Setting your 5k Pace

(metosman) said:

As a somewhat novice runner, I'm not sure what to set my pace for on my next 5k race. I've done one
official 5k, which didn't go particularly well with my mile times like 7:30/8:00/9:45 - needless to
say, I burned out.

not being anybody's expert or anything, i'd say you should try to finish. that would be my first
goal. then you have a time to beat. right now you have nothing and if you go out and burn out again,
you'll still have nothing. do the first 2 or 3 K slow and then speed up a bit. be sure to finish.
...thehick

I probably didn't explain that well enough. I did in fact finish the race, time was 25:20. By
"burned out," I just meant that I ran too hard at the beginning and didn't finish well - my last 1.1
mile I spent alternating between jogging and walking, and then did a sprint over the last 0.1 mile.

Basically, I'm wondering if I should really use this race and time to set future paces, since I
didn't race very well. My average mile was
8:10, but most of the time during the race I was either significantly faster or slower than
that pace.

Frank in-toronto <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(metosman) said:

As a somewhat novice runner, I'm not sure what to set my pace for on my next 5k race. I've done
one official 5k, which didn't go particularly well with my mile times like 7:30/8:00/9:45 -
needless to say, I burned out.

not being anybody's expert or anything, i'd say you should try to finish. that would be my first
goal. then you have a time to beat. right now you have nothing and if you go out and burn out
again, you'll still have nothing. do the first 2 or 3 K slow and then speed up a bit. be sure to
finish. ...thehick

Hello

First, you need to brush up on your math skills. When I add the splits you mentioned (7:30, 8:50,
9:45) I get a time of 26:05. Also, how about the last .1 of a mile.

The point is that if you actually finished in 25:20 your splits were a bit faster. Given that you
had to walk during the last mile, you definitely went out too fast so you need to go slower the
first mile then adjust if necessary according to how you feel.

Given that you ran the whole race at 8:10 pace and definitely didn't pace yourself for an optimum
performance, you should be able to run faster than this if you pace yourself better.

I recommend going out at 8:10 pace the next time then you should be able to speed up a bit at the
end. By the time you get through the second mile you should know whether you can speed up a bit or
not. I'd bet you'll be able to go faster the last 1.1 miles.

In any case this will result in a much more enjoyable overall experience because you won't have that
exhausted feeling for most of the race.

JMO

Doug

"metosman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I probably didn't explain that well enough. I did in fact finish the race, time was 25:20. By
"burned out," I just meant that I ran too hard at the beginning and didn't finish well - my last
1.1 mile I spent alternating between jogging and walking, and then did a sprint over the last
0.1 mile.

Basically, I'm wondering if I should really use this race and time to set future paces, since I
didn't race very well. My average mile was
8:10, but most of the time during the race I was either significantly faster or slower than
that pace.

Frank in-toronto <[email hidden]> wrote in message

news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

(metosman) said:

As a somewhat novice runner, I'm not sure what to set my pace for on my next 5k race. I've done
one official 5k, which didn't go particularly well with my mile times like 7:30/8:00/9:45 -
needless to say, I burned out.

not being anybody's expert or anything, i'd say you should try to finish. that would be my first
goal. then you have a time to beat. right now you have nothing and if you go out and burn out
again, you'll still have nothing. do the first 2 or 3 K slow and then speed up a bit. be sure to
finish. ...thehick

[email hidden] (metosman) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

As a somewhat novice runner, I'm not sure what to set my pace for on my next 5k race. I've done
one official 5k, which didn't go particularly well with my mile times like 7:30/8:00/9:45 -
needless to say, I burned out.

That averages to about a 8:10 mile. So for my next race (coming up in less than 2 weeks), should I
go out and shoot for this (8:10) time on my first mile and see how I feel, or should I slow down a
bit to more like 8:30 and hope to finish faster? The 8:30 seems a bit slow, as I can average that
on 8ks I've run on my own. If it helps, I'm on the heavier side (210) and have been running a
decent amount, maybe 10-20 miles per week throughout 2003.

Makes sense to try for the 8:00 - 8:10 pace. It will be tough to run the correct pace in a 5k until
you gain more experience. Another factor is how you think of the race. I view a 5k as a sprint race
and I'll go out hard and maintain as much speed as I can. I'll lose around 20 seconds in the last
mile from my first mile. 5k can also be viewed in the opposite light, as a long distance race. This
view you'd go out at a steady pace and increase your pace as the race progresses. This is something
you will learn as you run more of them.

