The smell of Vaseline and boxes of pins are in the air. Its finally here! The running and cross country season we’ve all been training hard for these last few months. Well, most of us anyway.
April through to September is heaven for the weekend warrior, because it’s between these six months that they get to flex their muscles (or lack thereof) on the start line of their local 10k or half marathon. Chatter about weekly mileage, PB’s, threshold markers and any other analytical number are all the rage as we line up to destroy our bodies for the next 30 minutes to 4 hours.
But too often we lose sight of what we’re actually racing for, or sometimes we even do crazy things that we’d never usually do if it was an ‘A’ race. So here are five tips to make sure you nail your next 5k race.
Get an adequate warm up
At our local club race, we sometimes get caught up in the social aspect and waltz over to the starters gun with no mention of a warm up. Admit it, how many of you have done this at your local Park Run? But really, we’re doing our body a disservice. Yes, these types of races are fun and we do them for the enjoyment, but no matter what level you’re at, you still want to go out there and aim for a good time. So making sure we do an effective warm up protocol is critical to having our body prepped and ready for the starters horn. After all, you’ve paid the ever-increasing entry fee, why not make it worthwhile by performing at our best.
Take your own marker pen or Pins
How often have you stood amongst the nervous energy of a body marking line and wasted precious morning coffee time? Try taking your own marker pen and have a family member of friend do the body marking for you, or have your pins ready so you can attach your race number straight away. It saves standing in line, which means you can get to that port-a-loo line sooner.
Try something different
Many people use their local club race or Park Run as a tune up for a bigger race such as a 10k or half marathon. So why not try different nutrition plans, equipment combinations, or even race tactics so you know what works and what doesn’t. For nutrition, try a different breakfast such as toast or oats. For equipment, try different shoes such as trainers or race flats. And for race tactics, try starting at a faster speed and see how long you can maintain it.
Don’t save yourself for the last kilometre
This one seems an odd request, but it’s heard many times at different events. “I was saving myself for the sprint at the end!” Our bodies are amazing pieces of biology, and you’d be surprised at just how hard you can go. Giving this request to athletes before, more often than not they have come back and been amazed at their result, because they never knew they could push as hard as they did. For a 5k race, it’s the perfect distance to literally race as hard as you can because the shorter nature of the event takes away the demands of nutrition and pacing. Now you still need to read between the lines here, because an all-out sprint won’t be sustainable for any event lasting longer than 10 seconds. But by all out, we’re talking endurance terms. So anything upwards of 90% of max heart rate.
Smile
This isn’t a feel-good, hug-your-teddy-bear kind of statement. By literally smiling, your shoulders relax, your body loosens, and a relaxed body equates to better positions and greater efficiency. Particularly if you have followed the advice of the tip above, when you are really hurting by pushing the pace, smiling will take your mind off the discomfort. It’s a strategy called disassociation. You’re distracting yourself by focusing on another stimulus, subsequently avoiding the discomfort. Also, by smiling your race photos will look great.
Next time you line up at a 5k race, have a think about these tips and hopefully they’ll help you nail a new PB!
By Liam Bromilow.
