Forums >General Running>How much should a 5K hurt
I don't feel pain per se in races, more like a steadily increasing, intense discomfort (not the same as pain) at the same time as my desire to slow down or stop is also elevating. I think I'd drop from the race if what I was feeling I could describe as pain.
Yeah I actually thought about this thread while racing a 5k on Sunday. (Pathetic, I know.) Now that it's very fresh in my mind I can say that for me there's definitely nothing resembling pain at least until the last quarter mile when there's the burining in the arms, legs and lungs but still not true pain like the list above.
But yeah there's a huge amount of discomfort almost like you feel when you're very sick (except you know you can make it stop) combined with some continually building anxiety about the discomfort and the nagging desire to just slow down or stop that builds the more intense the race gets. I think Jeff's right that in my best races I've been able to either totally not feel the discomfort, or just come to peace with it. On Sunday I had a good race and I was pretty much at peace with the discomfort, but I knew it was there for sure.
Runners run
The Limping Jogger
Good point. We really mean the "discomfort" of effort but I'm sure that many folks may equate that to a "painful" experience.
"Only a few more laps to go and then the action will begin, unless this is the action, which it is."
Yeah, I think 'discomfort' is a wholly different thing from 'pain'. And I don't think it is simply that discomfort is lower on the pain scale... I think they are two different scales. I learned this the hard way back in 2005 when I ran a half marathon on what turned out to be a stress fractured femur. The feeling was not the same as what I might experience in a hard half. And it wasn't that it was "more"... it was simply different.
I've never had a 5k where I performed well and didn't feel the discomfort. I'd love to . And this is why I haven't run a 10k in years... same discomfort; twice as long. Not my thing. But maybe I'll get there. Lots more shorter races in my future.
Similarly, in the past couple years, I've become convinced that a whole lot of people who slow down during a marathon because of 'cramping' are not really cramping at all... their legs are just tight and tired from running, but they aren't sure what that's about, so they decide that it is a cramp. Nah. Cramps be different.
I think that's why some distraction can help. If for some reason you get angry or focused/competitive about beating someone ahead of you another stimulus is working in your body. Your adreneline can get you through part of the feeling you want to slow down. I always played my best 60 seconds of ice hockey when someone gave me a cheap shot or got a stick handle in my face. You can't run an entire 5k on adreneline but you can go for a minute or two and sometimes that's all you need to get you from mile 2 to mile 3 in good shape.
great race Mike. some day I hope my 5k times look a bit more like your race times instead of looking like your cool down time on the same course.
Since I could not bring myself to experience much pain, only a strong desire to stop running and walk, I thought I was not putting in my best. Good to know this is kind of what it should feel like.
Apart from racing more often, what would preapare you better to fight this urge to slowdown, long intervals or tempos?
've never had a 5k where I performed well and didn't feel the discomfort. I'd love to . And this is why I haven't run a 10k in years... same discomfort; twice as long. Not my thing. But maybe I'll get there. Lots more shorter races in my future.
I thought about this some more and SRL is right. 5K/10K is very different in feeling to, say, a marathon. When running a marathon you never (well, I never) approach the same feeling that I do in a 5 or 10K. The first 20 miles of a marathon are actually quite comfortable. If you've paced yourself well, and you're going for a PR-type effort, the last 6 or so miles are the test. But those last 6 never feel like a 10K and the last 3 don't feel remotely like a 5K effort. I begin to feel tired and the struggle to maintain pace becomes difficult. But it's more a feeling of being tired, exhausted.
Here's the tie-in to SRL's post - I think I've run so many long distance races and so few short distance races over the years that I've trained myself to avoid the 5K/10K discomfort feeling at all costs, even subconsciously during my 5 & 10K races. Really, this was one of my goals for the year - to try to get accustomed to the 5K/10K discomfort level and post some good times at those distances. I think I've improved but not as much as I'd like.
find someone a little bit faster than you who will be in the next race and find a way to hate them.
A lot of people say this and I'm sure it works for some but for me, the hate thing isn't where it's at. Racing a 5k to me is about managing the effort, not so much putting out maximum effort but riding the line and timing things right. For me it takes concentration more than anything. I have to concentrate on keeping effort very very high, without slacking off and yet without going crazy and blowing up. If I am racing someone shoulder to shoulder, as I was on Sunday, I have more of a sense of racing with them than against them, at least until the very end when you can finally let loose everything.
There's really no shortcut, you have to practice racing and practice dealing with the intensity in training.
Prince of Fatness
I know you're looking for a different answer but for me this summer it really has been racing that has helped the most. I've already learned that more discomfort does not mean that you can't sustain effort. There is definitely a mental factor involved. Every race I think I have suffered about as much as possible then the next race I find out I can suffer even more.
5Ks suck.
Not at it at all.
or bitch slap the meanest dude you can find just as the gun goes off and run so they don't catch you...
I've got a fever...
One workout that I used to do that I thought was helpful (and hard) was called superset intervals. It's the traditional 3x1600m workout with a twist.
The workout is 3x(600-1000) with 4min recovery. You run 600m hard - quite a bit faster than 5k race pace. Then, without stopping, you downshift to 5k race pace for the next 1000m. 4 min recovery, and you're back at it.
Blasting the first 600m makes the perceived effort of the 5k pace seem less intense. And you're also better able to cope and recover from starting a race too fast by having to run 5k pace after running faster. The combination of race-pace and faster-than-race-pace running makes this a killer workout.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
One workout that I used to do that I thought was helpful (and hard) was called superset intervals. It's the traditional 3x1600m workout with a twist. The workout is 3x(600-1000) with 4min recovery. You run 600m hard - quite a bit faster than 5k race pace. Then, without stopping, you downshift to 5k race pace for the next 1000m. 4 min recovery, and you're back at it. Blasting the first 600m makes the perceived effort of the 5k pace seem less intense. And you're also better able to cope and recover from starting a race too fast by having to run 5k pace after running faster. The combination of race-pace and faster-than-race-pace running makes this a killer workout.
Globule, how often did you do these? Where they just something that you did once or twice close to race day to get sharp? If I did these regularly I think I would die.
I am not looking for a shortcut, My last 10 K I knew the last mile was all downhill (out and back course), yet was not brave enough to run harder either before the downhill since I knew relief is coming or on the downhill itself. I know I'll do better on this course if I run it again, but want to have the courage to do that the first time around.
I'll probably go out more often and run our group's Thurdsday evening races (about 4 miles) , and push it as much as I can, and experiment doing this at various points on the course and see what works and how long can I do that before I give up.
Couple times in the last 6 weeks before a big race.
Late to this thread. This has been an issue (and still is for me) for me as well. For me, it's a lack of experience at differentiating between pain and discomfort, and a lack of confidence that I can sustain effort through discomfort. For me, it's simply racing more. It's also doing some track work., Not much, but enough to recognize the feelings and to manage pacing.
Then I think it's a matter of finding a race close to home and being willing to blow up. I don't think you can know where the line is until you make an effort to cross it. I did that this week, running 15 seconds faster than I wanted for each of the first 2 miles of a 5K. No way should I have been able to hold that but somehow I did. And I learned that I probably could have done even better, as somehow the "pain" never really came. Maybe it's luck of the draw, maybe I just had a good day, but at least I know it's possible. And I wouldn't have known at all if I hadn't tried to do something I felt I was incapable of.
I've also run more in the last 3-4 months than I ever have, but I'm sure that has nothing to do with it.