Which would you rather PR, a 5K or a 10K? (Read 241 times)

I'm reading all the posts here and there isn't a wrong answer on this.  My personal advice, I race what I'm training for.  IE:  I set a goal race on my schedule, and then i train for that goal race along with a primer race to test out my legs a week or two before the goal race.  If you're training for a marathon, I'd take the 10K race and PR it.  Marathon training will help you nail faster 5k times, so take a week or two break and come back to nail a 5k PR time.

BUT, like you said, you could also run both races or you could end up PRing in the 10k for your 5k time.  Most 10k's I've run have a 5k split.

PR's

Mile - 4:58

2 Mile - 10:48

5K - 17:10

10K - 38:04

I don't do long distance

Well, I ended up racing all 3 distances and had a pretty good time.  The conditions were pretty poor (60 degrees, 20mph wind and light rain in the 10K, moderate rain in the 5K and then no rain for the 1 mile.  The way the wind was blowing and the way the course was laid out you ended up having it as a headwind for more than half the race so I wasn't really expecting to post any great times even with the 1 mile downhill on the 10K and 5K.  The downhill for sure helped with mile 6 on the 10K clocking in at a 6:25 and mile 3 on the 5K clocking in at a 6:17, but no PRs so don't have to worry about any asterisks due to the downhill.  The mile was flat and into the wind so for sure no asterisk needed there.

The same guy that had run them all last year ran them all again this year and won all 3 races.  He ran a 36:35 in the 10K, a 16:32 in the 5K and then finished it off with a 4:54 mile!  In pretty tough conditions!  He had just run a 2:41 marathon the week before that he was pretty disappointed on the time so he is a pretty good runner for a tiny little race like this.

I ran a 44:56 10K, then a 21:37 5K, and then my first ever mile race was automatically a PR at 6:37.  So really not that far off my PRs in the 10K or 5K.

My pace got faster each race with a 7:14 pace on the 10K, a 6:58 pace on the 5K and then the 6:37 for the mile.

It was fun to do the triple race and for sure I ran faster overall than if I had run a single 10 mile race.  Really didn't have any big issues with stiffness or anything like that.  I know I could have run that mile quite a bit faster if I hadn't run the previous 2 races, but it was still a lot of fun to do it that way.  I felt like I raced the 10K at about a 95% effort and then the 5K and mile at pretty close to 100% effort.  I for sure wasn't holding anything back on them, but I could have run them faster if my legs were fresher.

Thought I would update the post.  I would recommend the multiple races if you are in shape for it.