Ruck Pace Calculator and Cutoff Planner

How to use the ruck pace calculator

Use these six steps to build a plan or check a pace you have in mind.

1. Set the route: Enter the full distance and choose miles or kilometers. Use that unit for pace and checkpoint distances. Switching units converts the displayed distance, pace, and checkpoints so they continue to describe the same physical route; results update in the selected unit.
2. Choose a finish window: Enter an elapsed limit as hours:minutes, such as 3:00 for three hours, or use a start time and finish deadline. Use one method. A deadline earlier than the start means the next day; identical clock times are rejected. For a full day or longer, enter an elapsed limit.
3. Separate stops from buffer: Enter the minutes you expect to stop. A finish buffer is separate time you want left before an official cutoff; it is not another stop. A nonzero buffer needs an official finish cutoff.
4. Add checkpoints if useful: Simple mode spreads total planned stops evenly by distance and does not know where you will stop. Specific mode lets you place stops after arrival and enter arrival cutoffs.
5. Choose what to calculate: Choose Find my required pace to use your cutoff and calculate the pace the plan needs. Choose Estimate my finish time to enter a target moving pace or target elapsed finish. Only the selected mode’s target affects the estimate, so an older value in the hidden mode does not change the result.
6. Calculate and review: Check the projected finish, checkpoint arrivals and departures, and each cutoff status. Print or share the plan for your route review. The calculation assumes a uniform moving pace; it does not predict whether you can hold it.

Moving pace vs overall average pace: do breaks count?

Moving pace

Time spent moving per mile or kilometer. Stops are excluded.

Elapsed time

All time from the start through the finish, including moving time and stops.

Overall average pace

Elapsed time divided by route distance, so it includes stops. A watch paused during breaks may show a faster moving pace.

The required pace is the slowest uniform moving pace that meets the tightest finish target or checkpoint arrival deadline you entered. A smaller minutes-per-mile or minutes-per-kilometer value means faster movement.

Rucking pace chart

Compare a steady moving pace in minutes per mile and per kilometer, then see the time that pace takes over common distances.

Pace in min/km is converted from min/mi using the exact international mile: 1 mi = 1.609344 km, then rounded to 0.01 second. Distance times use the unrounded pace and are rounded to the nearest second. These are moving times; stops add to elapsed finish time.

On a narrow screen, scroll inside this table to see every column. With a keyboard, focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Use the ruck pace calculator above to include your planned stops, route, and cutoff.

Worked example: 12 miles in three hours

With no stops or finish buffer, three hours over 12 miles is a 15:00 per mile overall average. Twelve stopped minutes leave 168 moving minutes, so the required moving pace is 14:00 per mile. Moving at 15:00 per mile and adding those stops takes 3:12.

A 12-mile ruck pace chart: how stops change the plan

This pace chart keeps the same 12-mile route, three-hour finish cutoff, and zero reserved finish buffer. Only stopped time changes. Every six extra stopped minutes takes thirty seconds off the moving time available per mile.

Read the graph from left to right: more stopped time requires a faster moving pace. The table gives the same values in minutes and seconds per mile. These are examples, not pace standards or fitness predictions.

Columns show stop minutes, moving time in h:mm, and pace in min/mi. The official finish cutoff is 3:00.

On a narrow screen, scroll inside this table to see every column. With a keyboard, focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Reserve a finish buffer without counting it as a stop

Planned stopped time

Time you expect to use during breaks. It is subtracted from the window before calculating moving time.

Finish buffer

Time you choose to leave unused before the official cutoff. It is subtracted once from the finish window and is not added to stopped time. There is no default recommended buffer.

Choose a finish buffer

For 12 miles, a 3:00 cutoff, 12 stopped minutes, and a 10-minute buffer, plan to finish by 2:50. That leaves 158 minutes to move, requiring 13:10 per mile. With no stricter checkpoint cutoff and no target scenario entered, the required pace meets this earlier finish target exactly before display rounding.

Buffer is minutes kept unused before the official 3:00 cutoff; finish target is elapsed h:mm and pace is min/mi.

On a narrow screen, scroll inside this table to see every column. With a keyboard, focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Compare a target pace

The next comparison tests moving paces with no finish buffer: 13:00 per mile finishes in 2:48, leaving 12 minutes; 14:00 reaches the 3:00 cutoff; and 15:00 finishes in 3:12, twelve minutes over. Stop allowance is the total stopped time that fits while preserving the selected buffer, not extra time on top of planned stops.

Pace is min/mi, finish is elapsed h:mm, and the last column compares with the official 3:00 cutoff.

On a narrow screen, scroll inside this table to see every column. With a keyboard, focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Mile and kilometer checkpoint splits with total stops

Simple checkpoint mode estimates splits by spreading total planned stops evenly across the route. It does not know where your actual breaks happen.

1. Choose the route unit: Enter checkpoints in the selected miles or kilometers unit.
2. Use increasing distances: List checkpoints in route order, such as 3, 6, 9, 12. Each distance must be positive and no farther than the finish.
3. Review estimated stops: The planner spreads total stopped minutes by distance. Use specific checkpoint mode when stop locations matter.

