Dinosaur Brain Activated

I reminded myself this week that I have a problem with pacing races and time trials. I let the reptilian portion of my brain take over and throw out any common sense. I assume I am in better shape and have gained fitness, and I try to run at a pace that is outside my abilities. It’s going all out to prevent leaving anything in the tank, only to consume the entire tank before the run is complete.

I must train myself to take repeated small bites rather than bite off more than I can chew. Case in point: last Saturday’s 5K time trial. I did not have a clear goal time when I started. I noticed that my base runs had been getting faster at the same low heart rate, so I assumed my fitness had improved. My VO2 max, as reported by my watch, had also improved. The weather was cool (windy, but cool), and I run faster when it’s cool. I wanted to start where I left off in July 2024 and tried to run 8:20/mile, hoping to run a little faster to break my previous time. A little faster turned out to be 8:07 for the first mile. I felt good; hard but doable. I aimed for 8:10 for the second mile, knowing that the third would be even more difficult as I would run into a headwind. My second mile was 8:27, and I went into salvage mode. 8:30 is my 10K target pace. I figured that was okay; you missed 8:10. If you keep it under 8:30, you’ll finish under 8:20. However, at that point, I was out of gas; I used too much in the first mile. I finished the third mile at 8:39 and 5K in 26:06 (8:24/mi.).

The lesson learned is that I should have tried for 8:20/mi. (25:53) and see where I was. I should have focused on how close to 8:20 I could run the first two miles and lit the matches for the last mile. The positive part of a time trial and a short distance is I can try again soon. Maybe next time, I will learn to be more disciplined with my pacing.

As for my 2025 goals, my streak continues. I took two consecutive days off from running before the time trial and did S & C three times last week.

Do you have any pacing tips? Please share them below in the comments.

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