Racing hard at any distance, including sprints, involves pain. There are a few ways to cope with the pain of a race. Some involve training and some you can use during the race. (Regardless of how you choose to handle pain, there’s a line between pushing yourself and hurting yourself. Be wise and don’t hurt yourself, either in preparation or during the race.)
Ahead of the race, good preparation is key. Doing speed workouts (intervals, track work, fartleks), even for a half or full marathon, will get your body adjusted to discomfort. On race day, you’ll still have the discomfort but you will have experienced it and it may not throw you off as much. Also, through tough workouts you’ll get accustomed to different kinds of pain. For example, sheer exhaustion and continuing to push your body may result in abdominal discomfort. This may be different than the burn of pushing hard up a a hill. Or, if you’re climbing a hill at the end of a race, you may end up with both types of pain. Though you’ll still feel it, it will be more familiar and you’ll know how much you can push through it. Speed workouts are not fun. If you can find someone to do them with you, that helps. Either way they pay off, both in adjusting your body’s expectations and making you faster.
A set of goals ahead of a race is helpful as you can focus on tweaking your pace and strategy mid-race instead of thinking about pain. Let’s say you believe you can break 19:00 in a 5K, you’re pretty sure you can go under 19:25, and you know you can go under 19:45. Study the course map ahead of time and determine the mile and half-mile points. In a 5K, a mile is a significant percentage of the race and you don’t have much room for error if you cross a mile marker and you’re off pace. Knowing the halves is very valuable as you have smaller increments to work with and less time to wonder how your pace is matching up with your goal time. This will help you adjust more efficiently. It also keeps your brain more focused on the clock and less on the pain.
Back to the 5K example above. If you cross the 2.5 mile point in 15:17 and feel like you have gas in the tank, you can still hit under 19:00. However, if you hit 2.5 in 15:30 but are sucking wind, your 19:25 goal may be more reasonable. Know when you may flame out trying to chase something that is out of reach versus settling in to your plan B so you can finish strong and not lose out on all three goals.
Another mechanism to cope with race pain is an attainable goal combined with desperation. There’s a local 5K where I know the course well. The last quarter mile is downhill so I always figure that if I’m within 90 seconds of my goal time when I hit that stretch, I have a good chance of getting the goal. Twice I’ve hit that stretch with only 87 seconds to reach my goal. Both times, I’ve gotten my goal time. I churn into a next level where there is pain but it’s masked by an effort where I only see the finish line and run all-out for it. This can’t be sustained for long, but I’ll take it for a quarter mile. (This may seem contrary to some advice below, but it is an area where you can tell yourself “just a little bit more!”) Of course, as I mentioned in the opening, don’t hurt yourself. It’s not worth that.
If you can, group races. I recently did a 10K and then about a month later, did three races over three weekends (two more 5Ks and a 10K). By the third and fourth races, I was acclimated to the atmosphere enough that while there was still race pain, I was better able to manage the discomfort. Going forward, I may continue to group races because though I’ve done many races over the last twenty-plus years, recent experience clearly matters. If you’re running a marathon or half or ultra, grouping may not work as well. But, check out my post on how to choose races. There are ways to group them in preparation for a longer distance event.
Though it’s tempting, and maybe inevitable, one strategy that does not work well (except for the final sprint as mentioned above) is calculating how much time/distance is left and saying “Only X more minutes/miles until the end.” While those thoughts will cross my mind, there is the risk that you may be selling yourself short mentally. Instead of thinking about whether you can shave a few seconds off the next half mile or how to use an upcoming downhill to gain some time, you’re giving your body a message that you only need to hang on for a it longer. Your approach becomes more about surviving at a certain pace and less about getting after the race. In the throes of race pain, these thoughts may be inevitable, but try to shrug them off and focus on your goals and pace.
Despite the pain, races are fun. There is an adrenaline factor and there is great satisfaction in accomplishment. Learn to manage the pain and they’ll become even more fun.
Running food review of the week: (note–gels, bars, chews, and other items affect everyone differently. Try them on a short run before using them for a key training run or race): Gu Lemon Sublime: The flavor on this one was “eh” for me. It is slightly citrus-based but it didn’t blow me away. It does have caffeine which I noticed. While it didn’t have a negative impact on my running, the flavor didn’t warrant my buying another one.
Good stuff next week. How to pack for running when you travel and a brief Badwater overview/preview…