Win The 5K Pace Battle

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Welcome to There is a Method to the Magnet. My name is Rob Maxwell, and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Program and have been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really worked and most importantly why things worked. Hence the name There is a Method to the Magnet. Before I get started today, let me thank Jonathan and Lynn Gilded of the Gilding Group ELT Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412. Let's get down to some method of the madness this morning. Hope everybody's having a good day. Hope you worked out today. As I say all the time, exercise makes us feel better no matter what. So I got a really good question today off the internet. And it's more of a uh running question and more of a pace question, but it really is going to affect anybody that does any form of cardiorespiratory exercise. And uh, you know, the method to the madness explores why things work, why things don't work, and what we have to do. So let's jump right into it. The question was basically that this person is new to the sport of running, endurance running, that is like 5K, 10k, 15k, longer distance stuff, so not sprinting. And they're not really sure how to win the pace battle because if they go out too fast, they might run out of gas. If they don't go out fast enough, they may not hit the time. It's a pretty common question. It's a common problem that people that do different forms of endurance stuff run into. So I'm going to tackle that from the scientific perspective today, because there really is a science to it. And as I say, there really is a method to the madness. So let me kind of explain why there's a bit of a uh, well, not really a controversy, but there's mixed opinions on this. So let me explain kind of some different philosophies on this. When people are doing any form of distance racing, so endurance racing, and really to kind of like give it um its proper do, we're talking anything from say a mile and a half on, like up to the marathon. And you know, it's funny how you'll hear, especially runners like that don't necessarily have a lot of physiological background or whatever, they'll say, Well, I'm doing a 5k, which is more of a sprint, where a marathon is more of a distance race. And I think to further add to the confusion, triathlon kind of does that to people too, because they literally call their main distance, like their most popular distance, a sprint distance. They call it that. Whereas the Iron Man is like basically the longest. I mean, there's insane double Ironmans and things like that. But the Iron Man is what um you think of when you think of the Hawaiian Iron Man or whatever. But basically, that is a 2.4 mile swim, 112-mile bike, and a 26.2 mile run. So it's a marathon. And it takes people, you know, the winners around seven hours, maybe a little longer, and then it could be up to I think it's 18 hours or something like that. But obviously, that's really a long time. But the use of the word sprint for any of that is wrong. A sprint literally is going to be anything under 400 meters, so 400 yards. And the reason why we kind of put these in categories, physiological categories, because they are. So ATP, which stands for adenosin triphosphate, is the fuel that our muscles use directly for fuel. So when we eat, when we eat macronutrients, carbohydrates, fat, protein, what that does is that provides the source to metabolize so we can produce more ATP. So our body's trying to survive. It can't survive without ATP. All right. So there's three different energy systems. I'm going to go into some physiology today, as I said. There are three different energy systems that are going to produce enough ATP or reproduce, I should say. Now, the reason why we need to do that is because ATP is stored directly in the muscles, and we only have enough for one to two seconds. That's it. It's gone. Snap your fingers. Okay. ATP is gone. It's like a quick match, it fires, it's gone. So it takes the metabolism to produce the fuel to reproduce more ATP. So ATP is considered a high energy phosphate along with creatin phosphate. And you've heard of creatin because people use it as a supplement. And the reason why it's used as a supplement is because once ATP is broken down, it goes half of it goes to use to make more ATP. The other half goes and forms with adenosin diphosphate or ADP to make more ATP. So half gets burned, half gets used to make more. It is paired with creatin phosphate to help that process. All right. So if you're if you're not following all that, it's okay. The bottom line is we use ATP for fuel and we run out of it really quickly. And there are three mechanisms to produce more ATP, and that's where I'm going with this today. There's the immediate energy system, which only lasts from eight to 12 seconds. That's it. So more ATP is made in that immediate energy system. So that's a full-on sprint. That is a complete anaerobic without oxygen activity. It's a burst, it's a 100-meter sprint, it's a jump in the air, it's a power lift of a bench press. It is a clean and jerk. It's a snatch. Like it is fast. That's what we really think of as a sprint. It's a total different physiology than a three-mile run, like a 5K, that people are gonna say, well, it's a sprint. No, uh a 5K is 99, well, 90% aerobic with some 10% help from the anaerobic system. It's predominantly an aerobic event, just like the marathon. All right. The next system is called the lactate system. And that is where you're you're we begin to use carbohydrates for fuel. So in the immediate energy system, everything still happens at the cell level. ATP is broken down in the ADP, it forms with creatin phosphate and it makes more ATP. All right, that happens right there and then there's no other kind of metabolism. Now, in the lactate system, sometimes called the anaerobic system, it's a little bit longer. Now the ATP is being made from the breakdown of glucose, all right, and that system lasts anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds. So you're still in sprint mode, 30 to 90 seconds, meaning that anything