I found a few great training spreadsheets over the years and some are linked to on this site.
One is The5kRunner and DanielsTables v3 tools. It’s complicated but interesting if you have 15 minutes to kill (which will turn into an hour!)
Another is this spreadsheet Calculator.
Like many of you I often train by Heart Rate and I’m also not totally clear what zones I should be in for my LSR or my Various Threshold runs.
Heart Rate – Running Zones. With this spreadsheet, you put in the usual simple (if you have them) HR stats about yourself and it tells you want HR zones all the various run types correspond to. So in the attached spreadsheet my 5k race pace is 183-189bpm (gulp!) whereas my long runs should be 149-155bpm (about right) and my short intervals should be at least in the 170s bpm and probably well into the 180s (must try harder!)
Have a look. They will probably help when you need guiding on what to do on a particular day when you just previously hadn’t planned anything and you just fancy doing a …………..
Last Updated on 13 January 2026 by the5krunner
My favourite kit and nutrition
- Injinji – Runners protect your toes. Avoid discomfort and minor injury. Run more. run faster. I use them.
- Garmin 90-degree charging adapter — the small adapter that keeps your charging cables tidy. Essential for race day. I use one.
- Garmin charging puck — the fastest and most reliable way to top up your Garmin before a session. I use one.
- Ravemen FR300 — front light that mounts directly under your Garmin or Wahoo head unit. Keeps your bars clean and your beam pointed where it matters. I use one.
- Body Glide – The Blue anti-chafe stick that all swimmers and many runners use. I use it.
- Maurten — the race nutrition trusted by elite athletes. Gels and drink mix engineered to be easy on the stomach. I use them.
- Garmin Varia RTL515 — radar rear light that alerts you to vehicles approaching from behind. Pairs with your Edge or Garmin watch. I use this model.
- Favero Assioma Pro RS2 — the power meter pedals most serious cyclists end up choosing. Accurate, easy to move between bikes. I use this model.
Reader-Powered Content
This content is not sponsored. It’s mostly me behind the labour of love, which is this site, and I appreciate everyone who supports it.
Support the site: Follow (free, fewer ads) · Subscribe (paid, ad-free) · Buy Me A Coffee ❤️
All articles are written by real people, fact-checked, and verified for originality. See the Editorial Policy. FTC: Affiliate Disclosure — some links pay commission. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.
tfk is the founder and author of the5krunner, an independent endurance sports technology publication. With 20 years of hands-on testing of GPS watches and wearables, and competing in triathlons at an international age-group level, tfk provides in-depth expert analysis of fitness technology for serious athletes and endurance sport competitors. ID
Hi.. Thanks for some interesting stuff. The spreadsheet with ‘daniels table’ in its title won’t download properly though… I get a message that says something like ‘the file is in a different format than the extension type – so my computer warns it might be corrupt or something nasty.
hi dave it’s an xlsx spreadsheet (newish version of microsoft excel) and i think it has macros in it (which you can easily disable). just download it and change the extension to xls maybe? – if you don’t have office 2007 or later installed.