So far during my training, the dilemma of what speed I should be running at isn't really something that has entered my mind. That's not to say I have spent the whole time running at exactly the same speed - my schedule has been full of easy runs, steady runs and tempo sessions - however I have based all of these on how my body feels. Easy runs - I can talk the whole way around, or, less pleasant to anyone in the surrounding area, sing along to my favourite music (on the days that I am listening to it). Steady runs I up the effort a little, so I have to actually pause for breath between sentences, and on tempo days or during 'fast' intervals its a struggle to get more than a single word out (it also starts to feel like my legs are going to fall off but I am hoping that's something that will improve once the strength work at the gym kicks in!).
However, reading on to the next few weeks of running, I noticed the words ' marathon pace' start to creep in. According to my training plan, I will be running miles 'at marathon pace', 'below marathon pace' and 'faster than marathon pace'. All very well, but having never run a marathon before, what exactly IS my marathon pace?! Being proactive about these things, I got straight online and tried out the Runners World Race Pace Calculator. Basing my times on my last 10K, I entered my details... and was promptly predicted a marathon race time of 3:40 (give or take a few seconds). Now, I am an optimistic person and always like to think that I can do well when I put my mind to something or want something badly enough. A time of 3:40 in my first ever marathon however, when I have never run more than 10 miles before (and was pretty sure I was going to keel over when I did run 10 miles), seems exceeding unrealistic! So how else can I work out my pace?
Putting my mind to working this out, I started thinking about what I actually wanted to run the marathon in, in a realistic sense (obviously I would WANT to run it in 3:40..!). Whilst you may think its odd that I haven't thought about this before, since entering the marathon my sole ambition has been to get round, and still be alive at the end of it! To me, running 26.2 miles seems a little impossible (I tell myself it's not, having seen some friends manage it more than once..), and putting a time limit on an 'impossible' task didn't seem necessary. However, if I really think about how I would feel about different finishing times, I came to the conclusion that anything slower than 5 hours I would be a little disappointed in (cue immediate fears that I will now take 6 hours...), and anything quicker than 4:30 I would be thrilled with. So, based on that.. my pace per mile could be anything from 11.45 min/ mile to 10.30 min/ mile (provided my maths is right, which is often debatable...). But how to narrow that down to a precise number?!
This is when I turned to my Garmin. Having accurately recorded the pace of all my previous runs, surely this would give some clues? So, switching on the computer, where all the data had been carefully downloaded, I started going through each run. Unfortunately, instead of helping, this just made me more confused! Basically every run I had done, whether its easy, interval, steady or tempo, short or long, appeared to have an average pace of 8.30 min/ mile! yes, in the intervals I was doing part of that mile a bit faster, and part a bit slower, but my body seemed intent on sticking to the same speed, regardless of how hard or easy the session felt - a speed that I'm sure I wouldn't be able to keep up for a whole marathon! So, as its faster than the lower end of my 'marathon range', should I pick the 10.30 min/ mile as my marathon pace, or should I be aiming for something a bit faster? I don't want to push myself too hard and not be able to complete the marathon, but equally I want to do as well as I am capable of... so now I feel a bit stuck!
Also, once I have worked out what my marathon pace actually is, just how much slower should I go for 'below marathon pace', and how much faster should the 'faster than marathon pace' be? This training seems to be taxing my mind almost as much as its taxing my body today!
So, any experienced marathoners out there, advice would be very welcome :-)
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