Mark: We've all been there. We've been on the start line of a race and the gun goes
and we shoot off as fast as we can. Heather: Whether it's a local 5k or a big
city marathon, a sprint triathlon or a ironman, we've at some point gone off too fast and
then felt the consequences later on. Mark: I definitely have. It's almost my trademark
move. Heather: I was going to say.
Mark: Today we're looking at the difference, if there is a difference between pacing and
not pacing. [music]
Heather: No matter who you speak to in the sport, pacing is considered one of the most
important factors when it comes to getting a personal best. The same goes when you look
across all three sports of triathlon, you want to try and have a best average pace that's
more likely to get you that fastest time. You want to make sure that you're starting
at a pace you know you can hold. Basically being realistic with your predictions and
not going out too fast. Are you ready for some science? Well, a scientific
study has proven that your optimal pacing strategy for a 5k race is to actually head
out on that first mile 3% quicker than your goal pace. I was surprised as well but it
is a fine line because if you are as quick as 6% faster than your goal pace, that could
end up being a disastrous effect on your overall time. Then take it to a marathon and things
flip the other way around whereas they've proven there that you actually want to start
off the first few miles 3% slower than your goal pace to achieve your optimum time. Y
our goal race pace should correspond with aerobic threshold. If you start to go too
much above that you're basically going to be heading into the red and it will come back
to bite you later on. Try to make sure you don't go more than 10-15 seconds faster than
that predicted pace. Then you'll hopefully get to the finish still feeling stronger.
There's good examples of wonderful pacing. You just need to take Eliud Kipchoge's sub
two-hour marathon challenge where he had a car with the lights on the road so he could
follow that exactly to the tee and then he still had a little bit left in the tank to
speed up at the end. Then also if you look to the hour record on the Velodrome, you've
got Victor Campenaerts who managed to maintain pretty much the same pace. 221 laps just fairing
by a quarter of a second at the most. On the other hand bad pacing can have all
sorts of consequences as Mark knows. [music]
If that's not quite enough to convince you, well, pretty much every world record in running
male and female from 1,500 meters all the way up to a marathon has been achieved by
a negative split. Now a negative split is when you do the second half of your race faster
than your first. I think there's plenty of evidence that good pacing and sometimes in
some situations negative split is the best way to get a personal best.
Here at GTN we like to put things to the test. It's time to send Mark out to see just what
difference good pacing can make. [music]
Mark: Well, unfortunately I've picked the short straw on this one. I have got to test
this one out. I will be comparing a paced 5k versus a non-paced 5k. Fortunately though,
I did quite recently do a pretty well-paced 5k as part of a 5k series. I posted a time
of 15:41. That works out roughly around 3:08 to 3:10 per kilometre. I'm in a pretty similar
shape. Maybe a couple of seconds slower over the 5k.
The scientific research as we touched on already does show that there is a significant performance
decrease if we run that first mile at around 6% faster or above than our target pace. For
this, for the non-paced one I'm actually going to run around 8% faster. That work outs somewhere
around 2:55 per kilometre and see if I can hang on and still come in with that time somewhere
in the region of 15:41. That's the plan anyway. Here we go. Three, two, one.
[music] 2:54 through the first kilometer. Pretty much
on pace. Heart rate very high. Dropped off significantly. 3:15. [unintelligible 00:04:37].
[music] Wow. I'm glad that's done. I do not want to
do that again. That was absolutely awful. I did get pretty pumped up for it. I used
that adrenaline at the start and I went out hard. I think I was pretty much bang on with
that 2:55 per kilometre at the start of it. Then I just tried to hang on. Unfortunately
that pace dropped off significantly towards the end. When I compare that to the well-paced
5k that I did this part of the series just quite recently, I managed to hold a pretty
consistent pace there. Actually I gained a lot towards the end of that 5k versus this
one I did where the pace was just terrific. It just felt like I went into the red really
early on. Unfortunately I was still trying to hold quite a high pace that I just couldn't
recover. I couldn't get myself out of that red. It was a really horrible experience actually.
When I think back to when I did that well-paced one I felt quite in control. I felt like I
was almost building in. Obviously it was hard. I was working my maximum. It was a much more
pleasant experience and I got a quicker time. [music]
All right. That was a pretty short and rough example but I think it's pretty clear good
pacing is really important. How do we go about improving our pacing without necessarily having
to go and do races to get that experience? Heather: Well, you can simply just mix up
the pace of your running out within your training sessions. A couple of really good sessions
are your fartlek or your progressive run both of which have varied pace within them. It
gives you that opportunity to experience how they feel of running at the different speeds.
Mark: You can also do intervals at your target pace. Again, it's about that feeling, getting
used to that and dialing into the pace. Actually, what you'll find is it will feel quite easy
at the start. You'll be having to hold yourself back. As those intervals go on, it will start
to bite and you'll start to feel it. It will start to hurt a little bit. It's just getting
that experience in, learning how that feels and taking that forwards to race day.
Heather: That's all it is really. You can take it from your running. Also across swimming
and cycling. Whenever you're out just keep an eye on what speed on your running at and
think about how that feels. Within no time you'll be on your way to a personal best.
Mark: There we go. Pacing versus no pacing. I think it's quite clear what we're looking
at here. It's all about the pacing. Let's us know what you think about this video in
the comments below. Also any experiences, any triumphs with pacing, any disasters with
your pacing, also we'd love to hear that. Heather: We'd love to hear all of those. If
you've enjoyed it, give us a like and remember you can check out our social media channels
and follow us there as well. [00:07:38] [END OF AUDIO]