Monday, February 10, 2020

Pacing



Pacing is key to success in a race

I have been trying to work out a simple explanation of my personal pacing philosophy (3p) and on a walk the other day it all came together ...
  
Key
Lap           1km
Pace         Pace  for that  km
GAP          Strava evaluates pace based on elevation gain and loss and gives an approximation of effort  
Elev           Elevation gain/loss of the km  
HR             Heart rate
7:20           Planned pace - this is a comfortable training pace for me 
Elapsed     Total walk time
Goal           Goal time at 7:20
Gain Total  Ahead or behind Goal in total
Gain km     Ahead  or behind for current km
Ave Pace   Am I on schedule

So to do a sub 11 on the Up Comrades one needs to finish at just below 7:35 pace. A simple 41 s /km slower will be a sub 12.. Ah the simple basis of pacing. I do round these off a bit, but it is your average pace that is critical. Garmin has a Race Screen if you have ConnectIQ, this will allow you to correct the distance when doing an accurate race eg Cape Town Marathon where I corrected my watch distance about 4 times, actually seeing how the 1m is added in for every km as per measuring guidelines- this prevents a race being short  (page 15...    MeasurementOfRoadRaceCourses.pdf ) plus the extra few m for not taking the shortest line. This race screen kept me on target for a 4:34:30 finish time for a G seeding , some running was involved and mat to mat.  I used the Race Screen on Comrades and I believe it helped me as by changing that data screen I could see exact finish time at that ave pace.. No fade is built in but that is easy to workout. I tend to round off my race distance to allow a bit of fade even in the final stretch. 

Looking at my above walk, the first km was 27 too slow, no really an issue (yet) then I lost another 35 secs but this is my hardest hill on my route.. now I am 62 seconds behind target, with 13km to go I need to now average 7:15 ie 13 x 5 secs is 65 seconds to get below my 7:20, where a runner has the advantage is in being able to run downhills below 6min/km and gain that 62sec plus in 1km . I need to chip away at the deficit slowly. Remember every km I do faster than 7:20/km will eat into  the 62sec  and every km slower will add to it .   3km add another 13 secs, but then i gradually wore away at the deficit till in the 10km I erased it. I then managed to build up a cushion and get ahead of the clock.

I hope this is not too confusing, if it is send your queries...