Wow! What a cool site. Quick question. (Read 818 times)

I wish I would have found this forum months ago. I have a quick question for you all. I am running my first 5k this Sat and it is at 9am. I am not really a morning person. What I am wondering is what do most of you eat before a 5k run and at what time? Should I eat anyting at all or just do a shake? One more thing. I can do it in 26.50 but I am not sure if that is any good or not. I am 37 y/o and wondering what is a good time to shoot for. I know there are alot of factors to take into consideration but what would be a good time, better, best. Thank you in advance.

One thing you're going to want to do is let us see your log (which if you have just found this site won't be too detailed, but that's okay). Go to options in the upper right of the screen and then set your log to be visible. To answer your question, it would be helpful to know a little about you. I assume that you're a dude, since you're sn is jeffathome, but I could be wrong. How long have you been running? What is your weekly mileage? What pace do you usually train at? Do you do speed work of any kind? Did you run in high school? If so, what did you run for distances/times then? 26:50 is a decent time, especially for your first race. I don't know how you came to the conclusion that you can run it in 26:50, but I trust you. Most people shoot to improve, little by little. Run this one to find a starting point, then try to improve from there. Depending on the size of the race you're doing, the winning time might be anywhere from sub-16 to just under 20, and some of the guys in your age group may be pretty speedy, so when you finish and look at the results, you'll have a much better idea how good your time is. I suggest eating a little something that is easily digested and pretty light. You can run 5k on the energy from the food you eat the night before, but I don't like the empty feeling I get running on an empty stomach. MTA: SrLopez, you beat me to posting first! I need to type faster.

Just wake up, drink some water, and run my man. There is no need for food on anything less than 10 miles. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a 26 minute time. Hell, most people average 30 mins. You will see as you run more the need to get faster and faster.....

You definately dont need to eat for a 5K race....but you probably need something in the AM to get you going... Coffee and Oatmeal ------ or my all time favorite.....one egg and a piece of wheat bread......but you dont have to fuel up for a race of this length... Im running a 5K race this weekend and planning to break 27:00 should come in at just around 26:00 to 26:50 or so......so I think thats a pretty good time..... Share your logs so we can help you out and welcome to Running Ahead....

I usually eat a banana in the car on the way to the 5k or maybe just half of it if I'm running late. I just don't like that empty stomach feeling if I don't eat anything at all.

Speaking as a non morning person and relatively frequent racer my advice would be to not alter your normal routine too much - but you're going to have to suck it up and get up early enough to if you want to digest a little light breakfast. For a 9am race (which is actually quite civilized, my last race started at 6.30am), assuming it is fairly local, I'd probably get up at 7am and get my regular breakfast right away but in lesser quantity (less cereal, less milk and less tea). Walk the dog, take care of business and you are good to go to the race and start your warm up. Two hours before the race start for breakfast seems a good rule of thumb for me (and yes, I did get up at 4.30 for the 6.30 race). As srlopez says you don't need to eat anything before a 5k. If you sometimes skip breakfast anyway you could do this and get up a bit later. Especially for your first race do NOT start out fast. Try to hit your regular run pace that you know you can maintain. If you still feel good at the 2 mile mark then speed up a little and enjoy passing all the people who started too fast. There are lots of threads on the topic of how best to run a 5k but starting too fast in your first race will suck all the fun out of it for you (been there, done that).

If you eat before a 5K, make sure whatever you eat goes well with your shoes because that's where it will likely end up before the finish line. Seriously, your muscles already have around 1700 calories stored up in them in the form of glycogen and your 5K will only use 400-500 calories. You would be wise to start at the back of the pack for your first 5K. That way you won't get caught up in the excitement of the race and burn yourself out. Your goal should be to run negative splits which means that each segment of the race will be slightly faster than the one before. Stick to that plan and you'll be passing runners at the finish who didn't. Good luck and have fun. Tom

Thanks again guys. This advice really helps. Run forest run.