training guides can provide useful information and structure. If you want training built around your goals, experience, progress and the life you have outside of running, personalised online running coaching may be the next step.
Explore Running Coaching