Race strategies (Read 601 times)

I'm run cross country for my high school down in texas. I run 2 or 3 mile races and my coach is always telling us that our first mile needs to be considerably faster than our other miles. I'm not sold on this though so what are ya'lls thoughts on this?

I won't say I've never heard *anyone* suggest that kind of strategy - but most people I've heard or read rather strongly suggest starting slower, aiming for a negative split, getting faster throughout the run, and saving something for the kick. From my own experience, in my own runs, whether it's a 3-miler in the neighborhood or a marathon, I do a lot better overall with either a steady pace or a negative split. Okay, I'm lying. I haven't pulled off a negative split marathon. But I think when I do, it'll be my fastest! I do know that the other day I shattered my own personal 7-mile neighborhood run record - and I did it by starting slower than usual, not faster. In fact, the reason I finished so strong was I wasn't even planning to run it fast ... and realized at mile 4 that I was feeling awfully fresh. With all that said, your coach is the expert - and even though I think he's wrong from a physiological standpoint, he might be right as far as mental racing strategy. In other words, some people do suggest going all out to demoralize your competitors and burn them out early. Prefontaine was famous for it. But I'd guess that's a crash-and-burn strategy more often than a winning strategy. All that matters is the end result - so why not try it both ways. Betcha a beer (or a soda for you!) that starting slower will end up faster. Let us know what happens.

When I ran XC, my coach saved that strategy for our rabbit(s), and the rest of us did the exact opposite. I naturally run slower for the first bit, anyways (although not necessarily a whole mile, but I had and have slow starts). I can see the point your coach is making in that depending on the course you're running, it can be demoralizing to have to adjust your race plan to try to keep up with a bunch of guys going all out in the first mile, as well as losing sight of your competetion within the same. It's always a balancing act, and there is a fair amount of subtle strategy that can come into play on a short course.