Pacing a run - how?

[Poppy2010]

Now I am running longer distances (8km today) using Runkeeper's training plan I find it hard to keep an even pace, especially with my own music with differing beats in the background...

Today the first 5k was ok, runkeeper was telling me I was hitting the suggested pace, but then it all went wrong, I had to slow and walk some

Any advice please?

[Landesman Graduate]

Well, I use a 5k+ podcast like Stamina or Audiofuel offerings like Feeling Free to maintain a steady pace, as they really are all about beats per minute. I find it easy to follow the 158-160bpm rhythm as the 'music' is much less important to me than the beat.

Also I use a Garmin Forerunner 10 which has a pace function, and that beeps at you in every split (which can be slightly annoying at times) to tell you whether you are 'on pace', 'behind the pace' or 'ahead of pace' (and you can set the display to show the pace too).

[Poppy2010 Graduate in reply to Landesman]

Thanks! I use Stamina to pace my Parkruns which was how I was pretty sure I had beaten my pb as Saturday was the first time I finished before the warm down walk started, but that's not long enough for me for 8k plus as I'm slow...

I'll have a look at audiofuel later. I had a look at jog.fm (I think that was it) where you can choose a and buy a play list with a certain beat but I'm no music fan so didn't know what to go for, so downloaded a running music thing but the beats are all over the place!

I find runkeeper ok but has very little in the way of instructions, I'm sure there's a pace function somewhere!

[Landesman Graduate in reply to Poppy2010]

In Runkeeper, if you go to Settings, then Audio Cues, you can get it to tell you average, split or current pace (or all three...!).