How the table works
Every row is one speed, written in every unit you use.
Each row is a single constant speed, written in four units at once: kilometers per hour, miles per hour, minutes per kilometer, and minutes per mile. The four race columns then give the finish time that speed produces over 5K, 10K, the half marathon, and the marathon. Read across, and a treadmill number becomes a pace, and a pace becomes a set of finish times. Nothing on the row shifts as you move along it, because the speed does not change.
The table covers a wide speed range in small increments, which makes it long by design. Use the filter to jump to the pace you actually run, or to the treadmill speed in front of you, then highlight that row so it stays visible while you read across it. The km and mi toggle switches the table between kilometer and mile units, so you can work in the units you think in without converting anything first.
- Divide 60 by a speed in kph to get minutes per kilometer
- Divide 60 by a speed in mph to get minutes per mile
- One mile is 1609.344 meters, so min/km times 1.609344 gives min/mile
- 10 km/h is 6:00 per kilometer and 9:39 per mile
- 8 mph is 7:30 per mile and 4:40 per kilometer
Treadmill speed
The treadmill sets speed. You think in pace.
A treadmill console is set in kilometers per hour or miles per hour, while training paces are usually written in minutes per kilometer or minutes per mile. That mismatch is why an easy run can turn into guesswork on a belt. The chart closes it directly: 12.0 kph is 5:00 per kilometer and 8:03 per mile, and 6.0 mph is 10:00 per mile and 6:13 per kilometer. Set the belt, read the row, and you know the pace that speed produces.
The conversion is exact. The effort is not. Indoors there is no air to push against and the belt holds a fixed rhythm, and consoles are not all calibrated the same way, so the same number can feel different indoors and out. Adding an incline changes the effort without changing the speed the chart reads. Treat the pace column as a description of belt speed, and treat how the run felt as separate information.
The race columns
Constant speed is arithmetic. A race is not.
The 5K, 10K, half marathon, and marathon columns answer one narrow question. If you held this exact speed from the first step to the last, what would the clock say. That is division, and as division it is exactly right. It is not a prediction, because it assumes something almost no runner does over a long race. Most races involve some slowing, and the longer the distance, the more that slowing shapes the finish time.
The size of that gap has been modeled. Peter Riegel's endurance-time formula, published in American Scientist in 1981, scales race time by distance raised to roughly 1.06, which puts marathon pace about fourteen percent slower than 5K pace. It is a model rather than a rule, and individuals vary. Read across a fast row, and its marathon column will look quicker than a marathon you could actually run. Read across your marathon pace row, and the 5K column will look slow.
- Race columns use 5 km, 10 km, 21.0975 km and 42.195 km exactly
- A row's four race times all come from the same speed held throughout
- Riegel's model scales race time by distance raised to about 1.06
- Convert units with the chart, set race targets with training evidence
From chart to training
A chart converts units. Training decides what you can hold.
A conversion table tells you what a number means. It cannot tell you which number belongs in Tuesday's session, how long you should hold it, or whether this is the week to try. Those answers come from the shape of a training block: the phase you are in, the volume you have absorbed, the time left before a race, and the days you genuinely have available. The chart is a reference, not a plan.
RunPT is a personal running coach for iPhone. It builds a personalized plan, tells you what to run each day, and uses completed training to keep what comes next appropriate. Plans move through Maintain, Base, Build, Peak, Taper, and Recovery. Runs sync from COROS, Polar, Suunto, or Apple Health, and RunPT can update upcoming training when a newly synced workout materially changes what should come next. Web signups get a 14-day free trial with no payment required. RunPT provides training guidance, not medical advice.
- RunPT needs a compatible running watch or Apple Watch data via Apple Health
- Phases run Maintain, Base, Build, Peak, Taper and Recovery
- Upcoming sessions change when synced training changes what comes next
- Web signup includes a 14-day free trial, no payment required
FAQ
Conversion questions, answered.
Turning treadmill speeds, kph, mph and pace into each other, and what the race columns really mean.
01How do I convert kph to min/km?
