{"id":696,"date":"2019-07-04T09:38:48","date_gmt":"2019-07-04T09:38:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/?p=696"},"modified":"2019-07-03T18:39:57","modified_gmt":"2019-07-03T18:39:57","slug":"pacing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2019\/07\/04\/pacing\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacing…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

One common question as people schedule races for later this summer or fall is, \u201cHow fast can I run that event?\u201d There will be several factors in picking a goal time including past race experience, current training, whether it\u2019s a familiar or new distance, the course toughness, etc.

As mentioned in a prior post<\/a>, pacing is everything when planning and running your race. When Galen Rupp broke his own American 10000M record several years ago, two pacers were engaged to get him to his goal. One was set up to cover the first 3000M and the second one was to get him through most of the remainder of the race. (Obviously in professional races the pacers are not planning to break the record and it is up to the athlete to cover the final part of the race on their own.) Both performed phenomenally, hitting every lap on the 400M track basically on the money. This meant that Rupp only had to focus on staying with these pacers through most of the race and not worry about the clock. While it may not seem like a big deal, the mental burden that this removes is substantial. And, Rupp broke his record by four seconds.

Most of us don\u2019t get to employ pacers so we have to go with the next best thing which is plotting out our splits ahead of time and figuring out a way to keep track of them. I suspect you could set up splits on a more advanced GPS watch but I\u2019m old-school with my running technology and I write out my times on an index card and tape it to my wrist. While it\u2019s not quite as easy as staying with someone who\u2019s running a known speed for the better part of the race, it does mean that I only need to glance at my watch and the card at every mile point to see how I\u2019m performing. This is much easier than trying to do math mid-race.

If your goal is a 44-minute 10K, that\u2019s 7:05 per mile. If the course you\u2019re racing is relatively flat, then you would want to run each mile at that pace. If the course is hilly, you\u2019ll want to see where the hills are on the course and adjust. If miles 2 and 4 are net uphill, you might want to aim for 7:10 but then for the other miles where you lose elevation, you would want to go for 7:00 miles. Part of the time calculation will depend on how steep and\/or long the hills are, and how much you\u2019re gaining back on the downhill portions.

Pacing is difficult and even the pros don\u2019t always get it right. Because of this, I would recommend either going to a track or on a route where you know the half-mile or mile points and running at your race pace so you get a sense of what that feels like. If there is a race you\u2019ve chosen to hit your goal time, you can pick another one a few weeks beforehand so that you can practice your pace in \u201clive\u201d conditions. At that point you won\u2019t have peaked for your target race and thus your overall time will probably be slower. But, if your goal race is a 10K, you could do a 5K at your projected race pace. And, discuss pacing with other runners. We all have different approaches and it\u2019s helpful to get a sense of what other runners do and how it works for them. You may get some ideas for what to do with your race.

I\u2019ve been guilty many times of racing on optimism\u2014hoping that after a fast opening mile I can hold on the rest of the way. This doesn\u2019t really work. Over the past twenty-five years, the races where I plotted out a sensible pace ahead of time and then held to it have gone far better than those where I did not. Also, not only were my times better but instead of feeling like garbage over the last half of the race because I was running on fumes, I was much more in control of my pace and my finish. That alone makes the pacing worth it.

Good luck with your pacing. It\u2019s well-worth the effort to get it right.

Running food review of the week:\u00a0(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): Gatorade Prime Energy Chews Green Apple<\/a>: I likened the Gatorade Fierce Green Apple beverage to drinking a green apple Jolly Rancher. These are like eating chewy Green Apple Jolly Ranchers, so the taste is excellent. On the energy and GI side, they are good, too.

Sources used:

https:\/\/www.letsrun.com\/news\/2014\/05\/flash-galen-rupp-runs-2644-36-break-american-record\/

https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Galen_Rupp <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One common question as people schedule races for later this summer or fall is, \u201cHow fast can I run that event?\u201d There will be several factors in picking a goal time including past race experience, current training, whether it\u2019s a familiar or new distance, the course toughness, etc. As mentioned in a prior post, pacing … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Pacing…”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s9W0ku-pacing","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":972,"url":"https:\/\/untamedrunner.com\/index.php\/2020\/09\/17\/pacing-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":696,"position":0},"title":"Pacing…","author":"36jonraessler50","date":"September 17, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"One feature I would love in any race is to have a person to stick with who I know is running my goal pace. 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