Pushing the Pace Early in a 5K

My blog updates have been sparse as of late.  To all you readers of "The Running Yoders" (all 2 or 3 of you), I present the "fall blog series".  The idea of a series came to me today while running, as a way of forcing myself to put up a few posts in a timely manner.

Today, while running a short loop around the neighborhood and trying to briefly pull myself into a 5k effort level I started thinking about how a well run 5k feels.  At least for myself, it is on the edge of extreme discomfort for as long as I can sustain.  I still think one of the most difficult feats in distance running is to truly run the best 5k one is capable of.

When I was thinking back, my fitness and preparation really don't seem comparable in any of my best 5K performances.  In my recollections, only the effort I sustained and pacing strategy does.

There was a good article on The Science of Sport a few years ago (and perhaps again more recently), that had a bell curve showing the pacing of world record performances in several shorter distance races.  I recall reading other articles aggregating PR performances that show a similar pacing outcome.  I think for me (and maybe you) my best 5K can only come from a pacing strategy that looks like this:

Optimal 5K Pacing Strategy by Kilometer

I still think I have no handle on judging 5K fitness, or on really pressing myself to the limit.  I enjoy racing long distances for the most part.  But I keep thinking about pushing myself past the limit for a mile and hanging on for dear life until I can regroup and finish fast.  I still haven't actually settled on a single race for the fall.  But, I'm starting to think about it.