I read race or training reports from other members on this board and they are able to hit even mile splits every time, within seconds. I'd really like to learn to do that but my splits tend to be all over the place. Sometimes this relates to the course as I live in a hilly area and when mile 1 is all downhill and mile 2 is all uphill, it's going to be hard to get an even split. I'm curious as to how to learn to run the same pace mile after mile. Does that just come with experience? Does it come from slowing down (I'm pretty slow as it is)? Or, the opposite, does it come from speedwork on the track where you really learn to hit target paces? Would love some tips.
I'm not training for any specific event right now so thought this would be a could time to spend a few months working on my pacing.
Labrat
I got there by practice.
And realistic goal setting in races such that you don't completely fade at the end.
5K 20:23 (Vdot 48.7) 9/9/17
10K 44:06 (Vdot 46.3) 3/11/17
HM 1:33:48 (Vdot 48.6) 11/11/17
FM 4:13:43 (Vdot 35.4) 3/4/18
You want to have an even effort, not necessarily even splits-- you're always going to be slower going uphill than downhill, of course. It does, to a large extent, come with experience, but there are workouts that you can do to help you hit specific paces. My coach recommended 1-mile repeats for this purpose-- on a track or on a flat(ish) stretch of road without traffic lights, run 1 mile at your tempo pace (should be somewhere around your 10K-15K pace) and then rest for 2 minutes-- repeat several times. If you go out too fast you'll know pretty quickly just based on how you're feeling; you want to be able to complete the workout but each repeat should get quite difficult the last minute or two and the last repeat will be pretty challenging. I actually think this is a good workout when you are training for a specific event (especially something around 10K distance) because you can be practicing that pace.
If you do that workout a few times, you should see your pacing improve.
Pacing is an important skill for racing, but I wouldn't worry about keeping your training paces too even. My pace (for easy runs) can vary as much as 30-40 seconds from one mile to the next depending on a variety of factors. There is a reason that most pace calculators give a pretty wide range for easy/long/recovery runs but a much smaller one for intervals. Worry about pacing when it matters (intervals, repeats, specific pace runs) and don't worry about it when it doesn't (easy, recovery, long runs).
Are we there, yet?
It's a matter of experience and practice. When teaching others we run on a 400m track checking splits every 100m and adjusting the pace as needed so the next 100m is on pace, i.e we don't try to speed up or slow down so the cumulative time is on pace. We're looking to find and learn the pace we should be running.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Former Bad Ass
As everyone has said, it takes practice. What Richard said is true; a realistic goal is important; otherwise, the even splits will not occur.
Damaris
While I agree that pace on any given easy run is variable, you should settle into a pace after a couple of miles. Of course, if you are on hilly terrain, your pace may vary quite a bit. There are any number of things you can do to develop your sense of pacing and some of them have been suggested.
1. Go to the track. Heck, you can check your pace every 100 meters if you want to be that anal (although I think that's a bit ridiculous). Use the "coolrunning.com" pace calculator to plug in a particular pace per mile and then translate that into the number of seconds for whatever interval you want such as 400 meters or 200 meters. If you don't have access to a track, you can mark out distances on a road.
2. Train at a variety of paces. Too many newer runners have two paces - jog and sprint. I have recovery jog, easy run, marathon pace run, tempo run, interval, repetition, and sprint. I have a very good sense of what those paces feel like because I have run them many, many times. I ran with a group last night that was a bit slower than I normally run and we went on a different route than I normally use so I couldn't check my splits. Still, I thought we were running about "x" pace and it turns out I was only off by about 10 seconds.
3. Practice, practice, practice.
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).
When learning pace checking it every 100m on a track can not only be effective, it may be the difference between learning pace well and not. All too often I see runners hit their longer intervals on pace looking at the final time, but if you check their intermediate splits you see that they start too fast then slow down. Even though their final times are consistent, they aren't learning to run a consistent and even pace.
Resident Historian
^
This. I do the same thing with people I coach. I've learned consistency over years, but sometimes if I'm struggling to settle into a particular pace I'll do the 100M checks on the track myself.
Neil
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------“Some people will tell you that slow is good – but I'm here to tell you that fast is better. I've always believed this, in spite of the trouble it's caused me. - Hunter S. Thompson
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Chief Unicorn Officer
Like George said, I've become better at it by really focusing during my track workouts and checking my time/pace at smaller intervals within the actual interval I am running. If I'm running 800's, I check my pace every 200m. Every 200m is usually my checking point for any track interval, actually. During longer intervals, or during a race, I don't check quite that often but I do have a goal for the first 400m (because I always start out too fast, lately I've had a predetermined number in mind for the first quarter of a 5K). My last half marathon, my splits were incredibly even, and I honesty don't know HOW I did it. That just kind of happened. It's much harder for me to assess whether I'm running even splits during a long race like that. It helps to have a GPS watch, because before the race I had an overall pace goal in mind, so I basically just tried to keep my "current pace" on the GPS to be around that number. Nothing real scientific with that strategy.
Mile 5:49 - 5K 19:58 - 10K 43:06 - HM 1:36:54
I had this very question prior to my marathon in October, b/c I did very little running at GMP other than 4 MP runs. Lots of people suggested I run longer intervals at that pace (1/2 mile to mile intervals+) w/a full recovery (only b/c I was close to taper, I think, I'm not sure though) in between during my MLRs. That worked for me!
#dowork
Nice thread. i think you learn over time with experience to pace better like most of the thread has said. Love when I have a run where al the splits are odead on or 1-3sec difference.
PR's - 5K - 20:15 (2013) | 10K - 45:14 (2011) | 13.1 - 1:34:40 (2013) | 26.2 - 3:40:40 (2014)
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Some great tips here. Thank you. I may do a couple of runs on a track and see how it feels. Since I tend towards OCD anyway, I don't like to check my Garmin constantly while doing my weekly runs, but I can see how checking it migh be helpful for getting a feel for pace on tracks. It's very hard to do this anywhere else since we have so many hills around here.
I do the 200 meter checks like MJ. The first 100 is always going to be slightly slow as it includes getting up to speed but that can throw you off badly if you're trying to use that. That's 4 seconds per 400 meters difference or 16 seconds per mile. That's quite a bit. 200 meters will smooth that out as I should hit 200 within within a second of what I'm wanting.
Running even splits was a struggle for me until I pulled the plug on the headphones. I am not saying that one cannot run even splits without them but for me, it was as if the proverbial wool had been pulled from over my eyes.
As for how I do it, I use the sound of my feet and my breathing as a natural metronome. This applies no matter the pace be it easy, medium or hard. Of course as others have said, this thus comes with practice.