PLAN YOUR
RACE DAY.

We have four useful pacing metrics for road running; 

♥️ Heart Rate

⏱️ Pace 

⚡ Power

🧘 RPE (Feel)

While “feel” is hardly a metric, it can be incredibly helpful during the race’s early stages.

Recap

Training Zones and Event-Specific Intensities.

• Zone 1 (<75%) – Easy running. 
• Zone 2 (75 – 87%) – Ultramarathon – Steady running. 
• Zone 3 (88 – 94%) – Marathon – Tempo running. 
• Zone 4 (95 – 100%) – Half Marathon – Sub-Threshold running. 
• Zone 5 (101 – 106%) – 10km – Supra-Threshold running. 
• Zone 6 (107 – 115%) – 5km – VO2max running. 
• Zone 7 (>115%) – Sprints – Neuromuscular running. 

With the help of training zones, we can get a quick ballpark of our target race range, and we can use our past training data to get a more accurate guide.

Training Data Half Marathon

Whether you’re using one of my workouts or made your own, you should have run at least 8km or 45min of work @ your desired half marathon intensity before race day. These half marathon effort workouts are the workouts where we can get the most reliable data for what is possible for you on race day.

Step One

Find a run within six weeks of the race in which you’ve run at least 45min or 8km at half marathon effort. The longer, the better, as it’s the end of the half marathon we’re preparing for, not the beginning.

Step Two 

If you haven’t taken laps, you’ll need to highlight the half marathon effort sections of your run  (it’s ok if it’s not exact). If you’ve got a workout where you’ve done, say 5-7x 2km or 3-4x 3km run, we’ll want to look at each rep to see how you’ve handled the effort.

In Intervals.icu, to create a new interval after a completed workout:

1. Open the Activity

   • Click on the “Actions” dropdown menu.

2. Select “Find Intervals”

   • In the dropdown menu, select “Find Intervals” to open the interval detection tool.

3. Set Interval Parameters

   • In the Find Intervals pop-up, select one of the following parameters (Pace is good metric for creating new Intervals):
     • Metric (e.g., Heart Rate, Power, Pace, etc.)
     • Duration (e.g., 20 minutes)
   • Check the option to exclude unwanted intervals if needed.

4. Confirm Interval Selection

   • The system will highlight the detected interval on the chart.
   • Adjust settings if necessary to refine the interval selection.

5. Label and Save the Interval

   • Enter a name for the interval in the Label field.
   • Click the checkmark icon to save the interval.

6. Review the Saved Interval Data

   • Navigate to the “DATA” tab to review the saved interval.
   • The table will display key metrics such as elapsed time, power, pace, heart rate, and intensity for the selected interval.

Step Three 

Write down the average Pace, Power, Heart Rate and IF – intensity factor (goal <100%) for each rep. We can’t really use the decoupling ratio (Pa:Hr or Pw:Hr) as we can for marathon training because the back end of a half marathon is not steady-state. Your HR may not increase much over your last interval, not because you’re running at a sustainable effort, but because there’s not much higher it can physiologically go.

Step Four

Check your average heart rate and zone for the last minute (60sec) of each rep. Our goal is to have a steady state HR for the first 30min. i.e. under zone 5 (<100% LTHR). An increasing HR is ok, but if it’s increasing from zone 4 to the top of zone 5 within the first 30min, you’re working near maximal levels, which is not advisable unless you’re going to run < 1:10hr.

After 30min, we want to monitor how high our HR is getting. Our goal is to stay under 103%, which is zone 5a in TrainingPeaks. If we’re hitting near-maximal HR numbers within 60min, we either getting too hot, or we’re on our way to a MASSIVE explosion. 

Now you have your target numbers for race day. For race day, you should gain 1-2% in performance, which can be 2-5sec/km faster than your training pace. Using the numbers from your half marathon workouts gives you a reliable and realistic insight into what is possible on race day. Because of the performance boost of tapering and the race environment, you can use the numbers from training as your ceiling limits for the first half, knowing you’ll be running comfortably within your marathon limits.

