I have only been racing a few years and my background prior to that involved zero running. I have trained hard and am now able to do some things that I never thought possible. My question is about open run races specifically. It seems like I have become pretty good at pacing my self for TRIs from sprint to IM, but for running races, I think I am too conservative early.
Today, I went out and did a 10k that I had circled as an important race. I had previously run a 5k in 19:59, but that was a year ago, so I decided to do the 10k on a 7:00 pace (VDOT of 48 instead of my previous best VDOT of 50).
I ran solid the whole race, average pace through 5 miles was 6:56 and fairly consistent from mile to mile. Last mile though, I was able to push the speed up to 6:30 and then the last 0.2, I went even faster and averaged sub 6 pace. I ended up negative splitting race by about 30 seconds for a 42:49.
I produced my best 5k time when I went out stupid fast, and then hung on for dear life. I have never hurt like that before, I faded hard (20 seconds slower last mile than first) but it was still a PR and a VDOT PR.
For a 5k, I guess I don’t mind going out like a lunatic and hanging on, but for longer stuff i might be too conservative. How do you train yourself to make it hurt the appropriate amount so you don’t have “so much” gas left in tank for the last 1.25 miles (or whatever for longer distances).
I have an A race HM coming up and I don’t want to finish it thinking, that I left time on the front end of the course.
Getting a watch that gives your pace/speed is probably useful too, especially for less experience athletes… but it sounds like you have that already.
the other thing you can do is do some run sessions at “race pace”. doing some race-pace sessions, where you run long-ish intervals at your target race pace should help you to zone in on what is your maintainable race pace and help to get you confidence in running that speed for a full distance.
That, and 19:59 5k is 6:25. In my personal experience, 10k is generally only about 20-25s slower than 5k pace… so you should have been targeting 6:45, not 7:00.
That’s the only way I can describe it. Around the one mile I looked up and was next to a girl that runs 18. She pulled away gracefully and beat me by 2 minutes (she got faster over race, I survived).
Generally speaking, the first third of the race should feel comfortable, the middle third should build in effort so that you are working quite hard by the end of it, and the last third should be doable, but very, very hard. Also, I would recommend going out really fast for a few races because it will teach you about pacing.
Generally speaking, the first third of the race should feel comfortable, the middle third should build in effort so that you are working quite hard by the end of it, and the last third should be doable, but very, very hard. Also, I would recommend going out really fast for a few races because it will teach you about pacing.
I suppose thirds makes sense in 5k’s/10k’s here in the US because we mark the miles rather than the kilometers. For some reason (too many 800’s/1600’s in track?), I always break my races up into quarters instead of thirds, but Nacly is pretty much right on here. The third quarter of a race always feels the hardest; over halfway, but still feels a long way from the finish, no matter the distance. I think I would say “familiar” in place of “comfortable” for that first mile, though. Your body should know that first mile pace from the pick-ups during your tempo runs and should be just a hair slower than your longer (mile or 2km) repeats. I think that doing your interval training without referring to a pacing watch every 200m is a great way to build that instinct, but it’s unexpectedly hard to do after you’ve become used to having that guide on your wrist!
Not much to add. I read about a study (in a post on this forum) supporting that your 5K strategy. On the other hand, 10K is a really hard race to pace. When I ran cross country in a small college program we mostly raced 4 and 5 mile courses. Even after racing those distances almost weekly, adjusting to 10K was really hard. If you know an experienced runner maybe just a hair faster than you follow him/her. Otherwise try going a little faster to start, if you crash and burn, try something different next time.
Negative split your long runs, and possibly progressively get faster and your last mile or two are 10K pace or faster. Get to know what hurting feels like late in the run plus, finishing strong(faster) may mimic your race day. I just raced a 10 miler here and in training the first 5 miles were 7:30 and the second 5 miles were at my sub 7 goal pace and well under. I also know roughly what % of max HR I can hold for 5K, 10K, 13.1 etc.
With 13.1’s, you can gauge your fuel levels, with 5K left can you flip the switch and push a bit more or maybe with 2 miles left is it time to turn up the boost. If your too conservative early as you stated ,then you have gas in tank for later.
With that last race you now have a good idea what your goal should be for the next race. I’d second the 5k time x 2 + 1.5 minutes. It’s easy to say only add 30 seconds or a minute but depending on your base mileage and speed it seems to vary widely. So 41:30 theoretically was doable for you.
It took me a long time to break through that 40:00 barrier but now that I’ve figured out that even pacing works and what it feels like to be on the edge, I’ve blown through that time and improved it by over two minutes in a very short time.
So, as noted above, experience is your answer. Get familiar with the feelings through tempo runs as well.
For some reason (too many 800’s/1600’s in track?), I always break my races up into quarters instead of thirds, but Nacly is pretty much right on here. The third quarter of a race always feels the hardest; over halfway, but still feels a long way from the finish, no matter the distance. I think I would say “familiar” in place of “comfortable” for that first mile, though. Your body should know that first mile pace from the pick-ups during your tempo runs and should be just a hair slower than your longer (mile or 2km) repeats. I think that doing your interval training without referring to a pacing watch every 200m is a great way to build that instinct, but it’s unexpectedly hard to do after you’ve become used to having that guide on your wrist!