Pacing a 5km

[DSB]

whats the best option:

Say a sub 18min (1.48)?

[c2jonw]

From the simple efficiency viewpoint the best way is even pacing- put it on 1:48 and hold it there. This assumes you know what you are capable of. If you're uncertain about what you can do then start out at a conservative pace and see how you feel. There are ways of predicting what you should be able to do if you have some results from some other distances. The "double the D, add three" rule, which works as a ballpark predictor, would say that if you've done a 10K at 1:51 then a 5K at 1:48 is doable. But going back to the pacing question, due to the cube relationship between power and pace, it's always most efficient to go with even pacing. C2JonW

[hjs]

Flat ish, 4th km the slowest, last km the fastest, first three roughly flat.
Last km rate up.

So 1.48 first three, 149/50 4th. Empty the tank in the last.

[Cyclingman1]

What puzzles me about this question is that a sub-18min 5K is pretty good, implying a fairly experienced rower. My question is how were you planning on doing it? Secondly, I see no data about your rowing. What is your 2K and when did you do it? Was is even paced? I'm thinking that the answer of 5K pacing is within.

[DSB]

Flat ish, 4th km the slowest, last km the fastest, first three roughly flat.
Last km rate up.

So 1.48 first three, 149/50 4th. Empty the tank in the last.

I reckon you are on the money here. Any thoughts on this:

1:50
1:49
1:48
1:47
1:45.9

What's you tactic in the last 1k is a staggered speed up, or just a blast 250m blast?

[DSB]

What puzzles me about this question is that a sub-18min 5K is pretty good, implying a fairly experienced rower. My question is how were you planning on doing it? Secondly, I see no data about your rowing. What is your 2K and when did you do it? Was is even paced? I'm thinking that the answer of 5K pacing is within.

2k at the mo is 6:45, i did a fast 5 pulls, drifted to race pace, and tried to go no slower than 1:42, last 500m was speeding up just to maintain the average.

[Carl Watts]

Same pace all the way, psychologically you don't want to be behind the target pace near the end either. Same pace is the least effort required, pace is a very nasty cubic law in terms of power required or Watts.

The 5Km is a tough row, Sub 18min was my goal and the 5Km was my best ever effort.

[hjs]

Flat ish, 4th km the slowest, last km the fastest, first three roughly flat.
Last km rate up.

So 1.48 first three, 149/50 4th. Empty the tank in the last.

I reckon you are on the money here. Any thoughts on this:

1:50
1:49
1:48
1:47
1:45.9

What's you tactic in the last 1k is a staggered speed up, or just a blast 250m blast?

I am not a fan for a negative split like that, you leave to much on the table, in the beginning for a max effort. For a 95% one it fine. Around 3k you should feel like quitting.
For the last 1k its upping the rate, the last min you fully empty the tank. It depends on what type of rower you are.

Re 18 min, a fit guy can pull that with not overly much experience.

6.45 141 ish 2 k, is enough for 18 flat.

[Sully]

Hi,

I'm going to go totally against the grain here and disagree with most of the replies.
I'm only going on my own personal experience but this pacing strategy has given me some decent results over 2km and 5km.
For a 5km, I would suggest (my own /500m is in the brackets):
1st: Fastest pace (1:39.8/500m)
2nd: Steady pace (1:49.9/500m)
3rd: As above (1:/49.8/500m)
4th: As above (1:49.8/500m)
5th: Whatever you have left in the tank (1:39.9/500m)

This got me a 17:38.8 5Km last month. This pacing strategy works for me as once I've got the 1st 1km out of the way, I can spend some time recovering, knowing that I've got an all out sprint at the end of the piece. This strategy also helped me post a 6:26.3 2km at the EIRC in January.

Hope this helps.

Sully

[hjs]

Hi,

I'm going to go totally against the grain here and disagree with most of the replies.
I'm only going on my own personal experience but this pacing strategy has given me some decent results over 2km and 5km.
For a 5km, I would suggest (my own /500m is in the brackets):
1st: Fastest pace (1:39.8/500m)
2nd: Steady pace (1:49.9/500m)
3rd: As above (1:/49.8/500m)
4th: As above (1:49.8/500m)
5th: Whatever you have left in the tank (1:39.9/500m)

This got me a 17:38.8 5Km last month. This pacing strategy works for me as once I've got the 1st 1km out of the way, I can spend some time recovering, knowing that I've got an all out sprint at the end of the piece. This strategy also helped me post a 6:26.3 2km at the EIRC in January.

Hope this helps.

Sully

Hmm you do realize you 5k is relative very slow? I guess you are much more a sprinter with a not so well developed endurance. You 5k points more to a 6.40 2.

[Sully]

Really?

What sort of 5km time should I be aiming for?

Cheers

Sully

[Cyclingman1]

6.45 141 ish 2 k, is enough for 18 flat.

Actually, 1:46 [17:40] is more like it for 5K.

[hjs]

Really?

What sort of 5km time should I be aiming for?

Cheers

Sully

5k should be around 6/7 seconds above 2k pace. So your 1.36.5 2k points to a 142.5/143.5 5k. Say around 17.10. This is average, people with not much natural speed would have an even closer gap, and people with a not very well developed aerobic fitness a bigger one.

The fact you can speed up so much in the last k almost certainly means you took it to easy in the middle part. Best is to settle within the first minute and if you don,t feel like you almost have to stop around 3/4k in, its not a max effort. For me a max effort is extremely uncomfortable on a 5k.

I expect you to be a good bit faster if you start out slower and keep pushing yourself in the middle part. You could train this. A good session would be 6x1k on 1 min rest with al 6 at the same pace, aim for you 5k time as av pace.