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The Art of Racing.. (Read 1494 times)


Double IPA Please!

    Is there really one? I can't seem to stop myself from going out too fast..Ugh. How do you do it? Do you run an even pace right from the start? Do you run a little slower than pace then pick it up at the end to even it all out? How do you find the middle ground? I realize if you have no goal it might be a little easier, but I'm past that now, and I have goals in mind. I just don't want to continue to bite off my nose to spite n(heh, fixed for spelling..lol oops) my face in the process.

    Interested in looking good and feeling great? Check out my website at www.marykay.com/dyerger

    Shipping is always free with me!! :-)

    xor


      I treat it like sex. Except that I take a nap after a race. And if it is a 5k, I throw up. Actually, for me the answer depends on how long the race is. And what kind of course. Flat or roly poly half/full... go out a little slower than goal pace, hit goal pace after a couple miles, and stay as even as possible from there. Hilly race? Even effort... which means I go up slower than I go down. As for picking it up at the end 'to even it all out'... nah. If I have anything left, I'll pick it up at the end just to pick it up at the end... but not to consciously balance out the early "warm up" miles. 5ks and 10ks? First, I warm up for 15-30 minutes. Then, "Go that way, really fast. If something gets in your way, turn." "despite". Heh.

       

        Perhaps try to "practice" your goal pace in a couple of runs during the week. That might help with the muscle memory aspect. Pacing is hard on hilly or irregular courses. Maybe you got drawn in to speeding up in the early half because of a downhill and it caused you to struggle later? This is a mental thing and you can control it. Don't tell yourself to go "slow" early, just remind yourself to take it "easy" so you will be stronger later. My best half so far came from making myself start out further back in the pack than I originally wanted to, forcing a comfortable breathing pattern until the halfway point. Then I deliberately forced a step function in pace and started passing people like crazy. This way I knew I was in control of my race. It was a great experiment. Try it. BTW, I have only found that this negative splitting works for me on longer races. I haven't implemented it successfully on a 5K and am not convinced it is a good strategy even for a shorter race.
        bhearn


          If you use a Garmin, you can manage to not go out too fast. And no, I think it's easier to pace yourself correctly if you do have a goal. Just decide in advance how you would like to pace it, then use the Garmin to run the right pace. Personally I almost always try to negative split. Sometimes this just means running even pace until I can manage a finishing kick, other times it's more carefully calculated to speed up a tad at the half. Even without a Garmin, if you're careful about watching your splits, you can correct from one mile to the next. Just decide to do it. It never fails to amaze me that the vast majority of racers seem to be able to put in long hours training, but can't take the relatively simple step of pacing themselves properly. It's by far the easiest change most people can make to get faster.
          "despite". Heh.
          Pedant. (He means, the phrase is "to cut off one's nose to spite one's face".)
            Go by effort, not pace. I know that doesn't help but some day you'll figure it out and be like "Oh now I know what that idiot was talking about!" Seriously. Learning to run a pace doesn't work because the pace will feel totally different on race day, and the "right" pace will be different from day to day. The best I can explain it is go into the race thinking, "Okay, I'm about to race 5k," (or whatever distance you're racing) and try to spread the effort out as evenly as possible so that you just about collapse 1 foot past the finish line. It takes practice.

            Runners run

              Go by effort, not pace.
              I agree with you for the most part Mikey...but its hard to practice for a marathon unless you are a Marathon Maniac. Maybe going by effort makes sense for a 5k,10k, maybe a half. But for a marathon? Its a mystery. You taper a little, eat well, and you have a ton of energy as you toe the start line. You start out at an easy effort, but with a faster pace than you can hang with for the whole race. But you dont know it if youre just paying attention to effort! It feels like an easy effort, but since you can't practice a Marathon very often, you really have no idea that its too fast until later. Then you bomb at mile 20 and hobble the rest of the way. I base my race goals off previous races and previous workouts. I just ran 1:23 in a half. Im going to try Grandmas this summer with a goal at 2:55. I'm not going to toe the eye blindly and go by effort. Im going to use my Garmin to make sure I don't go faster than 6:40 for the first 15-20. Even if 6:10 feels really easy. If Ive got some in the tank at 20-22, Ill drop the pace then. I don't think Ill have anything in the tank.
              JimR


                What mikey said. I try and figure out what I believe I can hold, in terms of effort level, so that I'm not slowing down near the end. And it will get real hard to sustain it late but it's got to be something I can manage, but just.


