Choosing pace targets and zones

A pace name and a training zone can cover similar speeds, but they give you different instructions. One asks you to hold a point closely; the other gives you a range in which any pace is acceptable.

Use a pace when the point matters

A Named Pace — such as marathon, half-marathon, threshold, interval, or repetition — is a single pace calculated for you. The workout places a tight band around that point so a rep can be judged as the precise effort it was meant to be.

This is why work reps usually name a pace. “Run the reps at threshold” means something more exact than “run somewhere in Z3.” Marathon pace is a point, not a “marathon zone,” even when that point sits inside a zone.

Use a zone when the range matters

A Training Zone — one of the five broad intensity bands from Z1 to Z5 — says that anywhere in the band is right. Warmups, recovery jogs, cooldowns, and whole easy runs normally use zones because they should allow room rather than hold you to one exact pace.

That choice also controls how the step is judged. A named pace carries a tight window; a zone carries its full, wider band. There is no separate strictness setting hidden behind the workout.

Use fixed numbers when they must stay fixed

A pinned band — pace or power numbers entered explicitly — is for an effort that should remain those exact numbers, such as rehearsing a chosen race pace. It does not turn into a named pace just because it happens to sit near one, and it is never recalculated from a later fitness change.

That is the opposite of naming a pace or a zone. When a workout with a named or zone target is built for you, the target is resolved from your current fitness. When a saved workout is placed again later, those targets resolve for your fitness at that placement; a pinned band remains the band that was saved. An already-planned session is not silently rewritten every time your fitness changes.

Use a pinned band only when the numbers themselves are the instruction. For an ordinary threshold rep, easy warmup, or recovery jog, name the pace or zone and let the session fit the runner you are when it is placed.