Haven't run in a week due to the heat and a nasty summer cold. Went out today for 1st time and did 1.5mile jog to collect my car from the pub car park where I left it last night! I felt like I was going much faster than on my longer runs but my pace on my phone looks the same 0.09miles per minute.
I know it's not about speed, but now I'm consistently covering the 30min runs and 5K's it is a nice way to monitor progress-so just wondering what would be a strong pace to aim for?? X
I am dubious about the accuracy of phone apps. Map my run told me last weekend that in 25 minutes of jogging I covered just 0.08km. Then my next run it claimed I had on two occasions reached a pace of 2 mins / km. I know I was running faster that day but not that fast! I think it's probably to do with GPS connection but whatever the cause it makes it unreliable. Not sure if these fancy running watches are better but I'm not ready to shell out that amount of cash just to monitor my progress.
If you lose your signal at any point you will not get an accurate reading.
Don't worry about what others do, just concentrate on your own journey. Be realistic regarding increasing pace, it comes a little at a time.
I would suggest Parkrun is good for getting a regular accurate time, fun too! Otherwise find a nice route and measure distance. Then simply start your watch when you start and then stop at the finish. You will be able to track pace improvement easily this way.
But remember you should not be aiming for a pb every run. Mix the runs up a bit, speed, hills, intervals , long slow runs. All of them build stamina and therefore aid speed.
There is no such thing as a strong pace to aim for. We on this forum span many decades, a huge range of sizes, weights and physical abilities and come in a whole selection of genders, so without knowing you, any suggestions on pace would be meaningless. Build on where you are but don't expect overnight success. Speed will come with more miles on your legs, so lots of hard work, but you will get faster in time.
Jacs-W's suggestion of parkrun is a great idea to enable you to realise that the world of runners is very wide ranging and also to have a personal, accurately measured 5k time to build on.
There is nothing wrong with phone apps for tracking....... it is usually the phone that is the weak link in the system. I use both a phone and a running watch and both can give erratic results although the watch is considerably more reliable and accurate. Occasionally they give exactly the same result. Any watch can be used on a fixed route to give you a time for that route.
Progress...
Progress! 
C25K and my progression
Slow progress - but progress none the less
Recovery progressing 
