Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Am I Giving Myself a Way Out?

This weekend I am running a half marathon on Sunday. The Germantown Half Marathon. It is a very good race and I ran it two years ago and set a PR of 1:56, so this year when I run I would like nothing more than to beat that PR and go 5 for 5 on races in 2012, but I am not sure that is going to or can happen.

All year I have really been focusing on the Memphis in May Olympic triathlon which has a 10k run on the end of it. So none of my runs have been over 9 miles. I really should have planned better for this race, but I didn't. So now I am torn about my race strategy this weekend.

I was able to hold an 8:36 pace on a 10K trail run a few weeks ago and I really feel like I am good for 8-10 miles at that pace, but after the 10th mile, it's a crap shoot. I am not really worried about not finishing the race, inasmuch as I want to have a good showing and keep the PR streak alive.

So I pretty much see me having two strategies on Sunday.

Strategy #1: Go as hard as I can for as long as I can and hope I do not burn out. Only problem with that is that I do not want to risk any injury that would be an obstacle to my MIM training. It is a race and I will be racing it, so....

Strategy #2: Run comfortably and bank any time I have. I figure I need to run an 8:50 pace to meet my previous time. So if I can get into that comfortable 8:30 pace (which is doable on the road, last 10K was a trail run) and hold it for 8 miles or so, that will put me at the 68 minute mark (1:08) that will leave me to run a 9:20 minute mile or so for the remaining 5 miles. If I can hold the same pace throughout the race, then I will, but knowing I can ease back a little and still beat my time would be good to know.

Or would it become a crutch? Am I giving myself an out if I look at a race this way? Thoughts?

4 comments:

  1. Comfortable? WTF is that?
    You a hobby jogger or you a runner?
    Race this bitch as hard as you can!

    Go out and crush it James!

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  2. Well, I'm way slower than Jeff so take my advice with a grain of salt but I wouldn't jeopardize my A race. I would go out comfortable and ratchet the pace up if I felt good, like a decent tempo run.

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  3. @Jeff..hobby jogger? ouch! LOL Can I borrow some of your speed for this race?

    @Mike- No worries, I am way slower than Jeff also, and I am concerned about my A race more than this one.

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