Until you learn how to race a 5k I'd suggest that you go with the steady acceleration over the
course of the race. Just remember that the first quarter of a mile of a 5k isn't the finish, you've
got another 2.8 miles to go.

Quoted message said:

Also, according to all the formulas, my max HR should be 185, but I can't get much over 170 on an
all-out sprint up a hill for 200 yards. Is this odd?

Achieving your max heart rate is related to your shape. AS you gain fitness you will find that you
will get to your max. Not being able to get to your max means you still have a ways to go.

my $0.02 Andy

metosman:

Quoted message said:

Also, according to all the formulas, my max HR should be 185, but I can't get much over 170 on an
all-out sprint up a hill for 200 yards. Is this odd?

Not odd at all, you should forget the formulas. The best of them may be statistically correct, but
they still can be far from the real value for a single person. There probably is a formula
predicting shoe size from body height, but even if it was statistically correct, you would not use
it to buy shoes ;-)

Greetings,

Carsten

--
Carsten Schultz (2:38, 33:47), FB Mathematik, FU Berlin carsten.fu-mathe-team.decarsten.fu-mathe-team.deOpen ↗ PGP/GPG key
on the pgp.net key servers, fingerprint on my home page.

In article said:

That averages to about a 8:10 mile. So for my next race (coming up in less than 2 weeks), should I
go out and shoot for this (8:10) time on my first mile and see how I feel, or should I slow down a
bit to more like 8:30 and hope to finish faster?

Slow down a lot. Don't worry about running the first mile too slowly. It simply will not happen. You
will probably run the first mile pretty quickly even if you make an effort to slow down. What will
happen in practice is that you may run the first 400 too slowly, but if that happens, you will
instinctively settle into a faster pace.

Quoted message said:

The 8:30 seems a bit slow, as I

It probably is. Running it at your pace for the other race: 8:10, would be optimal. However, the
penalty for going out too hard is usually greater than the penalty for going out too slowly in a
race of this duration (about 25 min for you). The optimal strategy for a race like this (any race
longer than the 800 actually) is to run the last miles slightly faster than the early miles.

Even if you ran it at 8:30, it would still be faster than you ran the last mile in that other race,
so you would probably get a PR. But if you're used to doing 8:30 pace in longer training runs, I
think you'll go faster than this even if you try to go slow.

Quoted message said:

Also, according to all the formulas, my max HR should be 185, but I can't get much over 170 on an
all-out sprint up a hill for 200 yards. Is this odd?

This just means that your max HR isn't really 185. It's probably closer to 170. This is neither
unusual nor anything to worry about.

Cheers,
--
Donovan Rebbechi pegasus.rutgers.edu~elflordOpen ↗

[email hidden] (metosman) wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

I probably didn't explain that well enough. I did in fact finish the race, time was 25:20. By
"burned out," I just meant that I ran too hard at the beginning and didn't finish well - my last
1.1 mile I spent alternating between jogging and walking, and then did a sprint over the last
0.1 mile.

Basically, I'm wondering if I should really use this race and time to set future paces, since I
didn't race very well. My average mile was
8:10, but most of the time during the race I was either significantly faster or slower than
that pace.

Frank in-toronto <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(metosman) said:

As a somewhat novice runner, I'm not sure what to set my pace for on my next 5k race. I've done
one official 5k, which didn't go particularly well with my mile times like 7:30/8:00/9:45 -
needless to say, I burned out.

not being anybody's expert or anything, i'd say you should try to finish. that would be my first
goal. then you have a time to beat. right now you have nothing and if you go out and burn out
again, you'll still have nothing. do the first 2 or 3 K slow and then speed up a bit. be sure to
finish. ...thehick

Race time is the time for the whole race. You now have a Personal Record (PR) set for the 5K. The
next step is to learn from this first race and put it into practice in the next one to beat your PR.

So 25:20 translates to average of 8:10 pace. I'd suggest you try to run the first mile of your next
race at a little slower than that, say
8:20. then gradually try to increase pace after the one mile point. In practice try increasing your
pace on a 5k training run to see how it feels.

There is a strong urge to go faster than anticipated at the start of a race. If you can avoid that
urge, there is a mental benefit to the later part of the race. You get a boost as you catch and pass
runners that do like you did in your first race (going out too fast and burning out as a result).

Finally, since you are new to running, you'll find big improvements initially. Enjoy them. Set your
target time and then go for it.

Enjoy the run. Ed