Rock N Roll New Orleans Half Marathon
Race Plan --
Racing a half marathon tomorrow and wanted to get my race plan down -- Training has gone fairly well -- I'm midway through the Get Faster plan after a bike focus in December so although running has not been top priority I still feel like I'm hitting good threshold pace workouts -- Those workouts have been done in the 6:25-6:30 pace -- so even though I haven't formally tested in awhile I believe my VDOT to be around 53 and am aiming for about 6:40 race pace.
Race plan -- be in corral 1 20 minutes before start or so - Take gel at about 15 minutes till 7:30 start. There is little opportunity for a good warm up right before the gun in these big races so I plan to take it out a little slower the first mile and dial in the pace between mile 2 and 3. Plan on 6:55-7:00 first mile 6:45 second mile and then lock on to 6:40 pace by mile 3. Will hold this pace until mile 8 -- If feeling good at mile 8 will start to push the pace down to 6:35 or so -- If not feeling great will hold 6:40 until mile 10 and push pace the last 3 miles. Nutrition plan is a gel at about 25 minutes in and another at 50-55 minutes. Water/gatorade at aid stations as needed.
Weather should be good -- 42-45 degrees with low humidity and sunny. It should be a good day. If all goes well I should run somewhere in the 1:27 range breaking a 6 year old PR of 1:28 40 something,. Its a little aggressive, but I'm not going there to run conservative. If I blow up at mile 9 what the heck, its only 4 miles to the finish at that point -- Hopefully will be a good early season indicator of run fitness.
Comments
1. Hit your gels before the start and at mile 7-8
2. Get in a warmup. I've done a lot of RnR races. You can always scoot into the corral pretty late in the game. If you want to run 6:40's you should have a 5-10 EP run with a few strides to finish no earlier than ~10 mins before the gun
Running TP interval workouts at 6:25-6:30 I think you can break 1:27 if you bear down and tolerate some serious pain. Even splits strategy unless wind is a factor.
GO FOR IT
Had a good day -- Wind was minimal but gusty in spots but mostly not a factor -- The course is pretty sheilded from the win. Didn't get a chance or make the warmup happen but in retrospect I probably could have figured out a short route to run and get in the corral at last minute -- As a result I felt really tight and uncomfortable for the first mile but took it easy -- It was 6:56 and my slowest of the day. Pace felt good by the time I got to mile 3 (6:38). I ran several miles below and above 6:40 but also didn't run the tangents as well as I could have and ended up running 13.3 on the garmin (granted, not exact or accurate) but probably could have focused and ran the fast line better.
Pacing went well -- I held it in check untili about mile 8 and then ran 6:34, 6:39, 6:31 (mile 10), and 6:35 in the 4 mile stretch from 8-11. I paid for that though as I started to cramp in my side around mile 11.5 and really had to push to not fall off -- Mile 12 was 6:41, 13 was 6:53.
Took a gel at roughy mile 4 and mile 8 ( I think)
@Al -- thanks for the tip about heart rate -- It made me just rethink it and make sure to keep under 165 early and try and push 165-170 late -- I think I avg 163 for the race.
Overall it was a good day. Previousl PR was actually 1:28:38 (2 seconds! Really?) BUT that was on a downhill course in Austin 6 years ago and I was 34. Feeling especilally good given that I've done a month of bike focus followed by Get Faster and haven't really been focused as much on running other than getting in a TP workout and (short) long run each week and some other filler runs for consistency.