RW Forum Six – Sub 4 Running Rachel with Cheerful Dave

Well done Ricky! A great time on a VERY hot day, I bet in cooler conditions you'd have made it!

Another run today! (get me!) My daughter finally cracked sub 9 for her mile, smashing it in fact in 8:26. I dropped her off at home, then went back out for another 3, crossing 20 miles for this week. Lovely! 

Thanks carter and Ricky.

really good running to hang in there on your half Ricky. Must have been pretty Hot out there..

anyone have tips on pacing 5k? Do people just go close to their max pace from the off? Or start a tiny bit slower than your pace for mile 1 and then pick it up?

Will, if you go at your maximum pace from the gun you're going to fade badly, it's a long way to be sprinting!  My local parkrun gets lots of younger runners and that's the classic way they run - they'll be off the front at the start but they can't sustain it for long and we'll catch them within a km or so.  Much better to just keep a lid on it for the first half km or so then get quicker through the race.

It's a tricky one though and it takes a bit of practice to get right because it's completely different to marathon running: in a marathon you want to be running comfortably because you know you can't sustain 'hard' running for 26.2 miles.  In a 5k you need to switch off that 'it hurts so I'll slow down' thought in your head because actually you can keep that up for another 10 minutes or so.  Ideal pace is one which feels OK at first, after a mile is feeling hard, after two you're desperate to stop but then you get that 'mile to go' feeling and keep going for a finishing sprint.  Your 'tiny bit slower than your pace for mile 1' probably is about right.  It also helps hugely if you're in a group, especially one with someone you know who you want to beat.

Well done to Rach junior and to Ricky - nice half in the heat there.

Will - I have never done a 5k so prob not in a position to give advice.... however I would tend to go out 10 secs or so faster than 10k pace and try and push on a little after mile 1 and hold it to the end.

I suppose the problem is because it is so short you kind of need to get up to 5k pace quickly or else you are losing time without enough distance to make it back up again.

Rachel - great to see the milage creeping back up.

Will - I am hoping to get a run in at my local parkrun in the next few months. Once my son's football finishes on a Saturday I will give it a lash. I have never raced 5k either so I will be following Dave's advice when I try it.

9 miles for me on Saturday at 7:59 pace and 6 miles tonight at 7:40 pace.

Still nursing my ankle but now I think I have worked out what I have done. When I went over on my ankle a few weeks back, I have strained my peroneal tendons which run around the outside of the ankle and attach themselves to the underside of the foot. However these last two runs have shown that I can run with it. Need to be careful not to overdo it. Am now focussing my stretching exercises on these. Also running with a compression sleeve to give them extra support. Have booked a physio later this week as a precaution. 

Next 10k for me in 2 weeks. As this is hilly I am just going to use this as one of my weekend runs. The next one is 2 weeks after that and I am hoping that I can give this a real go.

Will be starting my marathon training at the end of the month and all things considered will be following the lowest mileage plan in the P&D book with maybe a few tweaks to add in sone additional 20 mile LSR's.

Thanks dave. I've done 2 of the park runs and the first one I went off like a bat out of hell. 6'47 for mile 1, then 7'30 then 8'08 and had to walk on the last hill so guess that tells its own story! Definitely Tallys with what you're saying.. was much more even this last weekend but haven put the garmin on strava yet. Think mile splits were more like 7'18-25 the whole way. V different pacing to what I'm used too!

ricky and Carl you should def get to the parkruns, they're really good. And Carl, good fast medium length tempo running going on. You might surprise yourself on your hilly 10k..

did 0.5m intervals x 6 at lunch at around 6'40 pace. Hard work!

Fast intervals there Will!

4 miles for me this morning at 8:02- bring on the sub 8 min mile!!! 

8 miles for me again this morning : 1 :09 ...a whole 5 minutes faster than last week (8:41 min mile) I can really feel the fitness returnng. 

Great running Rachel

Excellent stuff Rachel - you've still got it!

Amazing how quickly the fitness ebbs away when you take your foot off the gas.... I reckon I have lost about 20 - 30 secs a mile in pace since my Marathon in early May( based on Heart Rates for certain paces etc)

Anyway 7 miles tonight (middle 5 miles tempo @ 7.48 avg pace).... I have a HM on Wednesday evening so that was my last run before the race itself. Difficult course with hilly second half so even sub 1:45 I feel will be a tough ask for me