At 14:00 per mile on a 12-mile route with 12 stopped minutes and no buffer, mile 3 is estimated at 45 elapsed minutes: 42 moving plus three stopped.

• Spread stops evenly: Mile 3 arrival is 45 minutes.
• All 12 stopped minutes before mile 3: Arrival is 54 minutes.
• No stops before mile 3: Arrival is 42 minutes.

These alternatives use the same 14:00 moving pace. The separate kilometer example finishes 10 km in 1:10 at 6:00 per kilometer with 10 stopped minutes.

Distance is mi; Moving time excludes stops and Elapsed includes stops. Both use h:mm; Stops so far is minutes accumulated by that checkpoint.

On a narrow screen, scroll inside this table to see every column. With a keyboard, focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Distance is km; Moving time excludes stops and Elapsed includes stops. Both use h:mm; Stops so far is minutes accumulated by that checkpoint.

On a narrow screen, scroll inside this table to see every column. With a keyboard, focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Plan checkpoint stops, arrival cutoffs, and departure times

Specific mode replaces the total-stop estimate and simple checkpoint list. Enter each planned stop at the distance where it happens; the calculator does not guess unlisted breaks.

1. Add each stop location: Enter its route distance in the selected unit and the minutes you plan to stop there.
2. Set arrival cutoffs if needed: Choose elapsed time from the start or local clock time. Clock cutoffs need both a start time and finish deadline.
3. Check the result: Arrival includes moving time and earlier stops. Departure adds the stop at that checkpoint. Cutoffs apply to arrival, so check event instructions if they require departure by a stated time.

Arrival

Moving time to the checkpoint plus stops assigned to earlier checkpoints.

Departure

Arrival plus the stop assigned at that checkpoint. That stop counts toward later arrivals.

In the example, a 13:20 per mile pace reaches mile 3 by its 0:40 cutoff, leaves at 0:45 after a five-minute stop, and finishes in 2:52 after another seven-minute stop at mile 6. A 14:00 scenario still finishes by 3:00 but reaches mile 3 at 0:42, two minutes late; the planner keeps that scenario and marks the missed cutoff.

• Enter valid rows: Distances must be positive, strictly increasing, and within the route. Zero and duplicate distances are rejected.
• Handle the finish row: A row at the finish may have an arrival cutoff but must have zero stopped minutes; a stop after finishing is outside the plan.
• Keep cutoffs feasible: Arrival cutoffs must increase, leave time to move after earlier stops, and not exceed the official finish cutoff.
• Stay within input limits: Use at most 10 rows. Long entries may require fewer rows.

Distance is miles; arrival, departure, and elapsed arrival cutoff are h:mm from the start.

On a narrow screen, scroll inside this table to see every column. With a keyboard, focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Start times, arrival clocks, and an overnight cutoff

Clock cutoffs use local 24-hour time and are interpreted relative to the same start.

1. Enter the time window: Provide both a start time and finish deadline. If the deadline clock is earlier than the start, it means the following day, with one midnight rollover.
2. Choose checkpoint cutoff format: Specific-mode arrival cutoffs can use elapsed time from the start or local clock time. Clock cutoffs require the start and finish clocks.
3. Check ambiguous or changing clocks: Identical start and finish clocks are rejected. Use an elapsed limit for a full day or longer. Dates, time zones, and daylight-saving or other clock changes are not modeled; confirm the actual event schedule when these matter.

Worked example: finish after midnight

A 23:00 start is 11 p.m.; a 02:00 finish deadline is 2 a.m. the next day. On a 12-mile route with 24 stopped minutes and no finish buffer, the required moving pace is 13:00 per mile, with stops spread evenly by distance.

Distance is mi; Moving time excludes stops and uses h:mm. Stops so far is minutes; Local time is the 24-hour arrival clock (next-day arrivals are marked).

On a narrow screen, scroll inside this table to see every column. With a keyboard, focus the table area and use the arrow keys.

Read the plan alongside your route and event instructions

Use these calculations alongside your route and event instructions. Enter the cutoff for your own route or event; the planner does not supply official rules or predict what pace you can maintain.

• Route conditions: Pack weight, hills, surface, weather, navigation, fatigue, and fitness do not change the calculation. The projected finish assumes you hold one uniform moving pace.
• Displayed pace: Required pace is displayed to whole seconds and rounded down when needed; calculations use unrounded values. The displayed pace can therefore leave a few extra seconds before a deadline.
• Leave time to move: If stops plus buffer use the whole finish window, or earlier stops use the full time before a checkpoint cutoff, no moving time remains and the plan is rejected. Change the entered stops, buffer, distance, or cutoff.

Conversion reference: NIST Guide to the SI: conversion factors.

Related rucking and hiking calculators

Time planning and energy estimates answer different questions. For an estimate based on pack weight and walking conditions, use the Rucking Calories Calculator. Use this pace planner for stops, finish times, and checkpoint deadlines.

• Rucking Calories Calculator
• Hiking Calories Calculator