Concepts
Pace methods
How Runtool derives pace — GPS pace, grade adjusted pace, and lap adjusted pace — and which preferences control them.
Pace is distance divided by time, so it is only as good as the distance measurement behind it. Runtool derives pace three ways depending on what the recording can be trusted for. The workout page names the one in use under the segment list, as Pace basis.
The three methods
| Method | Distance it uses | Where it applies |
|---|---|---|
| GPS pace | The distance your device recorded | The default, everywhere |
| Grade adjusted pace | Recorded distance, corrected for hills | Hilly outdoor runs, shown as GAP |
| Lap adjusted pace | The nearest standard rep distance | Track and indoor track reps, when enabled |
GPS pace
Your device's own distance and time. This is the default and it is what you see unless a page says otherwise.
Grade adjusted pace (GAP)
Your pace normalised for the hills you ran. A 5:00/km up a climb and a 4:40/km on the flat can be the same effort; GAP makes them comparable. GAP does not replace your pace — it sits alongside it as a separate figure, mainly in Analyse, where you can chart average GAP against average pace.
Lap adjusted pace (LAP)
On a track, GPS is unreliable in a specific way: it drifts by a few metres on every lap, so a 400m rep records as 391m or 408m. The time is right, the distance is not — and the pace inherits the error.
When lap adjusted pace applies, Runtool rounds the rep to the nearest standard distance (200m, 400m, 800m, 1000m and so on) and recalculates pace from that distance and your recorded time. Reps that are not close to a standard distance are left alone.
Only rep distance is adjusted. Your time is always the time you actually ran.
Adjusted segments are marked with an asterisk in the segment list, and the pace basis below it reads Lap Adjusted Pace.
Correcting a rep yourself
Rounding works when the recording is close. It cannot help when it is not — an indoor 8x600m that recorded as 480m per rep sits nearer 500m than 600m, so there is nothing in the recording that says otherwise.
You can say so directly. Right-click a row in the segment list (long-press on a touch screen, or focus the row and press Enter) and choose Correct distance. The distance becomes a field in the row; type what it actually was and press Enter. Your recorded time is kept exactly as it is — the clock is the half of the measurement the device got right — so only the distance changes, and the pace follows from the two.
The same menu offers the nearest standard distance as one click, so a 391m lap becomes 400m without typing.
Once a rep carries a correction, the menu offers Apply to all reps where the session is a set of equal reps — reps that were all measured the same way were all wrong the same way, so correcting one usually means correcting the set. It stays a choice rather than happening automatically, because a ladder or a pyramid has rungs that genuinely differ.
Reset to recorded puts a rep back to what the device measured.
The segment list is also where a hand-logged session is corrected. There the same rows accept a time as well as a distance: nothing measured that run, so the numbers you type replace the span rather than sitting beside a recording.
Which preference controls this
Lap adjusted pace comes from Snap to distance, under Settings → Activity processing. It has two switches, both on by default:
- Track — outdoor track workouts
- Indoor track — indoor track workouts
It applies to track and indoor track workouts only. On road, trail, and treadmill runs the setting has no effect and the toggle is hidden — those recordings have no repeated fixed-distance laps to round to.
GPS pace and GAP have no preference. GPS pace is the default, and GAP is calculated whenever the activity has elevation data.
Overriding a single workout
You can turn snapping on or off for one workout without changing the workspace default. Open the workout, then the processing preferences (the gear icon by the segment list). Changing it reprocesses that workout.
Two more bases you may see
Estimated pace appears when a workout has no activity file and Runtool derived pace from the workout structure. Manual entry appears when someone typed the completion data in by hand. Neither is affected by the snap-to-distance preference — manual entries are never recalculated.
FAQ
Does snapping change my recorded distance?
Not the recording itself. What your device measured is kept as-is, and the adjusted distance is stored alongside it — so turning the setting off restores the original view immediately.The workout's totals are a different question. Once a rep is adjusted, the session really did cover more (or less) ground than the file says, so the workout's distance, its average pace, and the weekly and 12-week volume it feeds all reflect the adjustment. A session with nothing adjusted is untouched.