Problems with the last Mile...

Gary said:

In the 5ks I will be doing great and feeling great until I get to the
2-2.5 mile mark and I will slow my pace. It could be a mental thing
and I don't think I'm going out fast. Any suggestions?

Try going out slower and see if that helps your mental thing.

Whether it's a "mental thing" or not, it would really help if you did just one
race where you don't die in the last mile. And to achieve this, your best bet
is to take a recent race, and go out at your average pace for that race.

Cheers,
--
Elflord

Elflord said:

Gary said:

In the 5ks I will be doing great and feeling great until I get to the
2-2.5 mile mark and I will slow my pace. It could be a mental thing
and I don't think I'm going out fast. Any suggestions?

Try going out slower and see if that helps your mental thing.

Whether it's a "mental thing" or not, it would really help if you did just one
race where you don't die in the last mile. And to achieve this, your best bet
is to take a recent race, and go out at your average pace for that race.

Cheers,
--
Elflord

Don't listen to this dumbass, he wears nikes. Run faster out of the
gate, and the last mile won't matter.

Gary said:

In the 5ks I will be doing great and feeling great until I get to the
2-2.5 mile mark and I will slow my pace. It could be a mental thing
and I don't think I'm going out fast. Any suggestions?

Besides what Elflord said (may be going out too fast):
1. If there's anyone else near your final avg pace, try pacing off them
for the first bit.
2. Run longer so you have to pay attention to what you're doing longer,
so less likely to lose concentration at shorter distance.
3. I'm assuming this is xc, so doing precise pacing on track wouldn't
help, but take segments of trail - maybe 1 mi long - and do 4-5 lengths
of it at exactly the same time - or get progressively faster. It works
best if it's a loop and run in the same direction each time. Or maybe a
2 mi section and run it twice. Or if you have a hrm, practice
maintaining effort for however long.
4. Run shorter distances.😉 (One of the local college 5k runners kept
losing focus on 5k's so they switched him to 3k steeplechase, which has
enough stuff going on to keep his attention.)

Dot

--
"Success is different things to different people"
-Bernd Heinrich in Racing the Antelope