About PaceForm
Who built this
Juraj Zigo · Founder, PaceForm
I'm Juraj — a few half-ironman finishes, two marathons, and dozens of half-marathons in, squeezed around a busy, high-pressure C-suite job, not built for it. I've overtrained and paid for it. I've been injured and had to rebuild from zero. I know the specific low of a session that falls apart and the specific high of nailing a long run exactly on pace.
I'm not an elite runner — I'm a mortal one, training around a life that doesn't leave much room for it. These days the goal isn't just the next race — it's still running well a decade from now, and still enjoying it enough to want to. PaceForm is the plan I wished existed: calibrated to where I actually was, honest about why each session mattered, built to survive the weeks when work takes over, and built so training stays something you look forward to, not a second job.
What PaceForm is
PaceForm generates personalised half-marathon training plans for busy runners — people with jobs, families, and schedules that don't accommodate six-day training weeks. Every plan is built around your goal time, your available training days, and your race history. The output is a PDF: no app to sync, no subscription to cancel, no account to manage. Print it, pin it to the fridge, and follow it.
Every session in the plan comes with a plain-English explanation of what it is training and why it appears at that point in the programme. The goal is that you understand your training well enough to make sensible decisions when life interrupts — because it will.
The methodology
Jack Daniels' VDOT system
Training paces in PaceForm are calculated using the VDOT methodology developed by exercise physiologist Jack Daniels, as published in Daniels' Running Formula (Human Kinetics, 3rd edition, 2013). VDOT is a measure of aerobic fitness derived from race performance that allows training paces to be calibrated to your current ability rather than an arbitrary percentage of maximum heart rate.
- E pace (easy): 1.13–1.25× your half-marathon goal pace. Used for base building and recovery. Conversational effort throughout.
- T pace (threshold): approximately 0.91× your half-marathon goal pace — yes, faster than race pace. This is your sustainable 60-minute race effort and the primary stimulus for improving lactate clearance.
- I pace (interval): approximately 0.85× your half-marathon goal pace. Used for short repeats (600 m–1200 m) to develop VO₂max. Hard but not all-out.
Riegel race prediction formula
When you provide a recent race result, PaceForm uses the Riegel formula (Pete Riegel, Runner's World, 1981) to estimate your equivalent half-marathon time: T2 = T1 × (D2 ÷ D1)^1.06. This gives a more accurate starting point for your VDOT calculation than using the goal time alone.
10% mileage rule and phase structure
Weekly volume increases by no more than 10% between consecutive training weeks, in line with standard sports medicine guidance for injury prevention. The plan follows a three-phase structure — base, strength (tempo), speed (intervals) — followed by a taper. Recovery weeks at 70% volume are inserted every third or fourth week.
Why PDF
Coaching apps require battery, connectivity, and a monthly fee. A PDF requires none of those things. It works offline, on any device, printed on paper, or pinned to a fridge. The plan you get from PaceForm is yours, free, forever — no login, no account, no risk of a subscription being cancelled mid-training block.
Questions about your plan?
Email us at ukes.ukes@gmail.com — we respond within 48 hours.