In April I ran my first Half Marathon after 8 months of training going into it. My goal was to go sub 2 hours, but I did that in training before the race so then I thought, well maybe I could average under 9min/mile?
Come race day, I made a point to start off ‘slow’, and I ran 9:30 the first mile. Then my goal was simply to settle into a solid z2 effort until the third mile was done and evaluate. Looking my watch, I knew miles 2 and 3 were slightly under 9min/mile, which was at about 20 seconds faster my typical z2 pace (successful taper?). So I thought, well, I’ll just keep doing this for a while. During mile 10, my pace wasn’t slowing and my HR was the same and I thought to myself, well, I better pick it up now if I’m ever going to pick it up! I ran 8:22/mile for the final 5k of the race (which actually is my 5k PR - don’t run this distance hard very often, not since my LTHR test).
After the race I was quite happy to have averaged 8:50/mile, though the obvious question in my mind was - could I have ran faster?
From training I knew that once I went z4, my z2 pace slowed considerably, so I was a little timid of pushing the pace, especially early. From reading some posts on here, it sounds like many people basically go z3/z4 the whole race!? I can’t imagine running at that intensity that long!? Or can I? I did a sprint tri in June, where I was borderline z3/z4 the whole time during the bike and the run.
I have another half marathon in November, that I will have 10 weeks to prep for (training for a sprint tri in late august). I was wondering, what do you guys do for pace strategies when you race half marathons? What do you recommend for a N00b like me?
In April I ran my first Half Marathon after 8 months of training going into it. My goal was to go sub 2 hours, but I did that in training before the race so then I thought, well maybe I could average under 9min/mile?
Come race day, I made a point to start off ‘slow’, and I ran 9:30 the first mile. Then my goal was simply to settle into a solid z2 effort until the third mile was done and evaluate. Looking my watch, I knew miles 2 and 3 were slightly under 9min/mile, which was at about 20 seconds faster my typical z2 pace (successful taper?). So I thought, well, I’ll just keep doing this for a while. During mile 10, my pace wasn’t slowing and my HR was the same and I thought to myself, well, I better pick it up now if I’m ever going to pick it up! I ran 8:22/mile for the final 5k of the race (which actually is my 5k PR - don’t run this distance hard very often, not since my LTHR test).
After the race I was quite happy to have averaged 8:50/mile, though the obvious question in my mind was - could I have ran faster?
From training I knew that once I went z4, my z2 pace slowed considerably, so I was a little timid of pushing the pace, especially early. From reading some posts on here, it sounds like many people basically go z3/z4 the whole race!? I can’t imagine running at that intensity that long!? Or can I? I did a sprint tri in June, where I was borderline z3/z4 the whole time during the bike and the run.
I have another half marathon in November, that I will have 10 weeks to prep for (training for a sprint tri in late august). I was wondering, what do you guys do for pace strategies when you race half marathons? What do you recommend for a N00b like me?
Edit - I’m a 47 y/o guy
Daniels table can be your friend. This link has been helpful to me – www.electricblues.com/archive/DanielsTables3-00-00.xls
It helps if you run some shorter races (e.g., 5k or 10k) as the table then predicts times and heart rates for other races (assuming proper training for races that are longer distances). For me this spring it was uncanny how well it did at those projections – it was hard to execute, but when I did I ended up really close. My 1/2 marathon was at an average heart rate of 156 (my max is somewhere in the low to mid 170s) - I’ll let you figure out what that zone is under the system you use, but for mine it is well into zone 4. 47 y/o is no excuse. I am 61. Good luck.
By the way, I used the pace prediction to guide my initial couple of miles because it takes a while for the heart rate to get up that high. Then I looked at pace and heart rate both as I monitored those numbers with respect to how I felt. There were a few times that my pace fell off a little just from lack of focus (not because of a physical problem) so I was happy to have my Garmin on 1/4 mile autolap to act as a reminder. My race was on a dead flat course. With hills you need to do mental adjustments to expected pace, but once you are at your target heart rate, that can be a pretty strong guide.
Thanks Hugo!
I couldn’t follow the link you provided, it gave me an access denied message. Now I feel depressed…
I guess part of my issue is that I don’t run races very often. In fact, the only races I have run since I started training regularly are the half marathon and the sprint tri. So… not many data points. I’m using Joe Friel type zones for training, and I do most of my training in Z2. If I use the mcmillanrunning calculator, I enter my PR 5k (which is the 5k from the end of my half marathon), and it tells me I should be able to run 9:07, but this is obviously no good, since I did it in 8:50! I guess I just need to race more!
I can only think of three things you would consider in a race strategy - pace, HR, and feel.
In order to do a pace based strategy, I have to know better what pace I should be targeting! If people use a HR based strategy (assuming the race is in November so heat should NOT be a factor!), what do you do?
Run some shorter races hard (where it won’t be painful to finish if you blow up), learn more about pacing, and then find a pacing strategy for your next half.
Enjoy all the PRs you’ll be racking up…if you ran most of your half in Z2, and your fastest 5K was the last 5K of your half, you have some huge PRs coming even without any improvement in fitness.
run as fast as you can till you blow up then dial that back just a bit for the next race! Race more! For me i am running a half at about 90-92% max Hr, yes it hurts, hurts a lot don’t want to be leaving anything out on the course.
Mcmillan’s calc is almost the exact same as Daniels. This thing has been spot on for me and my training over the past 10+ years. And I mostly race half marathons. Every 3 weeks, at most, go on here and put in a time and see what equivalent times as well as (or more importantly) the training paces tab. As long as you have been doing the volume, these training paces will correspond very closely to a race time on a flat course.
