How to Measure How Fast You Run Per Mile

If you are charting your fitness goals or training for a race, your running pace is a critical bit of information. Certain organizations, such as the military, also set running goals in terms of pace. If you want to see if the speed at which you run is measuring up to your personal standards or an organization's standards, you will need calculate how fast you run per mile. In the world of running, your speed is measured in terms of minutes.

Things You'll Need

  • Stop watch
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Instructions

    • 1

      Choose a running venue with a known distance. For instance, one lap around most high school tracks equals approximately 1/4 of a mile. If you wanted to run a mile on this type of track, you would make four laps around the track. Another option is to use your car's odometer to measure a distance that you plan to run.

    • 2

      Start a stop watch as you begin running.

    • 3

      Run a specific distance, and stop the stop watch when you finish.

    • 4

      Divide the distance in miles into the time that it took you to run. For example, if you ran 2 miles in 19 minutes and 30 seconds, you would divide 2 into 19.5 (since 30 seconds is one-half of a minute). The calculation of how fast you ran per mile in this example would be 9.75 minutes. If you want to translate this into minutes and seconds, multiply 60 by 0.75 to get 45. This translates into 9 minutes and 45 seconds per mile.