lakerfan wrote:
JoeO wrote:
I think you mean consistent pace, not effort, right? For me, pretty much all marathons start off almost effortless (at my goal pace) but get harder and harder at the same pace until I hit the wall. My only problem early it keeping those miles from being too fast. It's the same for open and IM marathons, the only difference being the pace. Isn't that how it is for everybody?
If I were you I wouldn't worry too much about starting off at a given pace as I would about starting at a given effort. Make sure it's easy early on. The only thing the watch ought to do is keep you from running faster than your goal pace in the early miles. It shouldn't keep you from running slower.
Let your goal pace come to you. If it's your day, you'll hit it soon enough. If not, you'll be glad you didn't try to force it.
Don't try to bank time. The bank charges interest.
Since I believe in learning through debate, I'm going to challenge the above line of thinking.
To be honest, I find this advice confusing. On one hand, you admit that PE is "off" early in the run. However, it's very well-established that your PE:pace coming off the bike is completely out of whack, relative to an open marathon. I could run 7:00 pace the first 3 miles of the IM run and it would feel very easy but I know from experience that would far too aggressive to produce an optimal IM run time. If I start off any open run at 7:00 pace it feels pretty much like 7:00 pace. Mind you, it doesn't feel like a 7:00 pace after 20 miles but we're trying to compare the PE between the early miles of an IM run vs the early miles of an open run/marathon.
Point being, don't run those early miles at a given effort and do run them at a given pace because your mind will deceive you and you'll inevitably run too fast.
Dev I don't understand what point of mine exactly you are disagreeing with. Of course RPE can be off I don't mean "just run the whole thing by feel". The watch or the HR can be a great tool for keeping you from going too fast. My point is that it should never ever make you try to speed up when your body doesn't feel like it.
I think I made this pretty clear when I wrote the following in the post above
My only problem early it keeping those miles from being too fast
The only thing the watch ought to do is keep you from running faster than your goal pace in the early miles. It shouldn't keep you from running slower.