5K Strategy (Page 4)

Giving Daremo's advice a shot tomorrow on a flat trail race.  Haven't run a standalone 5k since May '08, so should be interesting.  My past 5k "experiences":

5/8/05: 5k in a sprint tri: 29:49-just hanging on for dear life during the trauma of my first full tri

8/14/05: 5k in a super-sprint tri: can't remember results, but it was hilly, off-road, and it sucked

11/19/05: standalone 5k: 24:13-ran it just as hard as I could the entire time.

4/1/06: 5k in a sprint: 28:50...I was completely wiped out after the bike

7/9/06: 5k in a sprint: 26:29...better, but still not good

3/31/07: 5k in a sprint: 24:49 (8:08, 9:13, 7:27...mile markers weren't in the right places though)

5/6/07: 5k in a sprint: 22:37 (7:41, 7:53, 7:02).  I truly feel that I "raced" the last 1.1 of this race.

11/17/07: standalone 5k: 20:28 (6:02 mile 1 (went out pretty strong) 6:39 mile 2 (hills during this portion) 7:01 mile 3, including the long hill 0:44 1/10 mile; no kick left My lungs were burning, my arms felt SO heavy)

5/17/08: standalone 5k: 19:48 (5:54 mile 1 6:27 mile 2 7:26 mile 3.1 Mile 1 was a little too quick, but I did that to put a little separation on some guys on a hilly section. I was holding the hills pretty good, but I just don't run fast downhill for some reason!)

5/3/09: 5k in a sprint: 21:02 (First mile was marked WAAAAYYYY short. It came up in 4:45, and I thought holy crud! But, alas, it was short. I negative split it from the turnaround, but I forget the splits. Something like 10:39, 10:21, or something like that.)

7/12/09: 5k in a sprint: 20:35 (Not my best effort. Was able to find a rhythm pretty quickly, easier than on the brick the other day, but just wasn't comfortable. I was basically just making sure that I had cushion on Kevin :). He had a faster swim and slower bike, so when I saw him enter the park once I was about 2:00 out of T2, I knew I had him. Paul was up 5 minutes on me after the bike, so I knew I couldn't catch him. So, I just ran my race. Cramping in right quad with 1 mile to go, so backed it off a little more.)

well i've got my first 5k tomorrow, i'm a complete newbie and will be pushing daughter in jogging stroller. goal for tomorrow is not to finish last. and enjoy it, don't want to put myself off doing these in the future.

however, for "race" experience, well thats something different, when younger and dafter i used to race enduro's (motorcycles) races typically start at 3 hours (up to multiday events), and even in that environment the guys winning are the ones that go out hard and hang on.

I just beat my 5km PR in a 6.3km race today and intrestingly I have always been trying to hit even splits or even negative split. However, today I went out a bit too hard and hung on till the end of the 6.3km, but I went through 5km in PR time. Splits from my Garmin.

3:17

3:17

3:14

3:29

3:29

So, it seems there's something to this "Go out hard and hang on".

Thanks for the compliment. I don't actually train for 5km, I just do the for fun while training through for tris ,though where I am in Asia there aren't many.

I mentioned in another thread I don't do any speedwork apart from the odd tempo run and run most of my runs at 4:30-4:40 per km pace. I just try to run consistently.

I've been doing tris for just over 3 years now. I think I've been lucky with the genetics!!! ;

Forgot to add: I think my first ever 5km I did in around 21 -22vminutes

Looking at your splits, I would go with something like a 5:50, 6:00, 6:10. It's hard though, not to bolt at the beginning! You should feel like you've run comfortably hard after the first mile, then the 2nd will hurt to try to stay at the same pace, and the last mile is all about hanging on!!!!