794 words; 4 minutes to read.
PacePro is ultimately a gift to me, but I published it to the app store, hoping runners of all levels will find it as helpful as I intended.
Over the last year or so, I’ve started taking running more seriously. What began as a hobby to improve my health turned into something containing goals and aspirations. As I dug deeper into the sport, I realized there were some essential tools and calculations that I kept needing. These tools included various pace and date calculators for planning my workouts and training block. I got tired of constantly searching out these apps and eventually going to different places for these tools. So I set out to build a one-stop shop where I could immediately access all of the tools I needed regarding running and ended up with my first iOS app, PacePro.
I’ve separated the calculation functionality into two areas: Pacing tools and Date tools. Each area of functionality includes the three separate calculations I’ve used the most.
Figuring out what my race pace should be is always my pre-race ritual, and I have yet to find a running pace calculator that I enjoy using. For this, I decided to keep it as simple as possible. Enter your distance in miles or kilometers, along with your goal finish time, and you’ll receive the pace needed to accomplish that time. Since we don’t usually regard milliseconds in running paces, the goal pace is rounded, and your finish time can be off by a few seconds, depending on the distance of the race. Because of this, I’ve included an “actual finish time” display to give you a better idea of the pace needed for your precise goal.
The finish time calculator is almost the same as the pace calculation, except you’re trying to determine your finish time. Your finish time is determined using your distance in miles or kilometers, along with your average pace.
In the fall of 2022, I started attending weekly track workouts. Something that we’re always trying to calculate in our heads is at what time we should be crossing various splits during our training. Well, I’m not that great at doing this (at least mid-workout). The track split calculator is quickly becoming one of my most used sections of PacePro. It’s similar to the finish time calculator, except you’re doing a track workout, so the relevant units are meters. If you input the distance you’re running along with your desired pace, you’ll get the time you should be finishing that distance. Additionally, you can get the time to cross shorter segments of that split by pressing the “show splits” button.
The training block length is functionality I’ve brought over from my RaceDate web app. Knowing how many weeks you have to train before your race is helpful when planning a training block. With a start and race date, you can compute how many weeks you have and a calendar view to display your possible training block.
A little more specific than training block length, sometimes you want to know when your training block will end or when you should begin. These are the use cases for the race date and start date calculators.
I often sign up for one or two big yearly races based on my current running goals, and these races are what I prioritize my training blocks around. Beyond the big races, there are quite a few random weekend 5ks that I do for fun, and these just pop up on my calendar as I often don’t give much thought to them beyond trying to get my friends to sign up for them. I created the race log to keep track of these random races, as they are often sporadic.
So like I said, this app is primarily a gift to me as I’ve used it quite a bit during its development and will undoubtedly be using it as I go forward in my running journey. I hope other runners get some use out of PacePro, but I’m excited to have an app published on the app store and see where iOS development will take me next.