If you’re going for a really quick time. Sub 1:40. Then focus a bit more on your WU. Inject a little bit of pace into the 10 mins, include some drills and even some strides.
This will make the early pace off the start line feel easier and ensure your muscles are well prepared for the challenge ahead. You might even want to flush out the legs afterwards with a 10 minute CD, but from experience this is often easier said than done in a busy race environment.
For anyone running a more conservative time you probably want to save some energy for the race itself so 10 minutes easy warm up is plenty.
Pacing is key for a race. Make sure you know your targets and stick to them from the off. It’s likely the crowds will go off quickly and from my own experience, you might find, even if on goal pace, lots of runners will be passing you, let them.
Once you settled into that race pace, you should find the first 5km you’re not working too hard. But then the grind starts, keeping ticking off those splits, whether it be miles of kms. Stick to your pace as well.
If you’ve nailed your pacing, you’ll find your RPE really starts to creep up with 6 or 7km to go. And the last 5km might feel like you’re working at your limit. That’s the idea.
It’s in those moments the doubt creeps in, and you’re brain will be telling you to slow down. Don’t. That’s just a build in safety mechanism which we can override and keep pushing.
If you’ve got your pacing right, you’ll be overtaking a lot of runners in that final 5k, runners you let go at the beginning who made the mistake of going off too quickly.
Focus on one km at a time and they will soon tick by. No matter how hard you feel like you are working you will often find an injection of pace in that final km. It’s partly mental, but also because you can kick the anaerobic system into gear in the last few hundred metres to cross the line at pace, with your arms aloft.
If this is your goal race, nerves are normal. Don’t feel silly for feeling nervous. Embrace that feeling and just live in the moment. So many runners talk themselves out of their target before the race has even started, which is bonkers, because before you start it’s not hard at all right?
Good luck, you got this.