Race pace in short courses
Could not find this in the Wiki, but apologize if it is there and I'm just a buffoon for being unable to locate it: My A races are 2 HIM's this season. However, I have some local sprints that I'd love to do well in also. How does one determine what pace to race these sprints at when your training is focused on longer courses? Is there a formula or target zone?
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Comments
The usual rule-of-thumb is to target the run as if you were racing a stand alone running race at twice the distance.
For example, in a sprint (5 km), you target your 10 km pace — which will be close to your threshold pace.
In an olympic, you target your HMP (10 km vs 21 km).
Brad - I agree with Peter on the running RPE/speed - sprint, run @ 10k pace/effort, Olympic @ half marathon, HIM @ marathon.
For biking, Sprint is a redline the whole way, meaning try to treat it as an FTP test. Olympic: 90-93% of FTP
Swimming - the rule for swimming is the same at all distance, best expressed by Coach R as "Swim as hard as you can while still mantaining good form". Since you can't measure pace or effort (watts, HR) while swimming, it's all RPE.