Ran a Clinic on How NOT to Pace this Weekend

For your 5k, a 6:00 first mile is about right to hit sub-19.  Your problem was that you couldn't maintain it, so the conditions weren't quite right for you to reach that kind of goal--whether it was too hot, too hilly, bad day, or just too aggressive a goal.

Probably the same thing on your swim.  To go 1:02, you probably have to hit the first 50 in :29-:30.  You did.  You just couldn't hold it.

You likely don't know what the paces you want (in running) actually feel like.  Your body/brain has to learn that.  IMO Interval work on the track is the shortest route to that knowledge.  It's not something that can be done overnight, but truly fast racing absolutely requires that you learn it.

Start with 200's and 400's at a pace you KNOW you can hit for 10 reps on the same rest.  It will likely be slower than you think.  Work your way from there.

Agree. Doesn't look like poor pacing. Opening splits seem fine for the goals. Just couldn't hold onto it. Sometimes that happens.

As for the swim.....I just texted Jr. to see what he had to say about pacing a 100.  I said, when you swim your fastest 100's do you pace the first 50 at all?  His response...."No, the only difference between a 50 and a 100 is that in a 50 I only breath twice the whole race and in a 100 I breath every 6 strokes.".....then he said, "tell him to clean his turns up". LOL

What we do is equal rest, and it is usually stopping and walking for the fast sets.  You can do an active recovery for slower sets.  If a 6 minute mile is something that feels pretty good for you, then maybe start with 100-110 second 400's.  Find that time you can hold for the entire set.  If you find that those intervals are too fast then slow them down your next workout.  It is important that you be able to hold the time for the entire set.  If your time per interval starts to creep up you are wasting your time, stop and start over next time with slower intervals..  Obviously this is a really simplified answer......but the idea is to get to a point where you can say, "I'm going to run a 400 in X seconds, and hit it right on the money.  Once you are there, you can increase your interval length, first to 600, then to 800 and work on that pacing.  For a 5K, being able to feel those 800's is optimal.  This is NOT a short process and you should be extra cautious to not over run your intervals.....you can hurt yourself.

I agree with JK.  The fastest time is almost always going to be achieved by either equal or slightly negative splits.  For a 19 minute 5K, that's an average of 6:07 per mile.  Splits of 6:00 - 6:15 for someone who's right on the bubble.   I agree  that on this day, you probably didn't have the fitness and/or freshness to break 19 anyway, based on how much you slowed down.

Not 19 minutes, but here's a 5k I ran a few years ago where I had good pacing to run 21 minutes:  http://tpks.ws/aXQKg

The mile splits were 6:43, 6:49, and 6:57, so I say good, but not perfect pacing.  If I had held back slightly more on the first mile, I may have been able to go faster for the 2nd and 3rd miles, and run a little faster total time.  For those who use HR, my HR was up to 165 (94% of LT) within 90 seconds of the start, and rose steadily throughout the race until it was at 182 (104% of LT) at the finish.  For the race overall, the average HR was within 1 bpm of LT.  The warmup was a 16 minute run that ended about 15 minutes before the race started.

Using a tool like a Garmin can help a lot for someone who struggles to hold back enough in the first mile, but in any event, it takes practice.  Racing frequently is a great way to learn.

For the run -

You're right, it's just practice. It takes a bunch of practice to become more disciplined about not going off at the gun. Helps a lot to remind yourself that your goal at your next race is NOT pacing against the next fastest guy, but your next race goal should be to try and negative split the race (you will almost definitely end up not doing that, but you'll be closer to it by having it as your goal.)

In fact, you might want to remind yourself in your next race that if you're not getting passed by a lot of folks in the first half mile, you're going too fast. (I run 5ks in sub 18:30 right now, and I'm always amazed that even in small local races of 200 people, around 30 people will pass me in the first half mile despite the fact I run dead even splits consistently.)

As for holding that fast speed, the fact that you start fast 5k suggests that you could benefit from more weekly mileage if your goal is to maintain that 1st mile speed for the 3 miles. The increased weekly mileage really helps from dropping off pace, even if you start aggressively. 

Of every good thing written here by Shane.......really, that's the best.  You (collective you) may think you know how to suffer, but you don't.  Truly fast people hurt BAD during their efforts.  It's another level of pain.

You'll need to do some time at the fast pace.  

- Do some all out 25s
- Do descending sets of 50s