I'm 26, 5'11, 175lbs, running for almost 20 years, never competitively in terms or school or anything. Marathon PR is 3:10. I'm pretty slow. Hobby jogger type. Slowly have been increasing my average mpw.. I was in the 30s for a long time and am not up to 60s.
Today in the context of marathon training and a 60 mile week I ran a 19:23 5k. Very little taper (last 2 days have just been easy). Course was a little hilly but not bad. Here are my splits:
1) 5:51
2) 6:20
3) 6:25 (this is where the hilly part was - Strava has this at 6:18 GAP pace)
tried to speed up at the finish line (GPS says 6:11 pace for the last 0.1).
Clearly I crashed and burned somewhere around mile 1.5 or so, but my question is in terms of improving my pacing, what should I aim for in terms of even splits? I think it would have been smarter to go out at 6:15 or so and then if feeling good in mile 3 pick it up. Or even 6:10 and try the same thing. Does that sound like a reasonable strategy?