Advice please...

[Davo123]

Started ju jus plan today with a 2.5k in 15 minutes. Never ran that quick before so well pleased. Plan to do the 5k on Wednesday but don’t think I can do it at that pace. Should I start at same pace and then slow down or start off slowly?

[Runip Graduate10]

I would say start slowly, and then you can speed up if you have a bit left in the tank towards the end. It's also ok to start slow and stay slow!

From my experience, it's really tough to recover from starting too fast.

Enjoy your next run ☺

[Buddy34 Graduate10]

Definitely start off slow . You may have ran fast today because your mind new it was a shorter 15 minute run 😊

[UnfitNoMore Graduate10]

Start slowly... the first few minutes are the toughest of a run. I’d also keep it slower than today until the last couple of minutes.

[JaoJao Graduate10]

I think I read in Juju’s advice notes that the shorter run can be the fast run, the 5K can be whatever you feel like (a lot of people may have this as their parkrun) and the longer run should be slow and steady.

So I would say the 5K should be comfortable, and if you want to speed up at the end sure why not.

The danger with speeding at the start is you could run out of juice. Use the same principles you used for the c25k and listen to your body. I wish you luck, I started juju today too, but I did the longer run today because it was the only day I could fit it in!

[Oldfloss Administrator Graduate10]

Start slow.. you need to always have a bit left for those last minutes

[UpTheStanley Graduate10]

Yes, start slower. But by the way, for the 2.5, did you run at a steady pace, or slow down towards the end?

[Davo123 60minGraduate in reply to UpTheStanley]

Did it on a treadmill due to lack of time...kept it set at 10 (km/hr) for the full 2.5km.

[UpTheStanley Graduate10 in reply to Davo123]

Ah right - so what I would do is keep trying to do the short runs at that pace, which will be easier to maintain on the treadmill. And once you’re up to 4K in 22’30”, then you’ll be well set for 5 in 30 👍

[MarkyD Graduate10]

Sorry to be late to the party.

Juju’s plan is actually 2 plans. One plan is based on distance - for example 2.5km - whilst the other plan is based on time - 15 minutes.

You can pick the plan that works best for you. Don’t try to run both plans at the same time. Or put another way - if 2.5km in 15 minutes is achievable but 5km in 30 minutes is challenging, then just run the plan based on time.

We spend a lot of time convincing C25K runners that time is the objective: same for Juju’s Magic10.

[Davo123 60minGraduate in reply to MarkyD]

Thanks mark. I was actually going for the distance plan. I want 10k as my next goal rather than 60mins. As it was the short run I thought I’d go a little faster than my norm which is about 8 to 9 km per hour. Think I’ll revert to that for the 5k and longer runs.

[Tasha99 Graduate10]

Start slowly - negative splits are the way forward!

[Davo123 60minGraduate in reply to Tasha99]

Scuse my ignorance Tasha...negative splits???

[Tasha99 Graduate10 in reply to Davo123]

Where you get faster as you go along so each km or mile is faster

[SkiMonday Graduate10 in reply to Davo123]

There's more than one version of negative splits! There's the one that Tasha described and one where you aim to do the second half of your run faster than the first.

I think the latter is a common race strategy, it also ties in with what others have posted here about starting off slow then speeding up nearer the end if you have the energy.

I did a 5k run where I increased pace every km; I found it really difficult keeping my pace on target so that each km was faster than the last. That said, it's great practice for running at a given pace.