                Double IPA Please!

                  Thanks everyone, great advice. It just pisses me off to no end to train and train and train, put in the time and effort and then race day comes and I screw it up. I already said going into this year that I am going to focus more on how to race. Trying to learn from my mistakes along the way. I do have a Garmin and I'm embarrassed to say that I looked at it a few times in the first half and thought, yep, thats a little too fast for you fancy britches, but continued on thinking- "Well, this feels ok right now so Ill try and stick with it." However, waaay in the back of my head I had small doubts. Stupid. Anyway, live and learn. The race I just did was hilly or more like up and down up and down in a few areas and I probably pushed too hard through the up hills vs holding it back a hair. You know, I could sit here all day and analyze and beat it to death. However, at the end of the day, I can't change a damn thing and can only look forward to the next one. Thanks- I think your absolutely correct Mikey about the pace.

                  Interested in looking good and feeling great? Check out my website at www.marykay.com/dyerger

                  Shipping is always free with me!! :-)

                  xor


                    A pedant is a person who is overly concerned with formalism and precision, or who 'makes a show of learning'.
                    Undecided

                     


                    Member Since 2008

                      Nicely put Mike.


                      Imminent Catastrophe

                        I like to run shorter races. So if you're training for a marathon, run a HM at your marathon pace, and if you're training for a HM then run a 10k, 10 mile or 15k at HM pace. This requires discipline, since you will obviously not run as fast as you are capable at that distance and will be tempted to run faster, but it's great training for maintaining your goal pace in a race environment. And you still get the T-shirt. Use a stopwatch at each mile marker for pace.

                        "Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"

                         "To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain

                        "The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.

                         

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                        bhearn


                          The best I can explain it is go into the race thinking, "Okay, I'm about to race 5k," (or whatever distance you're racing) and try to spread the effort out as evenly as possible so that you just about collapse 1 foot past the finish line.
                          That's a truly magical skill. I discovered the hard way that I can do that, but it's much less stressful for me to go by the numbers... sort of like, you can attain a healthy weight by eating right (yeah right!), or by counting calories. The latter approach may take more cognitive input, but it's guaranteed to work.
                          A pedant is a person who is overly concerned with formalism and precision, or who 'makes a show of learning'.
                          That's usually me, BTW.
                            this is a great question. I have the opposite problem: how do you learn to embrace pain and just go with it? I KNOW i can run faster than I am. This most recent HM, I ran a 1:59-ish. I was barely winded at the end, because I started off conservatively, ran my goal pace for a few miles, slowed way down during miles 8-11, and then picked it back up for 12-13. If I could have just kept clicking off the 8:50's or 9 min miles consistently, I could have taken a few more minutes off my time. So Mikey - what's a good effort? I don't want to feel like shit the whole way through, but maybe that's just racing? Undecided I mean, my "training" so far has been pretty good - my times are consistently coming down, and I feel really good on most of my runs. I am going to hazard a guess that just adding to my weekly mileage will help a lot. Blush Sorry to hijack your thread Denise... (and SRL - you don't take a nap after sex?) Big grin
                            bhearn


                              I have the opposite problem: how do you learn to embrace pain and just go with it?
                              Yeah -- that, to me, is where the deep mystery of racing lies. Pacing is easy.
                              JimR


                                Tempo training runs help you deal with the discomfort. Instead of doing a typical 20 minutes at tempo effort, plan it out over a longer distance, do that pace, and then start working on the 'lets hold this for a little longer', like maybe 400 meters or a k or a half mile or something, and then try and hold it longer still. Can't do this very often though, it ain't the most effect way to run tempo but it'll sure get you used to pain. Long hill repeats with float recoveries help too.
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