So how do you pace the perfect race?
Excellent question and we're about to tell you and hopefully we've both just done it perfectly
and keep watching towards the end because we've got a very special giveaway to get you race day ready.
Should we let them see what happens?
Let's roll the tape! Get that high energy. Ah! Energy!
How you energize yourself. All right, are we ready, Sarah?
We are ready! In... Who wants to count us down?
Johnny, give us a little countdown.
25 minutes. 5k. Two. One. Off you go! Go, go, go!
Right, I'm starting off uphill so... Oh and I'm starting too fast. You want to start off by thinking
about some realistic goals that you can work towards in training.
You might want to set some ABC goals. A goals being a realistic goal that you're working towards
and that's the one you're going to spend the most time in during your training.
Then your B goal could be a goal that is still a PB, but it's just a slightly slower time
than your A goal. And then your C goal is something that's a lot more realistic.
It's something that you can still hit, even if it doesn't all quite go to plan on the day, so you
can still walk away happy from your race.
Identifying your goal at the start of training will not only give you something clear to work towards on race
day and it will help your pacing on race day, but it will give you something as well
to work towards on training. We'll make those early mornings,
late nights all worth it.
Once you have your goals, you then need to think about your target
times and your pacing. So what that means is the amount of time per
mile or kilometer that you need to be hitting. So, for me and Mo today
we want to do a 25 minutes 5k. That means it is five minutes per kilometer.
However, you shouldn't just be training at one pace and your training
should vary between being in your race pace and doing comfortable miles as well.
So in training, you need to make sure that you've got a mixture of runs at lots of different paces.
Oh, too quick. 4:57. Slow it down a bit, Sarah.
So not every single run you do, you have to go out and do that race pace that you envision
for yourself. Take it easy, chill. Enjoy the freedom that running provides you.
Yes, you need to make sure you've got a mixture of runs at different paces, easy pace
runs, but then also faster pace runs, which will be probably made up of interval sessions
if you've got a training plan. And a lot of those interval sessions, especially as you get closer to
race day, will be at that target race pace.
You should know, establish and understand your race pace like the back of your hand.
So when you come to do your first session at your target race pace, it might feel slightly out of your
comfort zone. It might also feel slightly out of reach.
But don't worry, that is what training is for.
It's to get you comfortable and ready to race at that target
pace for the full race. So don't worry if at first it feels like you'll never be able
to hit that for the distance you're working towards. If it's a realistic goal, it'll come.
Don't worry.
Strides are fast paced, short bursts of running with good form to help you get
to the end of the race. These will help you practice running well on tired legs. Because the one
thing you do see, when legs get tired, is form starts to go. All of this
wobbly knees, you don't want none of that. You want to stay nice and upright, keep your
strides going, and really keep that energy turnover efficient
to get you to the end of the race. With that being said, the number one question we ask at the running channel
is should I bank time?
Banking time means setting off fast out of the blocks and ending up running the first half of the
race faster than the second half.
And the answer to that is no.
Here he comes. Still going too fast?
Sarah, what issues are you facing when you bank time?
Bank time? Burning out.
Burning out. You heard it there. Burning out. She came
just in time. It's almost like we planned this.
Burning out. Very good point. So at the start
line, you are going to feel raring to go no matter what the distance. Your training
plan probably will have tapered off a little bit towards the end, so your legs are going to feel fresh.
You're going to feel like you could go way faster than you were going in training.
But don't. It's a trap.
So you want to keep some energy left in the tank so when you do finish the race, you can
empty your tank. You don't want to be able to have something left in the tank and you don't want to exhaust
yourself in the beginning of the race, so you have nothing left by the end of the race.
Now, the challenging part of pacing an even pace or a negative split race
is that as the race goes on, you'll start to tire. And so even though you're
hitting the same pace, it will start to feel so much harder to maintain it. So that's when you
really need to start digging in, digging deep in order to hit that pace.
Especially, the longer the race, the fresher your legs are going to feel, but the more likely you are
to burn out at the end. So don't go too fast.
You may even get to a stage where you have to walk because you're out of breath. You've run
too fast and you do not have the energy to keep it going.
Stick to that target pace because you do not want to risk going out too hard and then
having nothing left in the tank at the end.
I have reached 4k, and we are off the mark
by seconds. I think my number one pacing tip is your breathing.
You want to focus on your breathing. When you feel your breathing is starting to go, you might be going a
bit too fast for your comfortable pace. Most watches do come equipped with
GPS to allow us to see our time and to see our average pace.
So when we can see how fast we go in and how long we've been running for. If you don't
have a smartwatch, then there are, of course, a few other things you can do. You also do have smartphones.
Smartphones. You can download apps such as Strava that can guide
you until your average pace. Again using GPS.
Are you confident? Confident. He's Confident!
Okay, let's dig deep. Final push.
Or if you want to avoid technology altogether and you don't think you can gauge off
of just your breath, feel free to calculate your pace on a race calculator.
Take a stopwatch to a track with you and just see how it feels to
run at that race pace. If you don't want to rely on your own breath
or your own breathing or technology or anything else. Most races,
specifically marathons, some half marathons will actually have pacers there on the day.
What pacers normally do is they're experienced runners that will run at that pace
and you just want to follow them.
That's the face of someone that just reached 5k. Sorry, guys, I got distracted with the camera
Sorry, guys. I just wanted to talk to you. I'm so excited.
Yeah. Time for the results.
That's 5k done. How do we do? Sarah, what was your time?
Do you want to know? I do want to know.
I'm very proud of this. So my actual time 24 minutes and 58 seconds.
Wow, that's a little round of applause. You deserved that.
How did you do? 24 minutes and 16 seconds.
I went off a little bit too quick. You went too quick!
To be fair, 25 minutes is much further away from your 5k PB than it is from mine.
It's so hard to pace yourself for a 5k. Honestly, it's not an easy feat.
It is not easy at all. But hopefully we've given you some tips there. And to give you a little
something extra as well, we've got a very special race day giveaway bundle that we're going to be giving away.
All you have to do to enter is like this video and drop a clock emoji in the comments and you could be
in with a chance of winning. And make sure you're subscribed to the running channel as well.
While you're in the comments section, do let us know if you want to see more races, because we can do a 10k next.
Oooooh a 10k. Should we do a marathon version? Try to place a perfect marathon.
Let's get that one to Andy.
Yeah, definitely. And we'll see you next time on the Running Channel.