Half Marathon Pacing Help

Unknown

Would like to draw on the EN knowledge base regarding pacing for my upcoming 1/2 marathon. I read the 1/2 marathon pacing guidelines posted in the wiki which states the following: M1 +15" of my HMP, M2 =10" of my HMP, M3 +5" of my HMP, next 7 miles at HMP, last 3 at best effort. 

I attached the elevation profile of the course I am running below.  With the first 4 miles essentially being flat with a nice down hill I am concerned that following the pacing guidelines above for M1-M3 is going to be too slow. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

 

Peter Wick

I actually hadn't read the suggested pacing plan for today's half-mary but this is what I did on a course that started out with the first 4 miles being overall downhill with a few mild long hills. The middle 5-6 miles had some hills with some bite in them and then the last 5 K was pretty much flat with a little downhill. I had a vDOT suggested pace of 7:30 so I was damn determined to keep to it as best I could. I set my Garmin display to only have 3 fields, Lap Pace, Overall Pace and Time.

First 4 miles were at about a 7:34 pace because I was trying to be patient and not go out hard like last year's 7:15 pace. The start is deceptively easy.

Miles 5-10 were at a 7:33 pace overall and that was when I was really having to be careful on the hills to not burn out and to pick it back up as soon as I crested the hill. Last year, I wound up with a 7:50 pace for this leg, mainly because I went out too hard and couldn't hold it when the hills came on.

The last 3.1 miles were a revelation for me this year. I was able to turn it ON and averaged a 7:18 pace. I chased down some people I'd had my eye on the whole race. The last 3 half mile splits were 7:08, 7:07 and 7:10 and then the last bit was a 6:39 'sprint'. What did I do last year? In that segment I was dying and barely held onto the 7:50 pace and lost several places as I faded.

I ran a 1:38:19 and still cannot believe it.

MattAaronson

@ Robert, the pic is not showing up. Let me know the race and I'll look up the course.

I think it depends a on how strong you are as a runner, but in general for a strong and experienced runner putting a little time in the bank for a race that starts downhill, with a tailwind or even flat/calm is probably ok. For less experienced runners that sort of strategy is going to hose them completely in the last third of the race because "a little time in the bank" ends up being 45-60" per mile faster than race pace. But if you are experienced you know what you can do and you won't go crazy with overzealousness at the start.

I've actually been giving this a little thought myself as I think about the upcoming R'nR Half in DC that I'm planning to run. That course starts out pretty flat then has an incline and gains about 200 or more feet from miles 5 to 7. I suspect I'll put a little time in the bank at the beginning which I will eat into during those two miles, but really it is hard to gameplan it too much since you never know how you'll feel during the race. For me, the main benefit of the gameplanning is to know that the incline is there, is 2 miles long, and that I have to run 6 really hard miles after mile 7 so I better not be a slave to my Garmin from miles 5 through 7 when it says I'm going too slow otherwise I'm going to be screwed for the second half of the race. So for me the race plan is more general and not trying to plan +/- 5 sec per mile.

Coach Patrick

Unless you know the course or are trying to break a lifelong plateau at a certain time, the early miles are almost never your friend. Running close to your redline means being ready to really, really suffer over the final 3 to 5 miles...and there is nothing "Free" about those early miles, they just feel easy. Beware!!!

Unknown

Gentlemen, 

Thanks for the direction.  Not sure why every time I copy/paste the image disappears??? 

My Vdot is currently a 52 but I have no experience at the 1/2 marathon distance. Vdot is derived from a 30 minute time trial. I am currently in week 8 of the OS and doing the 1/2 marathon hack. 

Here is a link to the course/race -->http://www.hillstriders.com/Hill/Ha...ess-v1.pdf

Let me know what you think regarding pacing after looking at the course.  I am shooting for sub 1:30.

 

 

bc4ua

I ran the Vernonia half last year which started out downhill for the first 2, then slowly up for the last 5. Here's my .02

On the early downhills, I would lean into it, pick up my cadence, really work my arms, and let gravity carry me down. The pace still felt "easy", but takes advantage of the downhill. It's something I'd practice before the race though. Takes some work to get it right. You can make up a lot of ground on people during races by being a bit smarter on downhills. Going uphills I didn't look at pace, I go off effort. Once I'm back on a flat section I re-evaluate my goal.

I went 1:30:59.99999 on a lower vdot than you last year. Had I paced it smarter, it would have been under 1:30. Just don't force the first 10, let it hang out on that flat part after 11.5, and you'll be under 1:30

Pat Koss

What Patrick said for the early miles of the half marathon (and the full marathon for that matter). I have always found that planning for and executing a negative split strategy is always best in these distances. I suggest training with a diet of fast finish long runs every other week. I do these when training for a marathon and they entail a run of about 80% of the alternative week distance. Start out the first 50% of the distance at a long-run pace, maybe zone 2 in EN speak. Then for the second half, progressively (not all at once), get faster till you are running 5K pace for the last mile or so. When we do these for marathon training they are the hardest workout in our toolkit, but when done right and hit with regularity, then they taught us how to negative split pace, and taught us the mental toughness to execute accordingly.

MattAaronson

For that race in Cary you have a lot of really difficult climbs. I've spoken to people who ahve raced it and it's no picnic. Hats off to all the sub 1:30's in that field!! In terms of pacing, I be very careful or you'll be brutalized by all the climbs in the second half.