Disciplined Pacing

One aspect of road racing which has become increasingly apparent as I run more races is the need to formulate a pre-race pace strategy and then maintain a disciplined pace throughout the race. I have ruined more 5K times by coming out of the gates too fast and consequently having my pace slow to a turtle's crawl at the end of the race.

My next three races are a 10k , a 20 K, and a half marathon (21.1K). These translate to 6.2, 12.4 and 13.1 miles. My training regimen is currently targeted at developing sufficient endurance to finish these races. As much as I try to convince myself I can maintain a fast pace through these longer duration races, my first priority is to finish the race.

I want to make these races as enjoyable as possible. I believe it's good to set goals, such as my goal pace, but I don't want to put myself in a position where I'll be dejected or demoralized if I don't meet them.

A 20K race is equivalent to running four 5K races consecutively in one day. There's something to be said for being in a condition for even attempting this feat. A motivator for both the 20K and half marathon races is there will be over ten thousand spectators for each event as these races are being held in major cities. My eldest son will race with me at the 20K event, in a kids aged 6-12 years old half mile run. I am looking forward to having the father & son running photo taken that day.

Using the 20K race as an example, I will have to determine what my pace will be for twenty kilometers. After the race, I will have an average pace recorded. Problem is, I do not see myself running the same pace for all twenty kilometers.

Here's what I may believe may be more realistic pacing goals ...

Kilometers 1-5 : 5:00 minutes per km
Kilometers 6-10 : 5:10 minutes per km
Kilometers 11-15 : 5:25 minutes per km
Kilometers 16-20 : 5:45 minutes per km

This averages to a 5:20 minutes per kilometer pace or a 1:46:35 20K time. I would regard this set of pacing goals as a best case scenario. It assumes low humidity and a reasonable temperature on race day.

I am not sure how lowering my 'pace goal bar' four times throughout the race will help, but my initial sentiment is it could help to get myself mentally and physically to the next quarter of the race where I will then be allowed to slow down and yet achieve my overall race goal.