5 Mile Race Strategy

Tomorrow Jen and I are running the Surf-n-Santa 5 Miler. I had some questions about how to run a 5 mile race. I know it's one foot in front of the other, but I was curious on what strategy is best for this distance.

Unibrow runner has questions. He also looks like he's been riding a horse all day.

Unfortunately, it's hard to find information on strategy for a 5 mile race. I even searched for 8k race strategy since that is basically the exact same distance (4.97097 miles). Most advice falls into one of two camps. First, just run it like a 5k and hope for the best. This strategy has you grabbing the tiger by the tail and hanging on for dear life.

"Come here kitty!"

The risk with this strategy is that you blow up. Not literally blow up, but burn yourself out to the point that you have to significantly slow down. I was close to this once in a 5k. If the finish line had been a half mile longer I think I would have died. I would like to avoid this outcome.

Running pro tip: don't blow up.

The second paradigm is to run it like a short 10k. This means make sure you run a negative split. Take it easy in the first few miles and then push hard. This strategy seems to make a lot of sense, but it also sounds kinda boring.

I do not know which strategy is right or best. My 'made-up' strategy for this race will be as follows:

Mile 1: Go fast the first 400-800 meters. Just embrace the fact that I will fly out of the gate. Then slow it down to my goal pace or just a bit slower. Even if I slow it down the first mile will still be a fast one due to the start.
Mile 2: Keep control of myself and go at about 5 seconds slower than my goal pace.
Mile 3: Same as mile 2, but if a group is near me try to latch on and run with a group.
Mile 4: Pick up the pace and run at my goal pace or 5 seconds faster
Mile 5: Go for it. Embrace the pain and don't leave any time on the track.

On another note: I won't dress up in a costume for this race. This race is one where most people will be wearing ugly Christmas sweaters and reindeer costumes. I actually did consider wearing a costume, but, as Jen pointed out, it seems silly to spend $20-30 for a costume that I will only wear once. And there is always the risk that the costume will impair my running. Rule #1 for a race is "wear nothing new on race day".  A costume would definitely be breaking that rule. That is, unless I did a training run in the costume. Not going to happen.

My goals for this race are:
1) Run faster than my 10k pace from last Saturday (6:48/mile)
2) Average a 6:30 mile (32:30 time)
3) Run under 30:00 (long term goal)

Do you dress up for races? What has been your 5 mile race strategy? Have you ever blown up?

10k Race Strategy

I'm running my first 10k race tomorrow morning. It's the Army/Navy 10k which is a friendly competition between the two services. I'm a bit intimidated by this race distance. It's short enough that to do well I must run really fast. But it's also long enough that the pain will be real and not over quickly.

I can't draw. But maybe I will start adding stick figures to my posts. Could be fun. Apparently I draw angry stick-men with uni-brows.

Embarrassingly my current 10k record was set two days after completing the Harbor Lights Half Marathon. I ran a 46:00 10k on a recovery run. Truth be told I was still a bit miffed about my side stich during the race and I took out my frustration on the run.

Because I basically know nothing about how to run a good 10k race I turned to Google for answers.

"Google! How I run fast race"?

 I found one study that concluded "that high and low performance runners adopt different pacing strategies during a 10 km race". Or you could say it like this, "fast people run fast and slow people run slow". And they actually get paid to do this research.

Fortunately I found some other tips that were helpful and I plan to use them tomorrow for my race.

• The first tip is to run a negative split. That means run the second half of the race faster than the first. Every world record from the 1500 meters to the Marathon has been set with a negative split. Can't argue with success.
• For the first two miles run 5-10 seconds slower than your goal pace. The idea here is to not burn out early and to save enough for a fast ending. This is actually really hard to do with nerves, adrenaline, and a thousand young gazelles sprinting past you in the first 800 meters.
• For miles 2-5 increase your pace to your goal pace. This is the tough part. You have to just dig deep and maintain the pain. It will take more effort the longer you run to maintain the same pace. Anticipate this and you've won half the battle.
• The last mile push it out. Start to catch people in front of you. Pass with authority as well so they don't try to latch on to you. Hang on to the end and then bask in eternal glory of setting a new PR!