Divide 60 by the speed in kilometers per hour. Ten kph gives 60 divided by 10, or 6:00 per kilometer. Twelve kph gives 5:00 per kilometer, and 9 kph gives 6:40. The answer arrives in decimal minutes, so multiply whatever follows the decimal point by 60 to get seconds: 6.67 minutes is 6 minutes 40 seconds. Speed and pace are reciprocals, so equal steps in kph do not produce equal steps in pace.
02How do I convert mph to minutes per mile?
Divide 60 by the speed in miles per hour. Six mph is 10:00 per mile, 7 mph is 8:34, and 8 mph is 7:30. To reach minutes per kilometer from there, divide the per-mile pace by 1.609344, since one mile is 1609.344 meters exactly. Six mph therefore works out at 6:13 per kilometer. Those two steps turn any treadmill console reading into the pace units you plan training in.
03What pace is 10 km/h?
Ten kilometers per hour is 6:00 per kilometer, 9:39 per mile, and 6.21 miles per hour. Held from the first step to the last, that speed produces a 30:00 5K, a 1:00:00 10K, a 2:06:35 half marathon, and a 4:13:10 marathon. Those four race times are unit conversions of one constant speed rather than predictions. Most runners race a 5K considerably faster than a marathon, so the columns rarely all describe the same person.
04How do I convert treadmill speed to running pace?
Read the console number as a speed and convert it directly: 12.0 kph is 5:00 per kilometer, and 6.0 mph is 10:00 per mile. The arithmetic is identical indoors and out, because pace is the reciprocal of speed. What does not transfer is effort. Indoors there is no air to push against, the belt holds a fixed rhythm, and consoles are not all calibrated the same way, so the same converted pace can feel easier or harder than the equivalent run outside.
05Can I use a pace conversion chart to predict my marathon time from a 5K?
No. Each row holds one speed for the whole distance, so the marathon column on your 5K row is the time you would run only if you held 5K speed for 42.195 km. Peter Riegel's 1981 endurance-time formula, which scales race time by distance raised to about 1.06, puts marathon pace roughly fourteen percent slower than 5K pace. Use a prediction model for a forecast, and use this chart to convert units.
06What treadmill speed is four hour marathon pace?
A four hour marathon averages 10.55 kilometers per hour, which is 6.55 miles per hour, 5:41 per kilometer, or 9:09 per mile. On a treadmill, 10.5 kph or 6.5 mph sits within a few seconds per kilometer of that. Holding the belt at that number for a training run is not the same as averaging it for 42.195 km, because a race average absorbs every slow kilometer late on.
07How many minutes per mile is 5 minutes per kilometer?
Five minutes per kilometer is 8:03 per mile. Multiply any min/km pace by 1.609344 to get min/mile, because one mile is exactly 1609.344 meters: 5 times 1.609344 is 8.047 minutes, and 0.047 of a minute is about 3 seconds. Going the other way, divide min/mile by 1.609344. As a quick check, a mile pace is about 61 percent longer than the kilometer pace at the same speed.
08Why does my watch pace not match the chart?
Watch pace and chart pace describe slightly different things. A watch reports instantaneous or smoothed pace that moves second to second, while a conversion chart shows a steady average. GPS distance also carries error from tree cover, buildings, tunnels, and the tangents you actually ran, so a course recorded long or short shifts the pace reported. Compare the chart against a lap average or a finish time rather than the number on screen mid-run.
09How do I find my own pace in the chart?
Start from the value you already know. If you have a recent race time, scan the matching race column and read that row back to a speed. If you are standing on a treadmill, filter by the console number in kph or mph. If you plan in min/km or min/mile, switch to that unit first, then highlight the row so it stays visible while you read across the table.
10Does a pace chart replace a training plan?
No. A pace chart converts units. It does not decide which paces belong in your week, how long to hold them, or when to ease off. RunPT is a personal running coach that builds your plan, gives you clear daily workouts, and can adjust what comes next based on the training you actually complete. Its plans move through Maintain, Base, Build, Peak, Taper, and Recovery, with completed runs synced from COROS, Polar, Suunto, or Apple Health.
Sources and verification
- NIST Guide for the Use of the International System of Units (SP 811)Source for the exact conversion used throughout: one international mile is 1609.344 meters.
- World AthleticsGoverning body for the standard road race distances used in the race columns.