How is racing 10k supposed to feel

5 watchers

auburnette Aug 2018 11:42am, 31 Aug 2018 1,580 posts	0 auburnette ...if you're aiming to perform to the best of your abilities? 5k I think I have the pacing sorted but 10k I'm swinging between going out too hard and running too conservatively. Basing it off 5k pace is not very useful as all the courses I am running are hilly. What's the effort supposed to feel like in your opinions?
becca7 Aug 2018 11:53am, 31 Aug 2018 7,734 posts	0 becca7 Pretty uncomfortable but not quite the living hell that a 5km feels like.
fetcheveryone Aug 2018 11:53am, 31 Aug 2018 19,760 posts	0 fetcheveryone Impossible to quantify, but I think you're right in saying there's a bit more 'holding back'. I think it's something you can only really learn from experience - but using a calculator to get an equivalent pace is a good start. With the hills, I'd suggest working out your pacing for each kilometre, or segment - and see what it all adds up to.
Dvorak Aug 2018 11:56am, 31 Aug 2018 16,607 posts	0 Dvorak How do your 5Ks feel? Like that, but for twice as far (except don't put in a 200m sprint at 4.8 km). If you are genuinely managing to race at the best of your abilities (and I think that is actually a fairly rare thing) I reckon it should feel surprisingly easy. There should be a point between 2 and 3 km where you look at your watch and think "blimey! Really?" and wonder when the wheels might fall off. But they don't and in the last km you can speed up gradually and then you are waiting, just waiting, for that bit where you can throw every last bit in and run as hard as you can for the line. (If, conversely, you reach 1 km and think "bloody Hell, another nine to go", dial back a bit and just make the best of it.)
larkim Aug 2018 11:56am, 31 Aug 2018 5,464 posts	0 larkim Best place to start I suppose is knowing what your current best 5k pace would be and then using Fetch's standards page to read across what that ought to translate to in terms of a 10k time. Broadly that will probably come out as 3.3 / 3.5% slower average pace I think, so if your 5k PB pace is 8min/mile, that would be about 8:16 / 8:17 for 10k race pace. That would have you going through half way about 50-55 seconds slower than your 5k PB, and needing to replicate that in the second half. Obviously that assumes you are as well trained for a 10k as you are for a 5k. Taking a sneaky look at your 5k PB you've got 22:08 in there. That would be equivalent to about 46:10-46:30? Anecdotally (i.e. my personal experience!) is 10ks make you feel the worst for the longest period of time. 5k the painful bit is relatively short and sweet, but 10ks need you to sustain a really high pace well after you've started feeling in discomfort. A cheery thought!! (I hate 10ks!)
Velociraptor Aug 2018 12:04pm, 31 Aug 2018 39,026 posts	0 Velociraptor I believe racing 10k is meant to hurt If you know your running speed at your VO2max, your 10k race pace should be around 30s/mile slower than that. Which is also not all that helpful if the race is hilly. If you use a heart rate monitor and know your max HR, you could reasonably expect to sustain a heart rate of around 90% of that figure for a 10k race, though again there are other variables in operation. For me, a 10k is something like: Mile 1: "Settle into it, run comfortably hard and don't look at the Garmin until the mile marker comes up." Miles 2-5: "Run so that it feels a bit uncomfortable, anyone can cope with only [XX] minutes of discomfort, pull the pace back very slightly if I start to feel sick, pick it up if I've got enough breath to heckle the other runners." Mile 6: "Pick up the pace? You're joking! Just don't slow down, OK?" Last little bit of a mile: "Burn all the matches!" Auburnette, you're an experienced and strong runner with a good 5k speed. I reckon you should be erring on the side of "too hard".
auburnette Aug 2018 12:04pm, 31 Aug 2018 1,581 posts	0 auburnette 5k run 'all out' normally feels "OK" up to about 3k, km 3-4 suddenly feels like death and km 4-5 is just holding on until the end, breathing sounds like a steam train, normally have a few dry retches at the end and often collapse to the ground. I love 5k! (not being sarcastic either) The most recent 10k I did was extremely hot so I ran conservatively, I would have been able to hold a conversation up until about km 9.5 which is obviously not as hard as it should feel. The 10k I am doing tomorrow is not comparable in pace terms as it's very hilly and XC - you're right larkim that I'm aiming for 46:xx in the next flat 10k I'm doing. As I feared it sounds like the effort level needs to be high....
larkim Aug 2018 12:13pm, 31 Aug 2018 5,465 posts	0 larkim Yep, the hills will make it harder to judge. "Very hilly and XC" make it even harder. If you can get a feel for how much longer other runners you know have taken to run that course previously vs their 10k PBs etc you might get some decent indication of what impact that has. Depending on the course that could turn a 46-flat equivalent 10k into 55-60 minute race, or it could be that there is enough of a trade off between the hills and the descents that it only costs you a minute or so. If you feel like death at about 6.5-7k you're probably pacing it about right!! Good luck!!
auburnette Aug 2018 2:19pm, 31 Aug 2018 1,582 posts	0 auburnette It looks like this race adds about 5-7 minutes to speedy ladies' times. From a load of ~~strava~~ stalking there is about 250m of climb but most focused on two nasty hills (including a final km that is straight up a very big hill- haha!) Would be nice if I could run 52:xx on this course but probably too ambitious. My mantra will be "it's supposed to hurt'" (thanks V'rap!)
Lizzie W Sep 2018 10:05am, 10 Sep 2018 18,234 posts	0 Lizzie W How did it go?