|
Some runners still work in miles and measure their pace in minutes per mile. But all running tracks are now calibrated in meters and over 80% of runs are measured in kilometers or based on a scale that is neither miles nor kilometers (e.g. Marathon & Half Marathon). Also by 2012 distances on the roads (and other distances) will all be measured in meters and kilometers; so we might as well get used to them.
Why use kilometers?
- Measuring performance in kilometres allows direct comparison between performance of track and road. e.g.
- 2.5 laps of the 400 m track in 4 minutes is 1km in 4 minutes and equates to 4 minutes per kilometre on the road (but what is this in minutes per mile?)
- 100m in 20 seconds equates to 1 km in 200 seconds = 3 minutes 20 seconds. But try working this out in minutes per mile without a calculator.
- Setting your GPS to measure lap intervals in kilometres instead of miles means that you get more of them, and this allows a finer-grained analysis of your performance as you are running along and when you download your track onto your computer. It is easier to see where you went well and less well.
- Most runs are now measure in kilometres and you can translate your likely pace directly into a finish time if it is based on kilometres. (e.g. 3 minutes per kilometre = 15 minutes for 5km and 30 minutes for 10km ... easier calculated than done of course!)
- Even Marathons and Half Marathons fit more nearly into kilometers than they do into miles since a Marathon is 42.195 km, but equates to 26 miles and 385 yards.
- Finally, kilometers are based on a rationale metric system that uses easy to calculate units of 10. Miles are based on 8 times the distance a cart-horse can plough in a day and divided into 1760 (I think) yards. Do we really want to use the cart-horse as the yardstick for our runs?
The bus trip up to the London Marathon and back, and conversations in the hotel bar and other watering holes, convinced me that this is a very sensitive topic and even some of those who we might expect to have embraced the new system have yet to see the light!
And working in kilometres doesn't mean you won't be able to drink a pint at the end of the run, it just means the pint will in 500ml glasses.
Below is a conversation table. It is hard to start with because we are converting from something familiar, with lots of round numbers (e.g. exact minute pace) to a new scale that isn't exact and involves difficult-to-remember numbers of seconds.
e.g. 7 minute mile = 4 min 21 seconds per km.
However, there are several paces where there is good correspondence to whole or half minutes, and these are highlighted in the table.
e.g. 8 minute mile pace is nearly exactly equivalent to 5 minutes per kilometer. 6:30 mile pace is nearly 4:00 minutes per kilometer.
If you change over to kilometers, I can guarantee that within a month of so you will measure your pace and performance in km and have forgotten all about minutes per mile, yards and fiddly calculations.
Reg
Change in pace (approximate);
- 15 seconds per mile is equivalent to 9 seconds per kilometer
- 30 seconds per mile is equivalent to 18 seconds per kilometer
- 1 minute per mile is equivalent to 37 seconds per kilometer
|
