How much faster are you in a 10k race compared to training at full pace?

I would love to know what everyone's experience is of the difference between their 10k race times and their fastest times during training on their own. Clearly, when the adrenaline is rushing round our systems and there is someone breathing down our neck on the last mile or two, we run faster than when all we have is our own desire to run faster and keep with the pain. What are the time differences for you?
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Comments

  • Depending on the day, course, trainers used etc., it could be anywhere between 30-60 secs per min/mile in my experience
  • Wow! I hope thats the same for me! If it is, I'll be doing between 35 and 38 mins image
  • I think you misunderstand the point of training.

    Its not the lack of competition that make you run slower in training but the desire to get faster 

    You should never attempt to run at race pace  for any thing but  a part of a race distance in training.

    Hence interval training and tempo runs.

    You get close to race pace and then no more or you can go faster than race pace but not for long

    This combined with endurance and speed training will build the 3 components a runner needs, Eudurance, stamina, speed. Also the bodies abiltity to cope with lactic acid build up and your VO2 max increases in ecremental stages that will on race day result in running at race pace.

    Hopefully

    We live and race in hope.

  • Thanks Stephen!

    I do understand all that, but my question still stands: outside of the regime of training (which I do practise, or course), if one tries to complete 10k as quickly as possible by oneself (surely everyone has tried this at some point?) there is a difference between this time and the time achieved in a race. My question is, what is the difference for you guys? I'm probably not going to get a statistically significant sample size here. However, it is interesting to hear what others' experience is.
  • sean,

    why donyt you go and try it and see...

    i went to the track once and did a 10k to the best of my abilities o n that night...

    (i did 43 minutes something)

    i gave it my all and dont really think i would of gone much faster that night if there had been/was oyher runners around me or not....

    i just wanted yto see what time ki could do for one,you know...

  • Hi i am 54 yrs old,been running for 20 odd years and find my race pace is between 30 and 45 seconds quicker than training pace,dont know how because i always try hard when training but only average about 7.15 to 7.30 pace,yesterday i done a  hard 10 k in 42 mins....6.45 paceimage
  • Jeez, Mark! That's quite some difference! I'm really hoping that my pace is that much quicker for the Lincoln 10k this Sunday. I've done 40:29 in solitary runs. If I have a similar experience to you, I should easily reach my goal of breaking the 40 minute mark image

    Thanks for your feedback
  • Sean,
    That's what my current 10k pb is at the minute...
    I'm hoping to smash that this year though....
  • I think how accurate the course you're practicing on will be a big factor too. We've seen a lot of people on here over measuring their practice courses and claiming great times in practice.
  • It is a big difference for me......I remmber following a schedule a few years ago and it said to race a 10k....I couldn't find one near me.so I went with my OH to a flat route and tried racing it.......I could not get my pace up high enough........the adrenaline rreally makes a difference for me
  • Well I did my solo 10k at the regional track...
    (25 laps of it)
    So,nobody can dispute that one can they...
    25 laps - 10'000 metres...(10k)
  • Daniel, I'll bet you would have done it faster in the knowledge you were being tracked by wolves image
  • YoungPupYoungPup ✭✭✭

    Sean

    If you can run a 10k in 40.29 during a solo training run then I think you should definitely be able to do sub 40 in a real race.

    I've never really tried as part of a solo training run to run a 10k at flat-out race pace, and I suspect many others haven't either. To be honest, if I want to know how fast I can run a 10k I just enter a local 10k and race it.....

    Good luck on Sunday!

  • Thanks Young Pup! I'm really interested in the power of mind over body. Hence the question. I guess I'm musing that the difference between all out 10k times in solitary training and those in a good race might be a measure of our minds image
    Regards
    Sean
  • Races are kind of like exams Sean...

    you only really want to save those efforts for race days....

    if you want to make yourself faster...try something like 2 mile warm up 4- 6 x 1 mile (at or faster than race pace)...2 miles warm down...

    stuff like that,you know...

     image

  • if you went and did 10k on a proper running track (25 metres) and gave it 100% you would probably go faster than you would in a race if it were a hilly/up and down course...etc
  • Daniel,

    Yup! That's the sort of training I do. However, for me it's not so much the going fast but exploring the mind to see how fast it can make the body go. I'm intensely fascinated by how we can kid ourselves into self-limiting beliefs. For example, how many folk over 40 run slower races now because they think they are now meant to be old and that's what's expected by society v. going slowe because of the ageing process? Fascinating question which I'm not sure is answered very well by science yet.
  • I ran a 39:45 10k last week using my Runkeeper GPS on my phone and checking the map afterwards it looks accurate enough! Got my first ever 10k race on Sunday (Age UK Coventry 10k) so will see how my body reacts to a bit of competition.

    I race motocross and know that I go a lot faster in races than what I do when i'm practicing, pretty cool phenomenon.
  • 39.45 puts you into the category of very good runner...
    Well done Tom....
  • Sean,
    Yeah...a pack of wolves chasing you might make an enormous difference to your time in anything from a loo metres up to a mile....
    I know that after 16 of my 20 mile race last week though....
    Wouldn't of made any dam difference...
    (Lol)

  • Grendel3Grendel3 ✭✭✭

    I have read through on here and didn't see if anyone had mentioned what running against other people - there is always (for me anyway) the knowledge that I want to finish in front of someone, or not to be caught which does spur you on in a way that doing a solo time trial - unless you are really disciplined doesn't.

    I have one of those garmin things where you can compete against a virtual partner - and even that doesn't work in the same way as seeing someone just in front, or the knowledge that someone is just behind -  to a lesser or greater degree I think we all have that extra competitiveness in us that makes a difference.

    Am back off now to Facebook to slag off Stella McCartney and her Olympic designs again -

    bye for now

  • I hate being overtook.....
    It happened to me about 50-70 times over the last 4-5 miles of that east hull harriers 20 last week....
    It's even worse when they're doing it for charity and wearing stupid red noses and stuff,isn't it....
    I don't want that happening again !!!
  • The worst ones of all though...
    They've gotta ve clubmates haven't they...
    I dread that for so long,I'm glad when it actually happens ..
  • Hey,
    We could start up a new thread here...
    Who do you most hate being overtook by in a race...
    (For me)
    1 Members of the same club
    2 Ones doing it for charity
    3 old men from the v60 category that weigh about 6 stone and are doing it obviously just as a training run and in wooly hat/leggings....etc
  • I'd put 'women' after same club runners and before charity runners.  It's silly, but the machismo in me doesn't like it when I am chicked.  (Does this work the other way? Does it feel better for the RW ladies when they overtake a man than another woman?) 

    I also think that it depends on the frequency of being over taken.  Far more charity runners and grisly old boys pass me than do women or members of my club.

  • Ha...
    Woman members of your own club...
    I thiink that one has to be the king of them all,doesn't it....
  • It's funny actually...
    That's what happened to me at the end of the east hull harriera 20 on Sunday...
    (I just didn't care by that point and she 'took me' by two seconds....
    (Lol)
    You know,by that point I just didn't care...
  • So coming back to this thread, I said my training time was 39:45 .. I just finished my first ever race in 38:56!! 7th place, absolutely buzzing!
  • Well done with your race times, folks! Just did the Lincoln 10k and smashed my training PB by 2 mins - just under 38 mins! Really chuffed!
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