that gets used up immediately with that the intensity where you would begin slowing down within 90 seconds is going to be formed in the lactate threshold system. And it's not going to go any longer than that. So we're not bringing in any aerobic activity yet to resynthesize more ATP. So that is a sprint. So really the first two systems are sprints. We don't need any aerobic glycolysis to bring about any form of more ATP, none at all. All right. Now finally, we're getting into the aerobic system. So the aerobic system means when the activity, all right, so the intensity of the activity matches the duration of the activity. Anything longer than two or three minutes, whatever that activity is. So a set in strength training, for example, you did 12 curls, it probably took you between 45 and 60 seconds if you did your 12 curls and you hit failure. That is an anaerobic activity. There's no aerobic metabolism. The ATP is getting made via the anaerobic systems. And remember, there are two anaerobic systems: the lactate threshold system and the immediate energy system. All right. Now we get above three minutes. That's a mile, right? So even the mile is predominantly aerobic. There's a lot of anaerobic use, you know, kind of vacillating back and forth, but there's a lot of aerobic conditioning in the mile. I mean, you know that, right? I mean, common sense says you go and run the mile at track, or, you know, in my um middle school and then junior high, like we had to run a mile. You get out of breath, you start huffing and puffing, right? So you know the mile is aerobic. I mean, aerobic means with oxygen. You're huffing and puffing, right? So it is an aerobic event. So anything longer than two to three minutes, and it depends on the person, becomes aerobic. All right. So the whole point is this, and then I'm going to move on to the question. A 5K is very aerobic. A 10K is even more aerobic. A marathon is even more aerobic, but a 5K or a mile and a half or a two-mile run is an aerobic event. It is not a sprint. That means the ATP is being re-synthesized predominantly through the aerobic system. Now, the aerobic system is slower, but it is far more efficient. It's got to be efficient because it's because it's got to continue to make more ATP for the duration of the activity. All right. So I've established that. You're out on a run, you're on your recumbent bike, and you're going longer than 10 minutes, so you're doing an aerobic activity. The question is, how do I learn to pace to where I'm basically getting my best event? All right. So again, we have to understand it's aerobic. Now, I think you got that. Now, some of the wisdom is in coaching, not physiology, but in coaching. And that does matter. The psycho, the psychological side to this is very important. So some of the wisdom has been, you know, do you try to even split it? Which means you go out at an average pace. Let's just use um basically your pace per mile. You go out at an average pace that you want to hit. That would be like an even split. So let's say you want to run a 2145 5k. That is exactly a seven minute per mile race. All right, because a 5K is 3.1 miles. So essentially you're running basically a tenth of a mile and 45 seconds consistently. All right. So it is a seven-minute mile, is a 21 minute and 45 second 5k 3.12 race. All right. So let's say that's your goal. Some wisdom would say run even splits. Hold seven minute miles at mile one, mile two, mile three, hold on to that 45-second pace for the point one oh. I mean, there's no right or wrong in that. I'm going to explain it in a second in the in regards to the physiology. Um, if you can do that, great. I mean, that's a method. Another method would be to negative split it. Negative split it means that each mile you're getting a little bit faster. Now, for some people, that works really well because they feel like if they start out too fast, they're gonna run out of gas, physiologically speaking, or it could be a mental thing. They think, you know what, I don't want to push myself that hard early on. So I really want to start out a little slower and build. So then maybe they would go like a 730 the first mile, and then maybe go to a 715, but then they'd have to get like a 645 last mile and then sprint. I mean, that would kind of be like negative splitting it, and maybe it wouldn't be that extreme because that is pretty extreme. Maybe they go a 715 and then a 7 and then a 645 to make up for that first 715, something like that. That would be a negative split. A positive split is basically you're doing the opposite of that. You're banking time, we call it. You're going as hard as you can early on and you're holding on at the end. All right. It's kind of the advice I gave somebody yesterday. Um it was a not really a joke. I mean, it's kind of serious, but it's funny how it's explained. And I said to him, well, really the key to a great race is go faster than you think you can hold and then hold it. You know, it's kind of funny. It's like, well, how do you go faster than you think you can hold and hold it? But the idea is you just go out as hard as you can and hold it. That would be a positive split. Now, back when I was running really competitively, about 20 years ago or so, like that was my methodology just because it worked. You know, I was able to go out really strong for me, um, and then bank some time and then hold on the best I could. And that was where my best times would be. It's not where I felt the best. I mean, you feel the worst doing that. I mean, it's awful to go out as hard as you can like that and then have to hold on, but that's where the performance is. So that's like the different philosophies. And what I could say on that is that is where like the psychology comes in. And like, does that work for you? Like, are you the type of person that would rather have a little bit of an edge and then feel like you don't have to perform as well at the end? Or are you the type of person that you're like a comeback player? Like you're like, no, I can start out and then build and go. I mean, a lot of it is that. I mean, you you really can't separate physiology and psychology because