(over)thinking about the 5K
Oct. 4th, 2013 06:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ilanaramaTomorrow morning is the Journey of Hope 5K, a "family run/walk" to raise money for free mammograms for women in need. Hope-fully (see what I did there?) there will be a few actual runners there to race against, and it won't just be a huge mass of people in pink walking together - not that I object to people walking 5Ks, but I would like to be able to use this as a fitness gauge, and that means I need 1) other people near my pace to try to beat, and 2) no people walking in front of me and getting in my way. If the course is similar to the 5Ks I have run before in this subdivision, it will make a loop on a bike path and then return the same way, so there will be people going in both directions. But if it's as big an event as it seems to be from last year's photos, they probably will try to route it as a single large loop - I hope (as it were) so!
So, a 5K. Those of you who have read my journal for some time know that I HATE 5Ks. That's probably because I almost always go out too fast, and then I am miserable for the entire second half while not really running all that fast. This time, I'm going to try to keep my pace under control early, and aim for more even splits than usual - while still trying to run fast, of course.
My PR is 21:03, but that was on an extremely downhill course and though I'm thinking about trying hard to beat it on a flat course sometime, I don't think it's going to happen on marathon training; lots of miles, but most of them easy. I ought to be able to beat my flat(-ish) course PR of 21:43 from February, though. (These races were on a different course - I haven't run in this subdivision since 2010, when I ran a 22:44 5K best.)
That 21:43 - and the 21:44 I ran in the same race the year before - corresponds to pretty much a 7 minute pace. But here's how it broke down for me, each year:
As you can see, I suck at 5K pacing. (The downhill 5K wasn't quite so bad, because of the huge honking downhill in the third mile, but again I started fast and slowed in mile two, and if the third mile hadn't been downhill it would have been slower yet. My older 5Ks show this pattern, too.)
According to the online calculator I like to use for other than marathon equivalencies there is no way I could really sustain a pace of 6:39 for a 5K - that would correspond to a 1:34:40 half, which I have no way come close to locally, and at the altitude of Moab where I run most of my halfs that would be an even faster time. But looking at my last 3 half marathons (not counting the one I ran as part of the Durango Double, but two in Moab and one here) they were all around 1:38:30, and my current tempo pace suggests to me I probably would run about the same now. Sticking that back into the calculator suggests a 21:27 5K, or about a 6:54 pace. And although I haven't done much speedwork other than tempo runs recently, my half-mile intervals have all been pretty much around that pace as well.
So that's what I'm going to try to do. I'll try to keep to 6:50 or slower on my first mile, which may mean starting up front with the racers (to stay away from the joggers and walkers) and possibly starting out a little fast, but then dropping speed to get into the 6:50-6:55 range. Then trying to hang on and not let my speed drop below 7 minute pace for the next two miles. If a) I can manage to actually execute this strategy and b) it actually works, I might even have some energy left to blast the last mile and a fraction and do better than expected, but basically, anything under 21:43 will make me happy.
So, a 5K. Those of you who have read my journal for some time know that I HATE 5Ks. That's probably because I almost always go out too fast, and then I am miserable for the entire second half while not really running all that fast. This time, I'm going to try to keep my pace under control early, and aim for more even splits than usual - while still trying to run fast, of course.
My PR is 21:03, but that was on an extremely downhill course and though I'm thinking about trying hard to beat it on a flat course sometime, I don't think it's going to happen on marathon training; lots of miles, but most of them easy. I ought to be able to beat my flat(-ish) course PR of 21:43 from February, though. (These races were on a different course - I haven't run in this subdivision since 2010, when I ran a 22:44 5K best.)
That 21:43 - and the 21:44 I ran in the same race the year before - corresponds to pretty much a 7 minute pace. But here's how it broke down for me, each year:
| split | 2012 pace | 2013pace |
| 1 | 6:42 | 6:39 |
| 2 | 7:09 | 7:11 |
| 3 | 7:22 | 7:26 |
| .1 | 7:19 | 6:50 |
As you can see, I suck at 5K pacing. (The downhill 5K wasn't quite so bad, because of the huge honking downhill in the third mile, but again I started fast and slowed in mile two, and if the third mile hadn't been downhill it would have been slower yet. My older 5Ks show this pattern, too.)
According to the online calculator I like to use for other than marathon equivalencies there is no way I could really sustain a pace of 6:39 for a 5K - that would correspond to a 1:34:40 half, which I have no way come close to locally, and at the altitude of Moab where I run most of my halfs that would be an even faster time. But looking at my last 3 half marathons (not counting the one I ran as part of the Durango Double, but two in Moab and one here) they were all around 1:38:30, and my current tempo pace suggests to me I probably would run about the same now. Sticking that back into the calculator suggests a 21:27 5K, or about a 6:54 pace. And although I haven't done much speedwork other than tempo runs recently, my half-mile intervals have all been pretty much around that pace as well.
So that's what I'm going to try to do. I'll try to keep to 6:50 or slower on my first mile, which may mean starting up front with the racers (to stay away from the joggers and walkers) and possibly starting out a little fast, but then dropping speed to get into the 6:50-6:55 range. Then trying to hang on and not let my speed drop below 7 minute pace for the next two miles. If a) I can manage to actually execute this strategy and b) it actually works, I might even have some energy left to blast the last mile and a fraction and do better than expected, but basically, anything under 21:43 will make me happy.
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(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-05 02:40 am (UTC)It's been so long since I ran 5K that I have no idea how I would pace it at this point. Of course, my pace is more like 8-something.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-05 08:27 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-05 06:13 am (UTC)When I get my 15Ks out of the way, I want to run a 5K race to see if I have any hope of PR-ing this year.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-05 08:26 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-05 08:38 pm (UTC)Urgh, wish me luck *getting* to my race tomorrow - I fear public transport (bus) will be so full as to not have room for me D:
(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-05 08:49 pm (UTC)I wish I'd gone to do the Chili Chase again - it was scheduled for today also, I bet it was more fun.
(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-27 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-05 01:37 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2013-10-05 01:51 pm (UTC)