The most common question we get. The good news: in the vast majority of cases, this sorts itself out. After you start, your paces are deliberately only rough and are continuously refined based on your runs – how exactly that works is explained under How does Trait come up with my paces?
What helps most
- Run the sessions as they're prescribed and rate your subjective effort honestly in the Checkout. Trait compares your rating with the expected effort and suggests suitable adjustments. Accept those suggestions – your paces will usually be spot on after a few weeks. (Applying the suggestions is a Pro feature.)
- Are the easy paces (Zone 1–2) clearly off? Then adjust your Feelgood Pace. All zones shift together – see Adjusting paces manually.
- Are the fast paces (Zone 3–5) clearly off? Then do a new Assessment Run (Pro). It determines your threshold and calibrates the upper zones.
- Don't deliberately rate "too easy" or "too hard". Some people report a lower effort out of fear of being "downgraded". That distorts the calibration and leads to exactly the paces that then feel wrong.
Typical causes when things go wrong
- The Feelgood Pace was misjudged – in either direction: supposedly totally easy, but actually not; or you could really run much faster.
- The paces were manually overridden from the start. The mechanisms keep running, but the system then gets "confused" in several places.
- You have a plan with a fixed target time. There, all paces are derived from the target time and aren't adjusted dynamically. If they consistently feel wrong, the target time is usually not realistic – a new plan with an adjusted target time or switching to individual training will help.
What doesn't help
Entering a personal best or a target time as a personal best. PBs have no influence on your paces – that input is only there to correct incorrectly detected PBs.