they work together, and the psychological part is just as important as a physiological part. So, does that work for you? Even splits are really hard because it is so hard to do that. Now, I can do that accidentally sometimes, but to get your best time, you kind of have to find your best way on that. All right. Now, a lot of times you go to 5K's and there's a lot of people who are very inexperienced, you know, kids, people that don't run a lot, and you see them like barreling in the final hundred meters or so. You know, they have so much juice left that they're sprinting. Now, you might think that that's a really good thing to do, and they, you know, they had a really strong race. Typically, it's the opposite. Like, you're never going to run your best race if you're really, really banking on kind of running a general pace and then sprinting at the end. You're not going to. Because again, 3.12 miles is longer than you think. So it's really what you do over the course of the race. Most likely, a person that's having a really weak finish, meaning they're barely holding on, most likely had a better race for them than the person who is sprinting through the finish line because through the duration of the race, they really were pushing it the whole way. Again, this is really geared towards people who are racing competitively and trying to get the most out of their time. So that's what this is geared towards. So it's not a judgment on anybody, it's just what makes you the best. All right, so now let's talk about some physiology to help you make up your mind what works best for you. There are two terms that are very relevant here, and that's oxygen deficit and oxygen debt. It sounds like they're the same thing, but it's really not. Let me start out with oxygen debt because it's least important and it's less important in this question. Oxygen debt was the old term for what is now called epoch, excess post-oxygen consumption. What that means is that the harder you work, all right, the harder you're pushing yourself really aerobically for the most part, the more your body's going to have to do to recover afterwards. So there's a debt to be paid. So, for example, let's say you are on the exercise bike, you're warming up, you did 10 minutes at a pretty low heart rate, a low clip, you stop pedaling, and your heart rate drops down like really fast because it never got very elevated. The reason why it dropped down really quick is because there's not a lot of stuff your body has to do to help you recover. So your heart rate simply readjusts and goes back to normal really easily. But now, let's say you're really pushing on that exercise bike as hard as you can for 20 minutes and you get your heart rate up around 85% of its max. So that's really high. Now you go to cool down and you notice your heart rate is staying elevated. It's not recovering nearly as fast or nearly as low. Well, that's called epoch or oxygen debt. Your body is now having to work harder to pay back that debt to help you to recover because essentially what your body wants, needs, and strives for is homeostasis. It's trying to get you to return to normal. It thinks you're killing it, it's trying to bring you back to normal. So the harder you work, the harder everything's going to be elevated, and the harder your body has to work to help you recover. That is called epoch or oxygen debt. And that is why a lot of people strive for harder workouts, especially when they're trying to lose weight, because everything stays elevated afterwards. And like everything in life, you can't abuse that because then you're constantly going to be overtrained if your body is always going through that type of recovery. But that's going to happen after a 5K. I did a 5K yesterday. I pushed myself. I went for a cool down walk afterwards. And that's the point of a cooldown, by the way, to help you through oxygen jet and epoch. And I was probably a good, I don't know, almost a mile in before my heart rate dropped under 100. So, you know, that's what that does. My body is paying it back, and I'm going through the process slowly to let it return to normal slowly. Again, that's why cooldowns are so effective. Now, if I would have just walked the 5K afterwards, my heart rate probably would have dropped to normal or resting within a minute or two. All right. So that's what epoch is or oxygen debt. Now, oxygen deficit is more important to this particular scenario because this is what you have to pay attention to if you're a runner who really cares about your time. So it's not the same as oxygen debt. Oxygen deficit means that you start out running or swimming or cycling or whatever you're doing, and your oxygen system or your aerobic system can't kick in right away. It's just not built that way. So early on, all of your activity is anaerobic. It is borrowing against the oxygen to sustain the activity. It's completely anaerobic. Now remember, the anaerobic system pretty much runs out of steam around 90 seconds, and your aerobic system pretty much kicks in in two to three minutes, right? So there's this lag time. But again, your aerobic system doesn't get up to snuff where you're reproducing ATP in the aerobic system, which is extremely efficient. It does not get up. There right away. So early on, everything is anaerobic. Now, for anybody that's run a lot of 5Ks or whatever, they're gonna say, God, I felt like trash the first minute or two. I'm like, I started out, I'm huffing and puffing. I'm thinking to myself, there's no way I can maintain this pace. That's because you're not up to your aerobic system yet, your nice efficient system. And all runners will say, and you know, somewhere on mile one, I settled in, I was feeling better, I wasn't as burned out, I wasn't hyperventilating as much, and I just settled in. Like experienced runners feel like crap early on, tend to feel a little bit better later. All right, so that is all part of it. Now, the way you use this is all right, like I said, there's three ways to tactfully handle a 5k, even splitter, positive splitter, negative splitter. A lot of it is a psychological decision, but you also have to think about this