I think the first mile you're still really in control and mentally you're not worried about continuing this pace, second mile it's starting to get pretty hard. At the beginning of the last mile you are questioning whether you can continue this pace, but that last mile it's extremely difficult and you have to push through it to get your best time.
a runner wondering wrote:
As I run pretty much alone, I'm interested in your opnions about which point in the race are we expected to start feeling the discomfort/pain that is characteristic to the event?
To see if I'm gauging my efforts correctly?
I ran a PR recently with k3 and 4 a little slower than the rest. The first k was comfortable. The second K wasn’t really physically uncomfortable until toward the end of it, but it was kind of a mental drag bc I was solo and thinking about how much was left to go. K3-4 I felt myself letting down a little to avoid the pain - I attribute this to being solo and knowing the PR was in the bag. K5 I picked up the pace a good bit and the last 800 was tough with the last 200 being the worst of it.
Based on this experience I’d say for me, with an even or negative split, somewhere between 1.5-2k is when discomfort kicks in and then gets progressively worse through the whole race if continuing to press full effort.
Depends on how nervous you are. Nerves can take you pretty far. I don’t think I can answer properly either bc my speed is so far beneath my fitness that I have trouble really hurting over 5k. Last 2 miles of a 10k or last mile of an 8k are bad because my pace for those isn’t far off my 5k pace. Prob need to find a track or see if I try to “sprint” in a 5k
There was a Chris Solinski interview from when he was at his peak. They asked him this question. He said "it's miserable from 200 on"
My 5k goes like this.. Comfortably hard 1st.. spend the 2nd working my way into uncomfortably hard then deciding how bad I want it. If I'm really interested in suffering then I spend the 3rd working my way toward wanting to throw up. :)
I've done my local hilly 5k quite a few times. It's 3 laps with a hill at the end of each lap. I'd cruise up the 1st hill feeling fine, but I always used to contemplate stopping at the bottom of the 2nd hill as I was in agony. The 3rd hill wasn't as bad because I knew I'd get to stop at the top.
In a similar vein, and I'm paraphrasing, someone asked Bob Kennedy what the difference was between a 13:00 5k and a 13:05 5k and his response was it hurts at for the last 4800m rather than the last 4600m.
An all-out 5k should be painful pretty much throughout. I liked what another poster said--it's one big crescendo from start to finish. If you're in a comfortable rhythm, you're probably falling off the pace.
If you've been doing lots of race-specific workouts and are used to the feeling, I think it should still feel comfortable at 3K.
When I ran my best 5K of the year, I was still feeling pretty good halfway even though I went out a little too fast and ran a positive split. When I ran another one earlier this summer, I felt like crap at 1 mile, but I ended up running a big negative split.
mytwocents wrote:
In a similar vein, and I'm paraphrasing, someone asked Bob Kennedy what the difference was between a 13:00 5k and a 13:05 5k and his response was it hurts at for the last 4800m rather than the last 4600m.
An all-out 5k should be painful pretty much throughout. I liked what another poster said--it's one big crescendo from start to finish. If you're in a comfortable rhythm, you're probably falling off the pace.
Sounds like a lot of people have a low threshold for calling something pain. :) Seriously if I go to the track and run a 400m at 5k pace, I am breathing hard, I am not close to pain. Same thing for 800m. At 1600m I am working hard. At 2400m, I am starting to hurt, and at 3200m, I am wondering about if I can make it another lap...
The 2 mile mark. After this point, If you don't change gears incrementally, you are probably slowing down.
My PB races and efforts near this, the mental games you have to play to change gears to maintain or increase your pace is very challenging. The more you experience it, the better you will get at dealing with the discomfort.
I like all the takes so far, but what's missing is how to distinguish between an all-out effort, and running the first mile so stupidly hard that you're left slogging in the rest of the race, still in pain, but at an embarrassingly slow pace.
