With Effort Pace, athletes can now properly pace efforts on hilly terrain to ensure they finish strong. 

Effort Pace helps athletes understand their effort throughout rolling terrain. If you have ever run uphill, saw a slow average pace, and wondered how to calculate your effort, this metric is for you! Effort Pace allows athletes to train at specific efforts even with ground slope causing different real-world paces. 

Training By Effort Pace

We recently wrote an article about training with Pace Vs Heart Rate. Within this article, we noted it is best to train by pace when you have specific goals. By adding Effort Pace, you can actually dial in these approaches even further. From training at specific efforts regardless of terrain, to maximizing your race strategy during an actual event. Putting this new metric on your watch face allows you to dial in your effort regardless of what gradient you’re running on.  

Terrain with Effort Pace

The best part of Effort Pace is you can now run any gradient and know your flat road pace. This is a major advancement for athletes that train in rolling terrain. Ever wonder how hard you need to push up a hill to simulate 7:00/mile pace? Effort Pace will tell you. This tool can help you ensure that your training is targeting the appropriate level of effort. Don’t worry about finding a perfectly flat route for your tempo runs any more, you can run wherever you like and let this metric keep your effort dialed in. 

Racing with Effort Pace

This may be the best use-case for Effort Pace. When running in races, generally the best strategy is a steady effort. Often times, athletes will overexert themselves running uphill to try and make up time. This leads to athletes pushing into their aerobic capacity or anaerobic endurance zones. Throughout a longer race, the more time spent in these zones, the more the athlete will fatigue. With Effort Pace, athletes can now properly pace efforts on hilly terrain to ensure they finish strong. 

Coaching Perspective

Effort Pace is a fantastic tool to ensure you’re training properly and racing smart. Often times, athletes want to push effort uphill without understanding the physiological aspects of doing so. When athletes run on a hilly course, they often chase a number rather than maximize their current abilities. By having Effort Pace on your watch, all athletes will be able to better train and build their physical abilities. As you go into your next race, dial in your pacing strategy based on your current pace zones. Put Effort Pace on your watch, and ensure you’re staying within your proper zone. You will begin to experience better results as you remain strong towards the final portions of your event. 

Conclusion

Effort Pace is a great metric to help athletes understand their efforts. By adding this feature to your watch, you can train properly regardless of terrain. As you head into your next race, try adding Effort Pace to your watch. Be sure to run at the appropriate effort, and watch as you begin to explore perfection!