I ran a 5K this last weekend and beat my PR by two seconds, but did not feel like I improved. I took off and tried to keep up with with the elites. I stayed side by side with them until the halfway point and looked at my watch and saw the time was 8:40 (an awsome pace for an old man). After that, I totally ran out of juice and was spent. I finished with 23:29. How do I hold back in the begining, and when do I let go and give it all? I do pretty good when I know the mile markers on a course, but when I do not know how far I have run, I seem lost. Any advice you can give is greatly apprciated. As you can see by my training log that I have picked up my runs by adding miles and speedwork. I also try to ride my bike as much as possible to get ready for a duathalon in September.

I agree with everything Scout said. If you do plan to run another 5k, a good workout for both pacing and cardio is to run 3x1 mile with 880 yd recovery jog in between the miles. Run the miles at your target race pace, and jog the recoveries nice and easy. The fastest pace you can sustain for all three intervals will correspond pretty closely to what you can do in a 5k race. (Even though there are no recovery breaks during a race, adrenaline will take care of the rest.) If you have a enough left in the tank, run that third mile just a little faster than the other two. Gets you used to surging at the end of the race. I know Scout's a Garmin guy, and you can do the workout that way. But I still think that the track is the best place for this. It will allow you to be very accurate about your pacing. Your body will get very used to what race pace feels like. As far as racing itself, if the first mile feels slow, it probably isn't. You have intentionally run that first mile such that it feels a little slow. Even if it actually is a llittle slow, you'll still have enough left in the tank to make up for it. Given two races of equal time, it's always much more fun to run the race that involves finishing fast as opposed to starting fast and running out of gas.

I appreciate the guidance. I adjusted pretty well to the increase in miles and feel pretty good, (my energy level has actually gone up). I agree that my intervals should be miles or 880's. When the track drys out from the rain we have had lately I will get on it. This morning I was suppose to do 3 X mile intervals but it was so muddy it turned into a fartlek day. Again, thanks.