Stick with the Spirit of the Plan

Week 3. Stick with the spirit of the plan.

In last week’s post, I addressed following the spirit of the plan rather than the exact numbers. I advocated permitting oneself to be slower than the listed paces if the run was supposed to be easy. I referenced the adage of keeping the “easy days” easy and the “hard days” hard. This week, I realized I may have taken the “hard days, hard” a little too far and did not account for the spirit of the plan.

On Friday, a 6-mile marathon pace run was on the schedule. I like these days in my plan because it allows me to run faster and doesn’t constrain me to heart rate zone 2 (Z2). The idea of running some training runs at my marathon pace makes sense. Unfortunately, it felt too good to run fast. The suggested pace was 9:45/mile, with a range of 9:20-10:10/mile. My first three miles were 9:27, 9:26, and 9:20. My fourth mile, which was uphill and I might have been a little gassed from my 9:20 split, was 10:00. I followed it with 9:41 and 9:34 miles. After mile four, it struck me that while running at my marathon pace is a good idea, the marathon pace run could have also helped me develop my pacing skills for the beginning of a race. All too often, you hear about runners of all levels and from all distances who go out too fast for the first few miles. After mile four, I also realized that I was running faster than my half marathon personal best pace. This week I learned that I should respect the marathon pace for the entirety of the run. This will allow me to get a better feel for my marathon pace and help prevent me from starting too fast.

Have you ever gone out too fast for a race? Comment about your experience below.