Example

a 6x 2km workout:

Because this runner’s HR data is almost entirely in zone 4 while running consistently at threshold pace & power we can use these pace & power numbers to set initial race targets or ceiling limits for the first half of the half marathon.

It’s worth noting the topography of the training run compared to the race course (hilly Vs flat), as this will influence the pace target. 

I’ll cover adapting to the course and conditions in mental skills.

Negative Split Pacing

Using the pace/power/HR ceilings I mapped out above is targeted as a neutral pacing strategy where you run near your half marathon limits with the idea that you’ll get to 15 Km (10 miles) with enough energy in the tank to maintain or even speed up slightly. If you’re not having a 100% day, you should only slow slightly rather than hitting the wall completely.

However, if you’re running your first half marathon, a training race or you don’t have any historical data to set your targets, or you’re a little sceptical about your form leading in the race. I would recommend implementing a negative split pacing strategy. Negative split pacing is where you start the race slightly slower than your target pace/power with the plan to progressively get faster throughout the race. Negative pacing is an extremely safe pacing strategy and will always ensure you’ve persevered enough energy over the early stages of the race should you not be having a good day. The downside of negative pacing is that you get to 15km (10 miles) and struggle to speed up to the extent you need to overcome your slower. 

To set your negative pacing strategy starting pace/power, reduce your target pace/power by 3% or about 5-10sec/km. Aim to speed up by 2% (2-3sec/km) each 5km. 

If you don’t have any historical data to set your ceilings, use 95% of your threshold pace/power as your start point and an upper HR limit of 100% LTHR for the first 30min.

Action Points

1️⃣ Find your ceiling numbers using steps 1 – 4.

2️⃣ If you don’t have any historical data to set your ceilings, use 95% of your threshold pace/power as your start point and an upper HR limit of 100% LTHR for the first 30min.

3️⃣ Determine if you will use a neutral or negative pacing strategy. Adjust your numbers as required.

By event day, you should clearly understand the types of nutrition you can tolerate while running and how often you need to consume these. There’s no point getting to the start line in great physiological shape only to derail your performance by trying out new event-day nutrition that doesn’t agree with your gut.

When running long distances, the general rule is to consume at least 60 grams of carbohydrates per hour (240 kcal). I consider 60g/hr minimum and 120 g/hr maximum. Where you sit within that range will depend on your gastrointestinal (GI) tolerances. Implement what you’ve practised, and don’t try to increase your carbohydrates for race day.

HALF MARATHONS ARE UNIQUE. Most runners can get away without carbohydrate supplementation for durations < 60min, which makes the half marathon a grey area for nutrition advice. For those running a half marathon <1:30min, you’re operating at intensities near 100% LTH, making digestion difficult. Therefore, I suggest taking gels at more spaced-out intervals than a marathon to avoid gastrointestinal issues.

Unfortunately, we don’t have the ability to take a bunch of carbohydrates early in the race while our relative intensity is low and store them for later. We pretty much use what’s available, and it’s only when our internal carbohydrate stores (glycogen) begin to deplete that we need to supplement.

Therefore, a basic half marathon nutrition protocol is one gel at 30min and 1hr and then every 20min thereafter. Which gives you a maximum of 50g/hr for the first hour and then up to 75g/hr for the second hour. 

This is a basic recommendation. If you’re comfortable with the on-course nutrition, you can develop your own nutrition protocol based on the aid stations.

Hydration

It is incredibly hard to make a blanket recommendation for hydrating during endurance sports. Individual sweat rates and race day conditions play a huge part in your fluid requirements. Generally, you’ll be doing your best if you drink water at every aid station from the beginning. As the temperature or humidity increases, your fluid requirements can increase. Therefore, you must be more strict at aid stations to ensure you get enough hydration rather than pouring it all over your face. 

Action Points

1️⃣Write out your nutrition plan

2️⃣Check for personal aid stations

Tapering is always hard. You need to freshen up, but you still have to do some hard workouts so you don’t get stale. Otherwise, the race will be too much of a shock to the system. At the same time, you can’t thrash yourself, or you’ll start the race cooked.