My goals for this race are pretty simple:

A) Beat my current 10k PR of 46:00

B) Average under a 7:00/min pace

C) Run under 40 minutes (long-term goal)

Hopefully I don't look this angry when I cross the finish line.

If you've run a 10k before, what worked for you? What are you "go-to" race tips? Can you draw stick figures?

It's Science

Ever wonder why you run faster during a race? Or why you just seem to fly off the starting line during a 5k even though you told yourself before the start to 'take it easy'? Well it turns out it's science. A recent article in the Physiology & Behavior journal looked at "the influence of the presence and absence of competitors on pacing, overall running performance, and mood state during a self-paced run". Basically they compared how amateur runners (like me) ran 3 km alone verse being in a group. The results are not particularly surprising. The runners ran faster overall, faster during the first 500 m, and perceived the effort/fatigue level at the end as less than when running alone.

I'm on the far right in the green. There's nothing like the pre race jitters.

The findings of this study suggest "that the presence of competitors induces a fast start, which results in an improved overall performance and reduced post-exercise vigor scores, compared to an individual run." There is something going on in the brain that makes us able to run faster, do better, and feel less tired about the whole experience when we have competition. In other words if you want to become a faster runner it's a good idea to run more races!

Look at these silly boys madly charging up the hill as the gun goes off.

For shorter distances, like a 5k, it's not always beneficial to fight the "run-fast" urge at the start. Going out fast against competition doesn't necessarily mean you will run slower overall. In fact the study indicated that running the first 500 m fast is part of how you end up with a faster overall time. Everyone seems to talk about how beneficial negative splits are. They certainly are the goal for longer races but not necessarily for the 5k. Other studies have shown that running the first mile of a 5k 3% faster than goal pace is the optimal pacing strategy. Forget trying to achieve a negative split, just run fast the first mile....but not too fast. How fast is too fast? If the first mile is run more than 6% faster than the goal pace you are likely to crash and burn. So if you're running a 5k, don't feel so bad about going out fast, you just might end up with PR.

In other news: I am enjoying enduring my taper week. Not running is actually harder than it sounds. I also have the strong urge to go pick up heavy metal things and put them back down in an attempt to build muscle, but I am resisting that urge so my body is rested, recovered, and ready for the Half Marathon on Sunday.

Sixty Four

Sixty four is the number of turns in the Harbor Lights Half Marathon. Ouch. It's like they gave a crayon and a map of downtown Norfolk to a child and asked them to draw a race route. I guess the turns will keep me from zoning out and going into cruise control mode. Though the course is very flat the number of turns makes me think it won't be a naturally fast race.

My strategy is to run the tangents. A tangent is simply a straight line that just touches the curve. In other words, run the shortest distance possible. If done correctly you can shave off a good amount of distance and it is completely legal to do. The idea is to not 'swing out' before a turn, or cross to the other side of the road too early. Simply run the shortest distance possible from one point to the other. Not only is this good advice but it is actually how race courses are measured. If you don't do this you will probably run more than the actual race distance. The USA Track and Field Course Certification Manual says that "a race course is defined by the shortest possible route that a runner could take and not be disqualified." This route is actually very difficult to follow due to the throngs of other people. In fact USATF also states that "most runners don’t actually run the SPR (shortest possible route), so the distance recorded by their GPS device will usually be longer than the certified length of the course." They don't care though. The point of the race certification is to make sure you run at least the distance the course is certified for. Thanks a lot.

People smarter than me have done calculations to see how much distance you lose if you run the outside of a 90 degree turn verse the inside. It comes out to about 40 feet. So there are 64 turns in this race. That means there is a possible variance in distance from the turns alone of 2560 feet or 0.48 mile! That could easily be a 4-5 minute swing of time just by running the corners smartly.



Red turn = good, blue turn = bad

The main enemy of this strategy for me is People (because they won't just get out of my way for some reason), pot-holes (I like my ankles working), and the simple fact that I just don't ever think about this when doing my regular runs during the week. I'll be sure to post what my GPS watch says I ran for the race when it's all over.

In other news I ran four miles at lunch on my normal at-work run route. It's an out and back that has about a two miles through the woods on a trail.  On the way back I saw a snake, screamed like a girl, and pranced around for about 10 seconds. Snakes aren't cool. They should stay off the running path.