Pacing

Why is pacing so important?

Good pacing can mean the difference between finishing strong and recovering well or having a miserable, even painful race.

Entering a longer race - a half, or especially a full marathon, is an epic undertaking. People tend to look closely at what they eat and drink, including rest days, and take early nights. Less thought is put into pacing the race. The longer the distance, the more things we need to take into consideration.

What is pacing?

Pacing can mean different things:

Finding the right overall speed you can run the whole race
being able to finish strong without slowing
run/walking
running an even pace
running a positive split (running a faster first half - not recommended!)
running a negative split (running a faster second half - needs monitoring)

but whatever your aim, you need to have some sort of racing strategy. Turning up on the day having put in the hours and just thinking ‘I’ll just see how I feel’ and ‘winging it’ rarely turns out well.

How do you know which pace?

This is something to consider and practice early in your training, it is, therefore, advisable to invest in a GPS watch

It needs to be adjusted according to distance
Ask yourself, ‘can I hold this pace until the end’?

Split your training

During long-runs, speed does not matter, it’s all about time on legs. If you can’t competently run a 10K, you can still run a half marathon - a full marathon, however, is a different ball game!
Shorter runs - do these at faster than race pace, so you feel more comfortable during the race.
Remember to include drop-down/step back weeks in your training plan to allow for rest and recovery, don’t push it, you’ll end up not running as fast or as far as you want.
During training - physical and mental fatigue and loss of enthusiasm are totally normal.

A simple example: if your aim is to complete a half marathon in under 2 hours, you need to run an average pace of 9-minute miles. However, if you get carried away and run the first few miles at 7- 8-minute mile pace you will deplete your resources and the rest of the race could be miserable you could hit the wall, become injured or you may not finish the race. In other words, what you gain in the first few miles, you will lose that and more as the race progresses. If you feel really good you can review your pace in the latter part of the race and if there is some fuel left in the tank you could increase your speed, keep reviewing as the race progresses.

Tips for race day

Stick to your racing strategy, don’t go off too fast, we all get excited on race day and can be swept along (you may not realize that until you are too far into it). If you stick to your strategy, you’ll enjoy the race and finish strong.
Know your pace, what’s your goal finish pace/time?
Build in a time buffer as a contingency in case of unforeseen problems.
Make it easy on yourself, find the appropriate pacer and stick with him/her, review as you near the end of the race and overtake if you feel strong, try to be consistent with your pace running fast/slow, fast/slow is very demanding and depletes resources.
Rehydrate as soon as possible after the race and eat a substantial, healthy meal.

15 June, 2020

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