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发表于 2012-11-15 16:42
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How To Set Your Goal Marathon Pace
By
Phil Latter .
Published
October 15, 2012 ..
Most marathoners-in-training start their program with a time goal in mind, often an ambitious one that inspires and motivates them. At some point in training, however, smart marathoners need to adjust their goals to their fitness: The marathon is run on finely tuned physiological systems, not audacity and courage.
As a coach of elite marathoners whose livelihood depends on racing, Brad Hudson has heard quite a few ambitious marathon pace goals within his group. "We try to structure around that and be optimistic very early," he says. "That doesn't mean we don't adjust it as we get closer to the race. I try to be realistic with the marathon, because it's important that you know what you can and can't do based on where your fitness is."
But how do you assess that fitness and make a good marathon prediction, particularly if you've never run a marathon before, or your fitness has changed significantly? The answer, according to Hudson and others, is through a combination of recent performances at shorter distances (particularly half marathons, if applicable), your own personal goals, and your mentality.
Resources such as the McMillan Running Calculator can help you approximate how your fitness translates to the marathon, while your history with long runs and tempos should give you an idea how wired you are for long, grinding efforts. Once you select a pace that seems reasonable, Hudson adds, you can begin structuring your workouts around this goal pace by performing long workouts that mirror the exact demands of the marathon. These workouts, known as specific endurance runs, are both training and tests.
"The biggest mistake I've seen is overestimation of what they think they can run a marathon in," Hudson says. "They're basing it off [shorter] interval workouts or they 'feel strong.' They're not basing it on specific endurance. If you base your training on specific endurance and building your race pace around that, I think you have a very good idea of what an athlete can do."
Veteran marathoners have the added advantage of knowing how they performed over the distance and how their training has since progressed. Establishing a goal pace then becomes a balancing act between the objective past and the looming future.
For his part, 2:13 marathoner Pat Rizzo looks at how recent training blocks and race performances have gone, then lays out his goals according to the feedback his body gives him. "Right now, I am coming off of a speed segment that went only OK, but my long runs have been incredible all year," he says. "That tells me I am strong at the pace I can run, but my top gear might not be where I want it to be. I'll then focus on making that aerobic strength such an indestructible force that I can run the whole marathon near my 100 percent pace. It sounds suicidal, but I've done it before with success."
Finding the maximum aerobic pace requires a bit of trial and error, but if you find it exceedingly difficult to maintain your goal pace in longer workouts, you've overestimated your fitness. Hudson suggests adjusting your pace to a more reasonable tempo. He also realizes, however, that many runners will remain married to their goal, no matter how unrealistic workouts show it is. In that case, Hudson suggests erring on the side of caution, starting out slowly the first third of the race and then gradually picking up the tempo if the body allows.
While finding a perfect pace sounds great, the odds of clipping off endless miles right on cue is improbable. For this reason, two-time Olympian Alan Culpepper chose to focus more on perceived exertion during his career. He matched this with data from a heart rate monitor to objectively assess what his body was capable of on any day. He believes this gave him an important edge on race day.
"You have to be able to assess how you are feeling and adjust as needed within the race," he says. "This only comes from training and learning what different efforts should feel like. If done properly, you will know if you can sustain a particular pace or if you are running harder than you really should be. This is why I used heart rate as my indicator for tempo efforts. It allowed me to run the correct effort and not force the pace to what I thought it should be."
The last element to finding the perfect pace doesn't show itself until race day: the group dynamic. Unless you run with blinders on, it's hard not to occasionally be swept into one pack or another. Those who forsake company often find the miles ceaselessly pile on, yet the risk of going with runners significantly faster or slower than you is large. Particularly for marathon debutantes, though, having company can make all the difference.
"I didn't want to end up by myself," Alisha Williams says of her marathon debut at the Olympic trials. "With my 1500m background, I was worried I'd lose focus by myself." From the gun, Williams latched on to teammate Wendy Thomas and three other runners. Though several members of the group eventually fell off the pace, for Williams those early miles helped her naturally settle into a comfortable rhythm. "It was a great group," she says, "so it worked out really well. But [finding the right pace] is a little bit of a factor of what other people are doing and what your race plan is."
As you determine your pace, being realistic and erring on the side of caution early is a good way to avoid big pitfalls down the road. When in doubt, listen to your body and gauge your perceived effort on race day. If it's too high too early, back off and save the hardest running for the end.
STAYING POSITIVE
Running Times polled readers about how they set their marathon personal bests. Did they run positive splits, with the first half of the race faster; negative splits, a faster second half; or completely evenly? Here's how the responses from more than 400 runners broke down:
More than 3-minute positive split: 32%
Between 1-and 3-minute positive split: 20%
Less than 1-minute positive split: 8%
Completely even, less than 15-second difference: 9%
Less than 1-minute negative split: 9%
Between 1-and 3-minute negative split: 13%
More than 3-minute negative split: 9% |
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