The race that started with naive belief in "alactic energy" off the line, amped up by the adrenaline surge of my first race in years, resulted in the fastest mile I'd run in a long time, but I was contemplating the DNF with 800 to go, and my 5K time was atrocious.
1st mile feels strong, 2nd mile feels like death, 3rd mile is a numb out-of-body agony.
Then beer.
a runner wondering wrote:
As I run pretty much alone, I'm interested in your opnions about which point in the race are we expected to start feeling the discomfort/pain that is characteristic to the event?
To see if I'm gauging my efforts correctly?
For most people, it's very mental. It does start to hurt around 1 mile, but it's more painful because you know you have to do what you just did 2 more times. The pain you feel at that point wouldn't be anything if you knew you could stop in the next 30 seconds or so.
For me, I think I feel less pain running a 2 mile because I know it's going to be done so quickly. There are maybe 2 minutes that suck really bad. In a 5k, I'd say there are probably 6 or 7 sucky minutes.
If you don't feel like you want to quit before you hit 3k you've gone out too slow for sure. I would say at about 2500m or so if you feel like throwing in the towel you can probably still hold on in real race conditions. You just gotta keep telling yourself to hold on for a few more minutes because the feeling might pass or if it's on the roads perhaps you have a downhill coming to ease the pain. Maybe by the time you come off this theoretical downhill there's only 800 left to go and there's no point to drop out. Just gotta make your stupid weak brain let your body keep pushing.
First 200m--Feeling strong, light and good
First mile--*Looks behind me* Was that the one-mile mark? Wow, that felt pretty good.
1.5 miles--Ok the legs are getting a bit heavy, push through just gotta finish this race.
2 miles: *Legs getting even heavier, feels like running through pudding* Why do I choose to run??? I could stop and the pain could all go away.....but I've already gone two miles so might as well finish
3 miles: *Whole body is burning, thought process is totally centered on the guy in front of me and the finish*
last 0.1: COME ON MAN!!!! ONCE YOU FINISH YOU CAN STOP AND YOU DONT HAVE TO DO THIS UNTIL NEXT TIME!!!!
TL:DR It starts to hurt around the 2-mile (3200m) mark and the pain train is all downhill from there
huh what wrote:
1st mile feels strong, 2nd mile feels like death, 3rd mile is a numb out-of-body agony.
Then beer.
That's how it felt to me when I ran my 5k PR. Splits were even but it was increasingly miserable from ~800m to finish. The first 800m felt great.
a runner wondering wrote:
As I run pretty much alone, I'm interested in your opnions about which point in the race are we expected to start feeling the discomfort/pain that is characteristic to the event?
To see if I'm gauging my efforts correctly?
1k, definitely at 2k.
Everyone is different. I was a miler. For me the first 4-6 laps were a breeze. Somewhere after that and before laps 8 it starting getting hard. Really hard. I wanted to delay that pain as long as possible. If I could get to lap 9 before it started, then I'd be great. Others want it to start as soon as possible. They want you in pain with them as that's to their advantage.
Everyone's idea pace while running their limit diiffers as well. Two 15:00 runners might have different ideal paces. That's about 4:50 pace. One might want to go through 1 mile at 4:40-4:45 and hang on. Another might prefer going out at 5:00 and pick up after that. Then when you hit that pain barrier might differ.
There is no one answer.
As I’ve gotten older, now 39, just the physical speed makes it feel hard, not the exertion, and I’ve run 49/1:54.
5:20 pace feels challenging biomechanically, very jarring, even if my heart rate is not that high. The pace feels very abusive by one mile for sure.
As your speed diminishes with age, things will get uncomfortable in a hurry, even if your fitness is pretty good.
It doesn't matter how far the distance of the race is, if you know where your limits are there is going to be discomfort from the start. It's just about how you perceive the pain and understanding that even if it hurts you can still keep running hard. Any coach who says that your race will feel effortless has no idea what they are talking about.