Better Pacing helps a lot
Posted by eyestrain on August 13, 2009
My last 10k runs have been a disaster at the 7k to 8k mark i always start to feel like I already hit the wall. Initially, I thought the problem was my preparation, but with my last 10k I know for sure that I had good rest, stretching and energy preparation but I still encountered the same problem at the 8k mark. So this morning I had good rest,stretching and energy preparation but I felt like I still had to change something with my tactic. So i’ve decided to use an organized approach with my pacing. My battle plan was 1 and 2 KM Easy , 3rd km Comfortable Fast run, 4th Easy again, 5th Comftable Fast again, 6th Easy, 7th CF, 8th Easy, 9 to last KM a mix of Fast and Easy. And heres the the result comparison below,
Left side is the New pacing i did today, while right table was my old pacing. After comparing the two I’ve noticed I had better speed distribution and I also had more opportunity to run fast because my energy was properly distributed in the entire run with my new pacing.
| New Pacing | Old Pacing | |||||||||
| Split | Time per KM | Distance | Avg Speed | Max Speed | Split | Time per KM | Distance | Avg Speed | Max Speed | |
| 1 | 0:07:31 | 1 | 7:31 | 0:44 | 1 | 0:06:08 | 1 | 6:08 | 5:07 | |
| 2 | 0:07:54 | 1 | 7:54 | 6:41 | 2 | 0:06:20 | 1 | 6:20 | 5:01 | |
| 3 | 0:06:09 | 1 | 6:09 | 5:07 | 3 | 0:06:29 | 1 | 6:29 | 5:34 | |
| 4 | 0:07:47 | 1 | 7:47 | 6:34 | 4 | 0:06:55 | 1 | 6:55 | 5:30 | |
| 5 | 0:05:53 | 1 | 5:53 | 4:52 | 5 | 0:06:30 | 1 | 6:30 | 5:01 | |
| 6 | 0:07:42 | 1 | 7:42 | 4:42 | 6 | 0:07:16 | 1 | 7:16 | 6:01 | |
| 7 | 0:06:01 | 1 | 6:01 | 4:39 | 7 | 0:06:51 | 1 | 6:51 | 5:49 | |
| 8 | 0:07:31 | 1 | 7:31 | 5:40 | 8 | 0:07:11 | 1 | 7:11 | 5:34 | |
| 9 | 0:06:08 | 1 | 6:08 | 4:18 | 9 | 0:07:17 | 1 | 7:17 | 5:36 | |
| 10 | 0:06:40 | 1 | 6:40 | 4:39 | 10 | 0:08:17 | 1 | 8:17 | 5:07 | |
| Summary | 1:09:23 | 10.01 | 6:56 | 0:44 | Summary | 1:11:56 | 10.00 | 6:53 | 4:48 |
After comparing my old run with my new pacing. I learned that:
- I need to properly set a Slow and Fast pacing every KM to properly allocate my energy for the entire run. My old style before was run fast until I exhaust all my energy then recharge by slow jogging, then as soon as my energy level is back start running fast again which seemed to be a wrong approach based from my experience.
- I did not experience any side stitch at all with my new pacing, in all my previous 10k runs i ALWAYS experienced a side stitch.
- I only felt like I did a 5k training practice with my new pacing.
- I felt like I can actually do up to 3km more after hitting 10k, but i already stopped at 10k
- Less Body pain after the training. yay!
