How to execute when you are under-prepared for your race?
Had an interesting question this week. Someone asked me what a good racing strategy is if you know you are undertrained for your race.
This happens more than you would think. People are more prone to get injured in their peak training weeks. This leaves them short some conditioning cycles that they can’t make up and may force them to take it easy while they recover.
For shorter races like 5k’s and 10k’s you can usually just fake it if you have any conditioning at all. You may not set your PR, but It won’t kill you.
For the longer races, ½ marathons and above you have to consider the fact that you don’t have all you resources at your disposal and won’t be bringing your ‘A’ game. It’s important not to try to train hard right before the race in an effort to ‘make it up’. You can’t cram for a race like trying to learn a semester of Biology. That will only make things worse. Execute your normal ramp down and taper as if you had trained properly.
Now, I’m sure I’m not covering new ground here, and it’s not going to surprise you when I tell you that the most important thing to do is to go out slow. Predetermine what a good pace is that you won’t flame out at. Hold that pace early and at some point, maybe the ½ way point, check yourself, see how you feel and make adjustments.
You may feel awful and have to adjust the pace down even more or take some preemptive walks. You may feel great and ratchet the pace up incrementally until you find your limit.
If you are really scared about your conditioning pre-plan walk breaks. For instance, walk for 2 minutes at every 5 mile water stop no matter what. If you’re already doing a walk-run method increase the walk ratios for the first ½ of the race.
I will give you an example. Going into the Boston Marathon last year I had trained hard for a ½ marathon in February but had not trained specifically for a marathon in April. I thought the training might carry over, but I had no idea of how much or what kind of performance to expect.
What did I do? I went out slow. I hooked up with a teammate who was running a nice steady 8 minute pace and hung with her for the first 15-17 miles. When I hit the hills of Newton I took inventory, felt great, so I gradually sped up my pace until at the end I was running 7:15’s for a nice negative split 3:22 finish.
The lesson here is that if you have been running and training for a long time, even if you’re not 100% sure of your conditioning for this race, you can ease into the race and feel it out as you go.
Chris Russell lives and trains in suburban Massachusetts with his family and Border collie Buddy. Chris is the author of “The Mid-Packer’s Lament”, and “The Mid-Packer’s Guide to the Galaxy”, short stories on running, racing, and the human comedy of the mid-pack. Chris writes the Runnerati Blog at www.runnerati.com. Chris’ Podcast, RunRunLive is available on iTunes and at www.runrunlive.com. Chris also writes for CoolRunning.com (Active.com) and is a member of the Squannacook River Runners and the Goon Squad.
Email me at cyktrussell at Gmail dot com
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