Tapering requires you to be super in tune with how you feel daily to avoid overdoing it.

Generally, you can only do too much. Assuming you’ve made it through 80% of your training with an odd missed workout here and there. At two weeks until the race, you have zero chance to train yourself fitter. You can only recover yourself fitter and train yourself fresher. 

What do I mean by that? 

Building aerobic or anaerobic fitness requires a consistent, repetitive stimulus to induce an adaptation response. This training stress puts the muscle system into a suboptimal condition from which it must recover. During training, we aim to consistently apply stress to the muscle system while only allowing for just enough recovery to allow us to apply more stress. We do this with the long-term plan that we will have a recovery week or taper from which we will allow our muscle system to recover fully. Once fully recovered, our muscle system now has a higher level of capacity than previously (i.e. is fitter). Without a period of prolonged recovery (tapering) we remain in a suboptimal state. More training during our taper won’t make us fitter in the short term. It’ll only increase the likelihood of our muscle system being in a suboptimal state on race day. Therefore, our training within our taper should be designed to help freshen our muscle system for race day. Typical taper training would be 50-75% of your average weekly load and include a Fartlek/HIIT workout alongside a short race effort at goal race pace/power or slightly above. You should not feel like you’re pushing beyond 7 out of 10. 

It’s ok to feel sluggish during your taper, and it is often a common complaint of runners expecting to feel exponentially fitter on day one of a two-week taper. However, due to the prior weeks and months of training, a fair amount of fatigue must be overcome before we can feel amazing. At times, that amazing feeling will never arrive, but it doesn’t mean we’re not recovering. Listen to your body, rest more if needed, and believe you’ll be ready to execute when the race starts. 

Action Points

1️⃣Write a draft tapering plan

What to do on a bad day. Training has gone well. You’ve got your target metrics and sorted your nutrition plan. However, come race day, several things can occur that will require you to adjust your plan on the fly;

• Heavy legs (off day)
• Heat and humidity
• Wind
• Course conditions (topography, wet, rough)
• Nutrition issues

“Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the face.”

When everything is going well, it’s easy to stay on top of your mindset. It’s when shit hits the fan that we need a plan. It is also where our fourth metric, “feel”, becomes significantly important to our race day performance. 

When we need to change our race plan during the race, the biggest inhibitor is our worry about outcomes. “I need to stay with this group”. “I can’t hit my time if I slow down”. “I’m going to look like an idiot if I don’t beat…”.

To prevent worries about external factors negatively affecting your performance, focus on the mental strategies you can employ during your event. I use the “Systems Check Method” to help athletes stay focused on the task at hand and avoid making bad decisions based on uncontrollable factors.

Here’s how the “Systems Check Method” works for me. I have a list of “tick box” items that I run through my systems checklist in my head every few minutes.

• Heart Rate – Am I in my zone?
• Pace/Power – Am I running too fast/hard?
• Time/Distance – How long until the next aid station?
• Drink – How thirsty am I?
• Eat – Do I need a gel? What am I going to eat next, and when?
• Feel – Am I hot? Am I struggling more than I should be? Am I comfortable?
• What’s my process goal? To race to MY abilities. Am I doing that, or am I focusing on someone or something else?
• Why am I doing this? To execute MY best race (not anyone else’s).

Along with my systems check method, I always have a couple of sayings or mantras that I repeat to myself in different situations. These can be written on your arm, placed in a drop bag, or held in your head. Some examples are;

• Never rush. Always relax
• Breathe, Rhythm, Relax
• Run smart. Be Patient

While all of these strategies will help you race to your best ability, long-distance running is hard, and you need to be prepared to hurt and the self-doubt that comes with this. The process of ticking boxes and staying focused on what you can do in the now to ensure you keep moving forward through the hurt will keep you from thinking about how much you still have to endure to get to the finish line.

Actions Points

1️⃣ Write out your Systems Checklist

2️⃣ Come up with two or three mantras to help you overcome negative mindsets.