I met with a new athlete this week who relayed a story that reminded me of something that I did way back in my early self-coached triathlon years. As we talked through the athlete’s training & racing history, they told me of a recent surprise that they had on race day. They had been doing 10k training using 9:30-9:45min per mile pace. But when they raced the 10k, they ran at a pleasantly surprising 9:00min per mile pace! This story ended well…luckily. But it could have just as easily ended poorly. I couldn’t help myself. I got onto my Coachy Soap Box & threw out a reminder to train like you plan to race.
My Sad Story
Again, this athlete’s story ended well. But they don’t always…. Here’s my story. I was training for my 1st marathon. My training program centered around diligently building up my long run mileage at a conservative 9:00min / mile pace (at least I thought that was conservative!). After a minimal taper, I came to the start line full of adrenaline & excitement. The gun went off & I cruised out feeling really good. I looked at my pace at Mile 1 – 7:00 min / mile! WOW!! I felt amazing!! This was going to be the BEST day ever!! I remember chatting a bit with a fellow runner who was running quite a bit slower than me. This was her 10th marathon. I decided that her pace was too slow & I was feeling so good that I said goodbye & got back onto my 7:00 min / mile pace. Then Mile 15 hit…and it hit hard. From that point on it was a toss-up as to which hurt more – walking or running. After 5 miserable miles, guess who came jogging up? Yep, the gal I had chatted with early on. She looked calm, solid, peaceful. She was still holding her nice, conservative pace…and try as I might, I could not stay with her. She wished me best of luck & trotted on down the road. I’m sure she was smiling inside at my naiveite. To wrap up my story…I did finish…but just barely.
Build a Race Plan
Now, back to my point – train like you plan to race. First & foremost, there’s a key word in that phrase – plan. You need a plan on race day. You need a strategy that you’ve developed based on your training history, your goals & your current abilities. I had no plan for my marathon other than to finish. I hadn’t thought through what a reasonable pace might be based on the limited marathon training I had done. I hadn’t taken into account that I had run 24 miles the weekend prior which brought me to race day already fatigued & tired. I had no business running 7min miles. I had no business running 9min miles either!
Train Like You Intend to Race
Second, it’s crucial that you train in the same way that you want to race. There’s an old saying: Never do ANYTHING new on race day. Basically, it means that everything you do on race day should already have been trained, retrained, tested & retested. The closer you can match your training to your race plan & vice versa, the better. So, what should I have done differently? Aside from not really tapering, I should have planned to run a Negative Split. Something like…
- 1st 6.5 miles @13min/mile
- 2nd 6.5 miles @12min/mile
- 3rd 6.5 miles @11:30min/mile
- Final 6.7 miles @11min/mile
Also, if I really wanted to run at a faster pace, I should have trained for that. Not by doing my long runs at a faster pace, but by incorporating repeats of short intervals at significantly faster paces. Something like…
- Mile repeats at half marathon pace
- Alternating 1km at half marathon pace with 1km at 10k pace
What About Taking a Chance?
Again, it all comes down to training what you want to have happen on race day. Now…you can argue that sometimes we just need to take chances & “see what happens”. But that concept is usually more successful when we’re very in touch with how our bodies respond, we’re fully prepared to get uncomfortable AND we’re ready to accept the outcome, no matter if its positive or negative. In my experience, it takes years of training & racing to be fully ready to take a chance. Therefore, for most of us, we’re better off making that plan & then training it up!
Happy Training!
Coach Michelle
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