My most recent 5k was at 7:40 pace, reasonably average paved road course. What should my goal pace be for an 8 mile trail run? It 's non-technical, with a 450' climb in the first half, then loop around and come back down.
It's the Greenland Trail 8M in Colorado, so if you've done it, any advice?
With that little vert, especially for such a short distance, unless the trail is particularly technical or at an altitude much higher than your recent 5k then I’d say treat it similarly to a 10k for pace.
OFOOS wrote:
My most recent 5k was at 7:40 pace, reasonably average paved road course. What should my goal pace be for an 8 mile trail run? It 's non-technical, with a 450' climb in the first half, then loop around and come back down.
It's the Greenland Trail 8M in Colorado, so if you've done it, any advice?
Good rule of thumb for any trail race is to take whatever your road pace would be and add at least a minute to it. Elevation and footing a aside, most trails are slower just from all the turns and twists. Local trail near my house has less elevation gain than my neighborhood loops but i still run close to two minutes a mile slower at the same heart rate on the trail because of the turns.
If i had to throw a number at you i would say 9:30 pace seems about right.