Example. Put in a half marathon time of 1:55 and you will see the training paces. Focus on the Stamina paces as they are the best indicators. Tempo pace is around 8:20-30 or so. Then in about a month, see if your tempo pace has improved. If so, keep changing the half marathon time to fit your new training paces.
As far as in race pacing, even, even, even. One of my best races (not by PR, but close) my slowest mile was mile 1 and my fastest was mile 10. And they were 9 secs apart. This was at RnR New Orleans, so pancake flat. The race felt perfect with splits being near exact. My PR is a minute faster, but that race I went out over confident in my fitness and fortunately did not fade too badly.
Thanks Hugo!
I couldn’t follow the link you provided, it gave me an access denied message. Now I feel depressed…
I guess part of my issue is that I don’t run races very often. In fact, the only races I have run since I started training regularly are the half marathon and the sprint tri. So… not many data points. I’m using Joe Friel type zones for training, and I do most of my training in Z2. If I use the mcmillanrunning calculator, I enter my PR 5k (which is the 5k from the end of my half marathon), and it tells me I should be able to run 9:07, but this is obviously no good, since I did it in 8:50! I guess I just need to race more!
I can only think of three things you would consider in a race strategy - pace, HR, and feel.
In order to do a pace based strategy, I have to know better what pace I should be targeting! If people use a HR based strategy (assuming the race is in November so heat should NOT be a factor!), what do you do?
Thanks
Not sure why, but only part of the link I posted shows up as a hyperlink. Copy the whole thing and paste it into your browser and see if that works. What it should do is download an Excel file (on my Chrome browser, that shows up as an icon on the bottom left hand of my screen – it does not open a new page – I click on the icon and I get the spreadsheet into which I can then enter my personal data).
And yes, you need to do some stand alone races – otherwise GIGO (garbage in garbage out), the spread sheet won’t be able to predict stand alone races. 5k races are fairly common and short enough that they should not interfere too badly with your training (if at all). And I agree, go faster than you think you can – if you fail, you can try a little slower next time.
90% of max???
That does sound painful.
I made almost that effort in my sprint tri though, but with fatigue I was actually running slower than my half marathon pace (9:30 miles).
I guess I am afraid once I go hard I’ll tire and slow down doing 10 minute miles at the end in z4! I’ll try some near LT runs just to see how well I can hang on to a pace at a higher effort without fighting swim and bike fatigue.
Thanks
yea its a race is supposed to hurt way worse then training! If it does not hurt then your not going hard enough, Embrace the suffering and enjoy the faster race times after.
yea its a race is supposed to hurt way worse then training! If it does not hurt then your not going hard enough, Embrace the suffering and enjoy the faster race times after.Thanks for saying it, I was about to be a bit more rude, LOL!
Seriously SpeedNerder, forget about the HR zones when racing; dehydration, cumulative fatigue, heat & humidity impacts all have an effect on HR that most likey have no correlation to the effort you can muster.
5 years ago when I did my 1st HM I was training by LTHR zones. But when I was getting ready for the HM I wasn’t sure what pace I should shoot for. Read all kinds of articles and forums on steady pacing, neg splitting, etc. Then I found an article somewhere that had a method on finding HM race pace when training by LTHR and it just happened to work perfectly for me. Here’s what it stated to do, I did it about a week out from race day:
~2 mile warm-up Z1 to low Z2
~1 mile of pickups and recovery
1 mile interval upping pace to achieve an upper Z2 average for the mile
Warm down
Article stated that the pace during the 1 mile Z2 test interval was the target (+/- 5sec) to shoot for during the HIM. When I did this I achieved a pace of 7:39 that was 40 sec slower than my 5k PR set about 2.5 years earlier when I was doing nothing but a few 5k’s and sprints a year. When I got to race day I was aiming for a 7:40 pace and planned to hold it a steady as possible throughout. Gun went off and I suffered to a 1:40:18, or a 7:40 pace! Race had two bridges at 6mi and 11.5mi, each 1/4 mi up & 1/4 mi down at 4-5% grade. The last 2 miles was pure physical and mental torture that included a crossing headwind. My HR averages were:
Mi1 Avg 141 (Z1), Mi2 155 (Z2), Mi3 158 (Z2), Mi4 163 (Z3), Mi 5 164 (Z3), Mi6 167 (Z3), Mi 7164 (Z3), Mi8 169 (Z4), Mi9 169 (Z4), Mi10 169 (Z4), Mi11 171 (Z4), Mi 12 176 (Z5), Mi13.1 177 (Z5).
Now will this work for you, beats me, but like you I wasn’t doing a any races at the time to have a gauge of race pacing using a run calculator so I was looking for guidance any way I could get.
Someone once told me to run a half like a 10 mile warm-up with a 5k at the end. I used that strategy once and did pass a ton of people at the end but not a PR.
However my PR came also at 47 after mixing in more quality runs with my typical LSD’s - intervals, tempos, hill repeats. I never used HR or timing just ran on RPE but I did go from sub 2 hour to 1:32 and I bet you could too for sure (if not better).
I’ve seen those tables that project times off 5k, 10k, etc. I wonder if you could reverse engineer them to a better 5k estimate than the last 3 miles of a half?
My pacing strategy is usually broken up as:
5 miles - “controlled tempo”. I want to finish this feeling good but knowing that I have 8 miles left. Maybe 5 to 10 seconds below my half marathon pace.5 miles - I try to run my target 1/2 marathon pace during this leg. 5k - push hard until the end.