Beginners and Beyond

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Pacing for King of the Mountain 5k - advice please (Read 41 times)


Antipodean

    I am running this small race on Sunday with my running club. It's really only open to club runners and while there will be a handful of fast men running there will not be many women, so I may well place or even win, depending on who turns up. I would be surprised if there were more than 20 runners in total. It's a 5k race up a small volcanic cone that is very close to our running club track, an out and back. I'm not sure how to insert the elevation profile, but if you want to you should be able to click on my log and see it on the King of the Mountain course.

     

    Basically it starts at a high point and so the first almost half a mile is downhill, fairly steep at first, but levelling off. The middle mile is the ascent and descent, going from 190 ft to 328 ft and back down again in just over 1 mile. There's a section that's quite steep and I actually used it recently for hill repeats - I did 8 repeats of the steepest part that took me about 48 seconds each. Going back to the finish there is the same hill again, so the last half mile is uphill.

     

    I train on quite a lot of hills, but haven't raced any hilly courses this year. I am currently training for my first half marathon (a flat one) and have been steadily increasing mileage to over 20 miles/week. I hope to get to consistently over 25 miles/week before my half on Sept. 29. I know I should have increased it more, but there have been limiting factors. Nevertheless I have noticed an increase in my easy pace with more mileage and last Sunday I was delighted to PR in a fast, flatish 5k with a 24:12. It took me about a year to break 25 mins, which I did a few months ago.

     

    I'm just wondering how to go about the pacing for this race. Last year I had a hard time in 5ks, crashing and burning due to going out too fast, but this year I have nailed the pacing more with pretty even splits. I don't have a garmin, but I use a cheap Casio digital watch and know where the splits for this race are (I use kilometers Joking). Being winter here in New Zealand, the temps should be perfect on Sunday, somewhere in the 50s hopefully, and fine.

     

    Any advice would be much appreciated.

    Julie

     

    "It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

    ~ Sir Edmund Hillary

    Love the Half


      I have run a few hilly 5K's and the first thing is to flat out ignore your pace.  There is nothing wrong with having an uphill mile as much as 2:00 slower than a downhill mile.  In longer races, I typically try to relax a bit on the uphill and then attack the downhill.  My thinking is that the race is so long I'll burn myself out if I try to run hard uphill.  By contrast, I do the exact opposite in 5K's.  There, the race is so short that I can't afford to lose the time I'll lose by relaxing on the uphill.  Moreover, a 5K is run at such a high level of intensity that even relaxing on the downhill won't be all that much slower than attacking it.

       

      My 5K race pace is 6:00.  That was on flat ground and I ran dead even splits.  There is a 15 mile race in this area that involves about 1,000 feet of elevation change but it all occurs up and down one big hill.  It is not uncommon for me to run an 8:00 pace uphill and a 6:00 pace downhill.

       

      Compare that to a 5K that's hilly.  I'll attack the uphill and end up running maybe a 6:30 pace on the uphill portion.  That is really hard and is more like 1 mile race pace effort than 5K effort.  Still, I'm only losing 30 seconds per mile in terms of pace  However, I'll relax a bit on the downhill but even relaxing on a downhill in a 5K means a 5:30 pace rather than a 5:20 pace.  Thus, I'm relaxing but I'm only losing 10-20 seconds per mile on pace vs. attacking the downhill.

       

      Anyway, that's my strategy and it has worked well for me in races.  Attack the uphill and relax on the downhill.

      Short term goal: 17:59 5K

      Mid term goal:  2:54:59 marathon

      Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life.  (I started running at age 45).

      So_Im_a_Runner


      Go figure

        I think you have to play to your strengths as well.  Are you a better uphill runner or downhill runner?  What takes more out of you?  For me, I run downhills poorly compared to uphills, so my strategy is like LTH's.

         

        Also, I agree to forget about pace and run it by effort.  Heck, just race it.  See if there are other girls around.  Are you winning?  Then hold the lead.  If you're trailing, can you keep the person in your sights and continue to real them in?

        Trying to find some more hay to restock the barn

        Love the Half


          Here's the "forget about pace" thing.  When I ran my 5K PR, it was on a dead flat course and my mile splits were within a 5 second window.  Conversely, there is one 5K course in my area that's a challenge.  The first mile is mostly downhill, the second mile is uphill from the downhill you had fun with on Mile 1, and the third mile is on a gravel path with some very steep dowhills and uphills.  My splits will end up something like this:

           

          Mile 1 - 5:45

          Mile 2 - 6:20

          Mile 3 - 6:45

           

          That's not me blowing up; it's just the reality of a difficult course.  It is truly one that I just go out and run hard and don't worry about splits or time.

          Short term goal: 17:59 5K

          Mid term goal:  2:54:59 marathon

          Long term goal: To say I've been a runner half my life.  (I started running at age 45).

          Ric-G


            I'll throw in my two cents....Don't worry about figuring out a pace for an unorthodox course. There is a difference obviously between a 5k and and half marathon. Take a look at this half marathon profile:

             

             

            Ran this recently and found out quickly that I could throw strict pacing concepts out the window. Ran by effort the whole way. Also, I forgot my garmin and figured out it really didn't matter. Was probably better not to have a garmin. A digital watch was sufficient. I passed people on the way up who had gone out too fast. I wasn't passed by anyone on the way down. It was a tougher race than I expected but helped give me better perspective on running by effort and not being a slave to a particular pace. Good luck.

            marathon pr - 3:16

              Looks like it's all been said, but I'll pile on....

               

              I ran this doozy last year. http://www.runningahead.com/logs/919f8c06a395438cb070ceb033425790/courses/3bdacba194bc4ae89476b682e12aaf1c

               

              Didn't have watch or splits, but I'm guessing I was around 5:10, 5:30, 6:40. Can't plan these kinds of things, just go out and run a 5K effort and let em land where they will.

               

              MTA: that tied my then PR, run on pretty flat course with even splits earlier that year. 5k EFFORT my friends. That's what it's about.

              Come all you no-hopers, you jokers and rogues
              We're on the road to nowhere, let's find out where it goes


              Antipodean

                Thanks for your advice. I guess I will treat it as an experiment and just see what I can do. I just hope some of the older male runners from the club turn up because they are more my pace and it would be great not to be running it alone. I'll report back on the result. Cool

                Julie

                 

                "It's not the mountain we conquer, but ourselves."

                ~ Sir Edmund Hillary