10K strategy?

[drteming]

I signed up for a 10K race in a couple of weeks. I realized that I'd never ran a 10K race before. I've done a ton 5K's and 10 milers, and a marathon this past spring. For the 5K races, it was easy, just full bore the whole time. The longer distance races was all about pacing. I'm not sure about the middle distance. I searched the web and found various strategies, but I'm curious to know what some of you more experienced runners think?

 

[RagingBITCH]

I'd use something like the Oregon Pace table to find your estimated pace for the 10K. Knowing your best and most recent PR, also taking into account hills, weather, etc - you should be able to find about what pace you should attempt to run your 10K. (I'm guessing what you've read so far has said about 20-30 seconds per mile slower than 5K pace, which is what the table will tell you)

http://www.teamoregon.com/publication/online/effort.pdf

That's a smaller version of their full table. Note - pace tables are based on historical data and doesn't necessarily mean you can run XX:XX for a 10K if you ran XX:XX for a 5K. It's all approximated.

 

[KingstonU]

When I train for 10k I usually start out at 6 minutes per km, then at my peak I'm scratching at 4 minutes per kilometer. This is with moderate hills though, never tried on a flat course.