Half Mary Pacing

Triathlon Forum
1

I am running my 1st half marathon in one month and am wondering how i should pace myself in the race.

I started running & tris this year and ran a 50 minute 10k in April and my 5k’s in sprint tris are around 23mins.

My goal is to run 1:50 or better, but checking some of the race time calculators online it seems maybe i should be going for 1:45 - we’ll see how training goes before i decide which i am going for.

I did only sprints this year and have only run over 10k a handful of times, i guess my muscular endurace may be the limiting factor in my performance.

Whatever my goal ends up being, do i try to run the entire race with the same pace? Or do i start slow and build up slowly over the course of the race? Or go out fast and try to limit my losses in the 2nd half?

What should i shoot for as a HR target for the run? During the run in a sprint tri i like to keep my HR at around 175 which i think is my LT or very close to it. My longest training run was 17k on sunday and i had an avg HR of 152 and took 1:32. I felt good breathing but my legs were quite sore.

2

Half marathon is my favorite run distance. It’s long enough to get the endurance going but short enough (as compared to marathon) to push it a bit.

If I were you the first thing I would do is try and get a few more long runs in soon. These will give you an idea of what’s possible for you and some added confidence.

For pacing I try and pick the speed I want to run that will get me to my target goal, it sounds like 8:00-8:15 minute miles or so for you, and I try and hold that pace from the start. I’ll hold that pace steady until mile 10 or so and then try and finish strong if I feel good, or if I’m really struggling I’ll pick someone around me at the pace I want to hold and just try and hang on.

I think whether you start slow and speed up or start even and hold pace is dependent on you. I would strongly advise not going out fast and trying to minimize losses over second half.

Good luck, have fun.