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Tinman Calculator

Tinman Running, Training & Pace Calculator – Updated 2021

For a five-year old team that’s about 13-members strong, Tinman Elite has not done too badly for themselves.

They are now considered a benchmark for optimized training amongst the ardently-scrutinized community of elite athletes.

Without taking an iota of credit away from the runners who put in the sweat and grime, let’s take a moment to appreciate Thomas ‘Tinman’ Schwartz.

Exercise physiologist, scientist, trainer, Tom Schwartz’s resume is not short of career roles that he has assumed over the 30 years that he’s been in the business. But its post 2015, that some of his research and work started to get its fair due.

But this post is not to discuss Tom’s illustrious career, or about the dozens of NCAA DI runners, record holders, & even athletes of average ability that he’s trained. It’s about the Tinman Calculator, a dandy training tool that Tom designed prior to 2007.

Over the years, it’s become the go-to tool for runners, athletes, coaches, triathletes & cyclists to name a few. In principle, it’s a very simple calculator that takes some basic information from the athlete, runs the math and throws back some ballpark numbers at you.

But if you look closely at the data that it produces, it’s nothing short of phenomenal. If you have always been curious about the Tinman Calculator, then strap in and enjoy this read.

 

Tinman Calculator – A Complete Guide

The Tinman Calculator is a digital tool that allows you to get target training paces for a variety of workouts. That of course, is just scraping the surface of what’s achievable with the tool. But that’s the most basic description that we can come up with.

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When you hop on to the home page, it allows you to enter your most recent race finish time and distance, starting from 800 meters all the way to 50 KM on the Metric System. Its 880 yards to 100 miles in the Imperial (English) system.

The calculator then converts this information into your equivalent running times for a wide range of race splits. You also get your training paces for all types of intensities that Tom Schwartz uses in his training methods.

Here’s an example. Let’s assume that you are a 31-year old Male with a recent finish time of 15 Minutes & 35 seconds for a 5K run. The calculator will assign an efficiency rating to your performance. In the above mentioned example, its 79.1%, with 100% being the highest number awarded for natural performance limits in humans. There’s an 11% gender difference in the ratings.

Then, it will show you some very useful data that you can incorporate in your own training routines, or in one of Tinman’s training programs.

That segues into the next question. How do you use the data that the Tinman Calculator produces?

Tinman Running Calculator

Tinman Running Calculator

The information produced by the Tinman Running calculator can largely be divided into two categories.

1. Information for Runners
2. More generalized information for pacing & training

The first chunk of information is extremely useful for runners of all ages, across talent ranges.

It does not matter what type of running event you are training for. You can use the calculator to find the right pace per kilometer or mile that you should be aiming for.

The earlier iteration of the calculator was even more comprehensive. It could be used to narrow down on extremely precise statistics. If an athlete wanted to run in Lane 7 instead of Lane 1, they could use the calculator to find the exact time for each lap in that lane.

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In the above mentioned example, your target time for a 10K run should be 32:27.10. For 15K, it’s 50:01. Are you able to match these numbers?

If yes, then maybe you can better your performance by using the next chunk of information available in the pace and training calculator.

Tinman Pace Calculator

Tinman Pace & Training Calculator

The Tinman pace and training calculator can be used to find the ideal pace for your training routines. Be it short sprints or triathlons, you can find the ideal training pace splits in tiny increments.

If you use the metric system, it shows you the training pace in 100 meter increments. Its 110-yards for athletes following the English system.

The Intensity is a key part of the Tinman training calculator.

Intensity – The Tinman Pace Calculator offers you the ideal race training pace by dividing it into different intensity levels. This starts from ‘very easy’ for beginner athletes and goes all the way to ‘Speed’, for elite athletes. In between, it includes some of the common training methods or splits, used by coaches. These are Tempo, Easy Tempo, Threshold, CV, Aerobic Power, V. O2 Max & Anaerobic endurance and power.

CV Workout Tinman

Most coaches are guilty of using a myopic training methodology with an over emphasis on high-speed interval training. When the overall volume of interval training exceeds the body’s capacity to adapt and recover, athletes hit a roadblock, or even worse end up injured.

One of Tinman’s most talked-about training philosophies is CV or ‘Critical Velocity’ training. It’s a method that Tinman developed when he was an assistant Coach at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse. It aims to produce race-ready aerobic fitness that can be sustained for at least 30 minutes.

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The CV Workouts Tinman use one’s current 10K race speed or a little higher than that, at sustained intervals.

The idea is that it does not overload your body’s metabolic and hormonal systems like the prevalent V.O2 Max development training. Instead, it allows ample time for the system to reset and recover after a training session.

The perks are not limited to that. It also helps amplify the aerobic capacity of Type II A muscle fibers. These are fast twitch fibers that your body engages for activities that need short bouts of intense power. For example, sprints.

Increasing the capacity of these muscle fibers allows athletes to perform at their peak for a much longer duration without getting overworked.

Athletes who integrate CV training not only notice an improvement in performance and pace, they also report feeling refreshed after a session, rather than feeling sore and burnt out. Case in point is Drew Hunter, and the Tinman Elite team who excel at distances ranging from 800M to 50K.

 

Closing thoughts

That’s it folks. We hope that this helps you gain a better understanding of the practical usage of the Tinman Calculators. Do you have anything to add to this? Do write to us. We’d love to hear your thoughts on Tinman Training.


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