One of the most difficult things for me to figure out is what my "race" pace should be for various distances. I have run enough 5k races by now that I have a pretty good idea how to handle the 3 miles that are involved. It is pretty easy to use various calculators to convert what my expected finish time should be to what my "pace" should be. Plus just going off of feel, it is a familiar race distance for me, I can truthfully feel when I am going too fast for a 5k. I have gotten pretty good at handling my pace for those races...
Going a longer distance is a bit tougher for me though. I've run only one 10k race, and then 1 10k challenge last weekend. Coming up this next weekend I am doing a half-marathon relay with my wife where each of us run half of it or roughly 6.55 miles. (basically just 1/4th of a mile longer than a 10k, something like 10.5k). Once again I am struggling to find where I want to set my pace.
I have run plenty of 10k distances by now (by my records, 20 times in total). On June 1st, my first official 10k race, I suffered from the heat and running too fast in the heat and withered horribly in the race. I ended up handling it in 1:03, or roughly a 10:14 pace. The majority of my 10k runs have simply been long runs of 6.2 to 11 miles usually at an easy or comfortable running pace. Not necessarily ran for my best time. My "Tempo Run" pace based on Daniels training tables would have me finish a 10k at tempo run pace in just a hair over 1 hour, which is pretty much exactly what I did on my previous tempo run where I had set my personal best 1:00:17 time.
So on Saturday, I had a chance to fit in enough time to run 6.2 miles for the Strava AnyWay 10k challenge and I intended to run it at "Race" pace to try to figure out exactly what that was but also to finally knock off the accomplishment of beating a sub-1 hour 10k. So the question I had to ask myself first of all was what pace I should run it at, and I wanted to try to understand where I was going to run it (since hills, both up and down affect pacing).
I already knew I could run it at tempo run pace 9:41 min/mile, but that wasn't going to meet my accomplished goal. Based on my recent 5k race where I recorded a 27:12 for my VDOT score of 34.7, my expectation on a neutral course was that I should be able to handle a 10k in 56:43 or a 9:08 min/mile pace. I knew the course I would run had a slight hill right at the first mile, but then gradual downhill for a few miles before a long and shallow climb for mile 5. So my goal was basically to try to keep a good pace going to mile 5 and hopefully have enough in the tank to finish the last two miles. If I went out too fast, I would likely be in trouble...
There are three different ways to handle race pacing:
1) Start faster than expected race pace, and try to hold on as long as you can through the end.
2) Try to run the same pace the entire race
3) Start a little slower than planned pace but speed up as you get closer to the end..
There appears to be no debate that #1 is never a good idea for races. It will lead to the worst possible scenario, but due to getting caught up in the moment or extra adrenaline I end up doing it far too often in races or race efforts.. Jonathan Savage, an American ultra runner has this to say on his running wiki about starting off too fast in a race:
Quote:
|
However, running the first mile significantly faster than the average race pace causes a disproportionate slow down towards the end. This is because any race requires finding the right pace that will use all of the body's capacity for the race distance. Using too much of the body's capacity early in the race causes a debt that can't be compensated for later. For example, in marathon races where Glycogen reserves are critical to performance, going out too fast will burn a disproportionate amount of Glycogen. This is because Glycogen usage varies nonlinearly with pace. So if you run a mile at 7:45 and a second mile at 8:15, you will use more Glycogen than running two miles at 8:00 pace. There are other mechanisms for shorter races, but the principle is similar.
|
Another study on the subject from Jeff Galloway in his book Galloway on Running says:
Quote:
|
for every second you run too fast in the first 3 miles, you'll run as much as 10 seconds slower per mile at the end in a 10K. Presumably, in an extended event like the half marathon, the slow down will be more dramatic than this. Thus, a moderate early (even) pace or negative split race minimizes the threat of glycogen depletion and reduces your chances of premature exhaustion-your energy is economically burnt during the entire race.
|
So the first option is right out, as it is the one that leads to the worst possible performance. From everything I read, there seems to be a debate on which option #2 or #3 is better, running every split even or starting slow and gradually speeding up over the distance. Due to the nature of the route I was going to take, I was looking to take the even pace approach, or I should say even effort approach, as the 5th mile up hill I was going to run with constant effort, even if it meant a very slight decrease in pace.
So with that in mind, I had determined that based on Daniels VDOT table, I should be able to handle a 9:08 pace, I would try to go out with a desire to keep fairly even 9:10 splits, and after mile 5's hill if I had extra left, the last mile I would speed it up a little bit as able.