physiology. So the harder you go out, so like me, I was a positive splitter, I would just go for broke early and try to bank time. I'm loaning, I'm borrowing against, I should say it's loaning me. I'm borrowing against my aerobic system to sustain a pace that aerobically I'm not going to be able to sustain later on. So, with that, my body is going to do what it's going to do to make me pay back. So, if you've ever been in a situation like this, an aerobic workout or a race or a 5K or a traff, whatever, and you've gone out really hard, and all of a sudden, I mean you're okay, but all of a sudden, somewhere around the halfway point, your legs feel heavy, you're slowing down, even though your heart rate is remaining elevated, you're going slower. All right. So that that's kind of like that point of no return. Like you can't go back from it. You you just can't. That's the point where you got to hold on. But what's happening is you went into anaerobic metabolism prematurely earlier than you would have if you would have paced yourself a little better. And then with that, any anaerobic activity, there's lactic acid buildup. That lactic acid buildup is going to build up in time. It's going to sit in your thighs, your hamstrings, your glutes, your quads. You're not going to be able to turn your legs over like you did because you went into anaerobic metabolism too early. So now you're paying the price. Like any deficit, any deficit, you're going to have to pay back. So then the short solution to that is how much can you do? And that's where experience comes in. Let's say you're a positive splitter and you say, Well, I know though, if I go out too hard too early, I'm going to go into oxygen deficit. Where can I hang on? Well, if you know that and you can kind of push that envelope a little bit and understand where that point is, it may work out for you very well. Again, part of it's psychological. Are you a person that likes to work the hardest in the beginning or at the end? Like, what works better for you? But just know this physiologically speaking. The more you push that pace above your natural pace, so let's say your goal is to run a seven-minute mile, but you run the first mile at a 615. And you think, well, you're not going to do that. Uh no, you will. A lot of people have done that. They can run an all-out mile that you know that fast. Now, that's 45 seconds above goal pace, faster than goal pace. That's probably gonna be really extreme, and you're probably gonna pay for that more than you should, meaning more than you would like to. So you have to kind of know what your pace is. Take it beyond it if you want to dance with that game, but you have to be careful. Maybe that didn't work out for you so well. You didn't run a PR because you just simply wanted to run that positive split strategy and it didn't work. Well, maybe next time you take it out a little faster than your pace, but not quite 45 seconds faster, maybe 20 seconds faster. So you're kind of putting 20 seconds in the bank, and then maybe you're holding on the next mile, roughly, you know, around the pace you should be, but you still got 20 seconds in the bank. And then you're running your last mile and you're trying to hold on. But I'm telling you, something happens psychologically when you're ahead of time. If you've played it well enough, you start thinking to yourself, I'm right on this goal, I can do this. So, as you see, it is such a mix of physiology and psychology that you have to kind of figure out what your best strategy is, knowing that. But remember the rules. I mean, oxygen deficit says if we go out faster than our body can hold on average, we are going to pay the price. But then also there the psychology says, well, you know, if I go out slower and I'm behind pace, but now I'm not feeling it, because that's the thing in a 5K, everybody feels like crap if you're really racing it. Like the people that feel great at the end didn't really race it. So you're gonna feel like crap. So maybe you're the type that if you say, well, if I'm gonna feel like crap, I'd rather feel like crap and at least have a shot at my goal. So again, that's a big psychology to it. Now, I've spent most of this on the 5K, and I'm just gonna close with saying that the longer the distance, the less you should try to positive split it. Like, you know, a 10K, you know, you're gonna pay a deeper price if you really positive split it and go out super fast your first mile, and then you have five more to go. I mean, and then a half marathon, even more to case, and of course a marathon. Like the longer the distance is, the more you should really, really, really try to play it close to your goal pace, or you most likely will regret it. A 5K, you know, that's something you can play with and decide what works best for you, what works best with your psychology. But just remember, it's a it's a it's a fun, fun way to try to experiment. Like it's kind of like any other sport. Once you start playing with a little bit, then you can decide what absolutely works for you. I know elite runners and elite 5K runners who have total opposite strategies. I know some that are total even splitters and it works for them and they won't go away from it. I know some that are negative splitters and will prefer it no other way. And I know some that are positive splitters and you know that works for them and they don't change their strategy. So, really, all can work once we understand the physiology. So the big key today was oxygen deficit. And I hope that helps the person that asked and anybody else. And until next time, just remember you always want to strive to be max fit and always try to strive to be max well. Thanks everybody for listening to today's show. I want to ask you to please hit automatic download from wherever you get your podcast from. It really helps me and it really helps the show. Now I'd like to take a second to thank our sponsors. Without them, we would not be able to have the podcast. First overhead door of Daytona Beach. They are the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product and the best service. 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