10k Race Plan? (Read 634 times)

I'm looking forward to running my second 10k this weekend - Shamrock 10k.  It's a loop/partial out-and-back course with a mountain in the middle.  Basically 2 miles of rolling hills, then a steep incline for a half mile, followed by a mile of incline (less steep), then a steep drop (half mile) and a mile or so of pretty flat stuff and a final incline to end the race.

I'm having a little trouble wrapping my head around this.  My training has been going well.  I ran the course last Friday (a little too hard and ended up stiff for a few days, but fully recovered now).  I ran the steep part of the hill twice yesterday and have a good idea of how much time it takes to get up the hill, but I'm still wondering how to imagine myself coming out of it at race pace (I haven't run it that fast).  One of the things I noticed in running my half marathon last year during which I was able to run the course a couple of times, is that knowing what to expect slowed me down quite a bit b/c I was afraid to push it too much over the hill.

In my first 10k I started out way too fast and struggled for the rest of the race.  I was getting passed by everybody.  I guess the learned information is don't start so fast.  Other than that, I'm pretty clueless.

Any advice from experienced runners would be appreciated.

Thanks Nader!

That actually helps a lot as I was pretty clueless.  Obviously, the section with the steep incline will be a little slower, but maybe I can make some of that up on the downhill.

I find that it's best not to think about race day scenarios (i.e. Pace, etc.) until race day.  Racing is completely different from training.  Trust your training and let the rest work itself out.

What I've found to be helpful on hills is to pick a person - or group - to use as a pacing tool.  If after a bit at their pace you are breathing heavy - back off.  If not, either maintain or GENTLY pick up the pace.

Other things I would consider:

1)  What is your goal?

Do you have a time goal?  This would help so you could structure your splits.  That way you can know if you are on target.

2)  How do you pace yourself in races?

Do you go out fast and try to hang on?  Start slower and try to run negative splits?  Even pace?  You said there were steep hills in the middle.  I would hold back a bit before the mountain.  Once you hit the steep drop and flat stuff really pick up the pace - if it were me I would have tried to conserve enough energy earlier on  to run about 10-15 seconds faster than my goal pace here.  But that's my style.  You need to listen to your body and come to your own conclusion.

3)  Where do you place yourself at the start?

Starting further back in the field with slower runners can help keep you from going out too fast.  Yeah, you lose some time getting to the starting line (negated if chip is used) but you will make up that time and then some after not burning yourself up at the start.  And there is no bigger psychological boost than leaving people in your dust throughout a race!

Good luck.  Let us know how it goes.

Find an effort level that gets you to your goal on a flat course and try to maintain it on the hills.  Don't pay much attention to your pace, as it will fluctuate on the hills.  Just try to maintain a solid effort.

 

No matter what you do, a time on a hilly course without significant net downhill will be slower than what you could have done on a flat course.  You simply cannot make up for in the downhills the extra effort you spend in the uphills.

 

Forget pace, it is useless.  Know what your 10K effort feels like on flat ground and anchor off that.  You may be going a little harder than that effort as you near the top of some hills, but not much.  Then hold it on the downhills.  The mistake you see lots of people do is they burn themselves on the uphills trying to hold an arbitrary pace, then they are pooped by the top and trying to recover on the downhills.  People pacing properly would fall back a little on the uphill, but catch them early in the downhill and pass.

It seems there are really two questions here:

1) how does one handle hills in a race?

2) how does one's strategy change due to there being hills?

The first question comes down to training more than anything.  It's too late to do much specific hill training now, but in the future if you know that an upcoming race is hilly you need to prepare for that by incorporating lots of hills in your training.  While hill training, you want to focus on a few things:

a) maintain good form - this is a conscious thing.  Think about things like knee lift, keeping your arms going, etc.

b) maintain effort more than pace.  Your effort will be greater on hills and likely the pace will slow.  Be sure to not let the effort creep so high that you venture into the red zone and go into oxygen debt

c) maintain cadence.  You want to maintain stride rate and shorten stride length

d) when you get to the top of the hill, it is crucial that you force yourself back to the pace you were at before the hill.  Focus on form, staying relaxed, and gently accelerating back to your original pace, say in 20-30m.  This will hurt, but if you practice it in training it will get easier.  

Second question: if it is particularly hilly I would go out a tad slower than on a flat course b/c I know that more energy will be required for the hills.  It sounds like there is a pretty good downhill finish - practice finishing hard workouts on a slight downhill!  A good workout might be 4 or 5 miles of hilly running (focusing on the hill running strategies I mentioned earlier, run easy between hills) followed with a 2 mile tempo run over a gentle downhill...adjust the mileage to your ability.

Hope this helps,

Eric

Eric - that is very helpful, actually.  I have been doing a lot of "hill running" in my training.  I live in a very hilly area and I run hills on all of my runs, but I wasn't really doing a lot other than concentrating on getting up and over them.

The form, cadence, and pace suggestions you give will help me to concentrate on how I get over those hills.  Thanks!

 

When I first started running, I would tense up when I saw a hill ahead.  I had a much more experienced running partner who advised me to concentrate on relaxing my shoulders on the uphills.  That made all the difference!  I can really feel my arms helping when I do that. 

That's all I've got.  Good luck in your race!  I look forward to reading your race report

I find 10K pacing hard.  You can't just let it rip like a 5K, but you don't have time to make up for mistakes like a longer race.  I guess I agree with those that say pick a pace and try to stick to it. 

 

I think the reality for us slower guys is that hills are more mental than real in terms of making our time.  As an example, I ran an extremely hilly 16 miler in January at 7:37 pace (and wasn't racing) and a relatively flat HM in November in 7:20.  I'm pretty sure I was (and still am) in worse shape than I was in November, and the difference was only 15 seconds/mile.  Depending on how specific your goal time is, just don't let it mess with your head too much as we are probably talking about a minute or less on your time. 

L Train, What happened to your Mike Rowe ish avatar? Balboa is great but I can't imagine Rocky mouthing your prose.