Hi NA! I am running about the same times as you, though I have no interest in the marathon (yet?) In my limited experience I find the best bet in a 10k is to cruise the first 7k at a pace I know I can hold, then ratchet up the effort in small increments each of the last 3 kilometers. To know what pace you can maintain you have to run race simulations, i.e. run 10 runs at race pace so you know for the type of course and temperature what you should be able to achieve. It is a short enough race that if you make a gross error on the slow side you do not have time to make up, but long enough to slow you significantly near the end if you go out too hard. You simply have to practise under race conditions, several times. Perhaps more experienced racers will have further suggestions... Simon.

Thanks...wasnt sure if I was supposed to hold back. I think I needed a longer warmup last time. I need a looooong warmup for a 5K and even a couple miles for a half. I am a slow starter. In theory I should be able to doright near 8 but in practice not so good (of course my last 10K I had stomach flu but didnt really know it yet). I was doing well last season, but a 6 week injury hiatus (plus a few holiday pounds) have made me a tad slower than where I left off. Hard to figure my pace. Maybe I'll have it figured out by the last race of the series Base building right now...and coaching a friend through her first 30K race, so my next 10K will be a good baseline for the season. Will be starting more 10K focused training after that, although I mostly use 10Ks AS my tempo runs while doing longer training, but I am going to do a stamina phase from march-may My best "10K" to date was really a 6.9 mile leg in Hood-to-Coast. I felt like I was going all out all the way, but no idea what my splits really mean because it was REALLY hilly and very tree filled so my Garmin didnt mean $$%& Simon - not sure I REALLY want to do another marathon yet...but my training partner does and so I am going along for the ride. I'll do PDX again this year and hope I stay injury free.

lol...10 seconds... that WOULD be all out for me. my 10K time is the one place I am significantly off the mcmillan curve. I have a 7:45 5K, and an 8:45 1/2M which tells me I ought to be able to do an 8-8:15 and so far the best I have managed is 8:30. I think I went out too slow and warmed up too little (and had too much pumpkin pie)

That's about how I warmed up for my 5K - a good 3 miles with some pickups. I usually do at least 2 for half marathons and I really feel better if I warm up a lot. This last 10K I was warming up with someone else and I didnt have my watch on and I think I didnt go nearly enough. I am a true distance runner...I think the first 8 miles suck. Its good to get some of them out of the way before the race

I usually only warm-up 1 or two miles, I'm going to take a longer warm-up at my next race. What about cool downs? One mile, 2, 3, race right over to the massage booth?

Although I don't always put it in practice, I'm very high on the idea of doing longer cooldowns as well (at least 20 minutes, usually longer). This is super way to build endurance and I've also found that I recover better when I do it. If you do a 3 mile warmup, run a 10k race, then do 3 more miles for a cooldown, you've got yourself 12 miles of running in for the day. What will sometimes keep me from following this advice is getting caught up in conversations right after finishing the race. Most of time I do the cooldown, though. The sooner I start with it, the less likely I am to get caught up in distractions. A good way is to plan a cooldown with friends before the race. I've even done them with stangers that I've gotten into conversations with. While we are standing there gabbing I just say "want to jog a little?" and off we go.

The most common mistake in 10ks is going out way too fast. After blasting through the first mile, there's the inevitable slowdown in the 2nd mile, and the 3rd mile usually mirrors the second. 10k pace ideally is 16~20 seconds slower per mile than 5k pace, so that's a good reference. In an ideal race, I'd aim for the target average pace for the first mile, or slightly slower. All of my best races have been run with even or negative splits, and my most heinous racing disasters have usually involved way-too-fast starts. So I think the bottom line is to resist the urge to start too fast.