Pacing

With all my athletes I coach, one of the most important race strategies we focus on is pacing.  It seems easy and most athletes know they have to “pace” themselves.  But its hard to get this most critical skill right.  One of the best ways to get it right on race day is – you guessed it – practice it in training.   Since we are now in the middle of race season, I am re-posting this to the front page here.

Pacing is typically a topic you learn about during race season, usually right before an important race.   But pacing is so critical to achieving success in your races, that I want to make a few notes about it now.

The best, and really only, way to get the pacing right in your races is to practice it in training.  That does not mean always going at race pace in training.  That would be a big mistake.  Rather, it means getting the pace right for the particular workout you are doing at present by using the best and most accurate metrics you can.  The metrics depend on the sport, and they’re a different subject altogether.  Normally, we’re talking about power, pace (min/mile, sec/100m.), HR, speed, RPE, etc.  For example, if you are supposed to be doing a set of longer, aerobic (i.e. slower) swim repeats, it can be hard to stay at the right pace.  Hard mentally, not physically.  It usually means bringing your effort down.

Pacing requires focus, patience and discipline.  Those are attributes that you’ll need on race day, especially if you race anything longer than a short sprint triathlon, or 5K.  So, if you are doing your long ride, for example, and you notice yourself creeping up to hammer-town after that group of roadies just rudely passed you by and didn’t even say ‘Hi,’ .. slow down.  Let them go. They are doing a different ride and training for a different sport.  You need to stay at your pace to get the benefits of your workout, not theirs.  You’ll most likely need the same discipline and skill on race day.  So, I think its best to start to practice it now.