My plan was much better than my execution though.. I felt really good at the start, the weather was nice for once (it was 5am though), and I felt pretty fresh... So what did I do?
1st mile: 9:06
ok, not too too bad. A hair faster than I wanted, but not the end of the world. My HR at the first mile was 160bpm which is actually right near the very bottom of my Lactate Threshold so probably right around where I wanted to be... So far so good..
2nd mile: 8:50
I actually climbed 8 ft of elevation in this mile, so can't blame this really on a downhill. This is where feeling good so far got me a little carried away. I started pushing faster without realizing it and was able to handle it.. but this was a good 20 seconds too fast compared to where I was aiming for. After two miles, my HR was 168-170 which shows I was running too fast. I can keep this pace up for a 5k, but no way I would be able to sustain this for a 10k. I recall on my run remembering that I needed to slow down my pace a little bit going into the third mile...
3rd mile: 8:54
Yeah.. well I slowed down my pace a little bit I guess.. 4 seconds was no where near enough though. I did drop about 40 ft in elevation this mile which can perhaps explain a little bit of the speed, but I needed to be much closer to 9:10 to salvage my ideal race time.. During this mile, my HR climbed into the 170s for a brief bit but during the downhill fell back into the mid-160s. So I was barely hanging on here, but the second and tougher half of the run was just about to start...
4th mile: 9:19
So the 40 feet I dropped in the previous mile, I was now running back up hill in reverse on this mile. As soon as I hit the small climb, with my HR already in the low 170s, I was not able to tackle the hill fast enough without my HR hitting close to my max HR. It caused my climb to suffer a bit, and thus my pace dropped some. All things considered, 9:19 could have been worse, but at the end of mile 4 I was at 170 bpm, and the entire next mile was a gradual uphill climb (even though not much in elevation, the entire mile was uphill)
5th mile: 9:18
So I survived the last of the climb.. and did it with an ok pace still, but I was literally gassed at this point. My HR was at 178, and I had nothing left in the tank. So much for considering speeding up in mile 6, at this point my mind was playing tricks with me. I knew that I looked in pretty good shape to beat an hour at this point as long as I could keep moving, but my mind kept telling me take a stop and walk some.. or anything just to let my heart rate drop a little.
6th mile: 9:02
This mile was run with all heart. I fought myself the entire time, wanting to stop. I just kept pushing more and more to suffer through it. I did a good job of shortening my stride a little bit further and had my cadence close to 90 steps per minute (180 between both feet) which is really ideal here. The time on this mile was really a product of running down hill again as other than the downhill stetches, I was more of a 9:40 pace.
Final .3 of a mile: 8:39 min/mile pace
When you get past the 6th mile, you know that you only have 1-2 minutes left, so you just have to give it all that you have left. I ran the entire thing anaerobic, my HR was over 180. I still pushed as much as I could. I wasn't going to be able to do any 6 min/mile pace or anything, I really was gassed, but I did give it all I could. I went a little further than 6.2 miles, just to make sure I didn't get short changed by strava.. but finally got there...
End Result: A new PR in 10k, 56:19, and I beat one of my goals, trying to run a 10k in under an hour!
According to strava, was also a PR for my 5k, due to distance issues on my last race. Either way, I am not sure that was a good sign that I ran that fast in the first half of the run..
If we look at what Galloway said that I quoted above regarding running too quick for a 10k... Every second too fast in first 3 miles is 10 seconds slower per mile by the end of the 10k.. If that is true, my first 3 miles I completed in 26:50, but my goal was to actually run the first 3 miles in 27:30. So basically 40 seconds too fast. If Galloway is correct, that would mean if I had conserved my Glycogen better, theoretically I could have run it 400 seconds quicker overall (or almost 7 minutes).
I am not sure if I fully buy that 7 minute number, but even at a conservative estimate, I likely could have improved on my PR time a considerable bit. (maybe even under 55 minutes) without improving my fitness any.
So that leads back to my next race, this upcoming weekend. Its a little more than a 10k, and I'll be running mostly uphill the entire way.. so pacing will be that much more important for me. I ran this entire 10k at a 9:03 pace, in fairly optimal weather and road conditions. My race likely will be worse in both regards, so I think I'll set out next time to try to run that 9:10 pace once again, but this time do a better job of it.
