If I want to avoid a late stage bonk?
If I want to avoid a late stage bonk?
5-6k at a moderate pace.
No correlation.. I remember feeling like absolute exhaustion at 4 miles but feeling great at the finish. The marathon has many different stages, many different feelings.
Said a different way, provide a qualitative description of what my ideal pace should feel like in the first 16-20.
Like warm cherry pie
No matter how much you've prepared you won't know until 16-20 miles. But I can say for certainty that if you feel bad at 20 you're going to feel really bad at 25.
It should feel like a regular old long training run. Sure you're running a minute per mile faster but the tapering, race condition and adrenaline make up for it. The last 3 miles should feel like your hip is broken, both your calves are tightly wrapped in razor wire, your insoles are made of broken glass and all your toe nails are rattling around in your shoes.
1. Your breathing should not be audible. If you can hear yourself breathing you are running too fast.
2. Be very realistic with how you really feel. You must feel more comfortable than you think in those first 10 miles.
3. Miles 5-15 should feel very relaxed. If you are not relaxed you are running too fast.
4. Get to 18 miles feeling GOOD. If you are beginning to feel those twinges or the beginnings of tying up at 17-18 you will be in serious trouble at 21.
5. It is amazing how a 5 second per mile adjustment in the first half can make a big difference in how you feel over the last 10k.
I wonder how this strategy in the marathon would work:
Run the first mile around 15 seconds slower than planned, slowly work towards goal pace up until halfway in. Keep it there for another 4-5 and see what you can do from there.
Yes, you would be at halfway about 2-3 minutes off of the plan, but because most runners seem to crash in the second half of a marathon, you at least have the 2nd half to make up for it.
*stipe wrote:
5. It is amazing how a 5 second per mile adjustment in the first half can make a big difference in how you feel over the last 10k.
Actually that number is 8-9 seconds per mile. Plug in what you want to run in the McMillan calculator and see what that pace compares to if you were racing a 20 miler. That 8 seconds is why runners bonk at 20.
+1!
Wørd wrote:
It should feel like a regular old long training run. Sure you're running a minute per mile faster but the tapering, race condition and adrenaline make up for it.
Wørd wrote:
It should feel like a regular old long training run. Sure you're running a minute per mile faster but the tapering, race condition and adrenaline make up for it.
For newer marathoners, I'd agree completely. But for veteran runners with higher lifetime mileage, they can get away with more aggressive pacing early on. Don't get me wrong, it still should feel fairly easy up until mile 18 or so. But certainly not as easy as a typical LR at 85% of MP.
My fastest marathon was my first one, where i neg split my second half faster a minute faster than my first half. I remember turning to my buddy, holding out my first for a bump, and saying "THIS IS AWESOME I'M GOING TO DO IT!" and him simply replying "you're and idiot you have no idea what pain you're going to feel over the next 35 minutes"
I've also crashed out, thrown into the crapper over the Newton Hills at Boston. If I had slowed down and kept myself at 5:50-5:55 for the first 10 miles instead of trying to build a cushion by pushing low - mid 5:40's I am sure I would have been much better off.
I am stealing this when someone asks me.
Wørd wrote:
It should feel like a regular old long training run. Sure you're running a minute per mile faster but the tapering, race condition and adrenaline make up for it. The last 3 miles should feel like your hip is broken, both your calves are tightly wrapped in razor wire, your insoles are made of broken glass and all your toe nails are rattling around in your shoes.