Finding goal race pace in the middle of a training season is more challenging than it sounds. On Friday, I wrote that running a race mid-training season has it’s pros and cons. One of those being rehearsing race day.
Saturday, I had a little rehearsal of my own at the 13.1 New York Marathon (why it’s called a marathon I have no idea since it is not 26.2 miles).
Finding race pace is challenging in the middle of a training season. Slower paced long runs and faster paced intervals and tempo workouts skew my view of what my goal pace feels like. While my overall goal is the same as last summer (train hard, do my best and see what that equates to), I have a pretty good idea of what my race pace for PA should be.
I’m a big fan of running race-paced runs during training. I think it’s important to memorize what that pace feels like and how to hold onto it. I want my mind and body to know what that pace feels like so that on race day I not only know how to run, but so I can run by feel.
Below are three tips for training at race pace.
I think it’s SO important to practice race pace, even if it’s only for a short amount of time. I like building race pace runs in as a type of speedwork…I mean, it IS race pace, so even though it’s for a marathon, it’s faster than you would normally run. If you never run at marathon pace, then your legs won’t know what to do on race day, and the last thing you want is a surprise!