Jim, I'm saying A) take the first half easy, and be behind the target, then push the second half.
Like OO said, it's tough to perfect, but my experience so far has been that you end up feeling better after the race, plus you become the one passing everyone at the end instead of the one being passed, and dragging in. You always want a good finish line photo.
Most of what I've read and tried to do is break the race into thirds.
First you need to determine what you think your best pace will be at the end of the race. If it's a half marathon, this will be about 4 miles. I try to use my 5k pace, minus 10-15 seconds, since I'll a little tire. Take that time, and subtract it from your target overall pace.that difference is how much over the target pace I try to run the first 3rd of the race.
For the 2nd 3rd, I try to run at the target pace.
So for example, my 5k pace is 8:30 (yes I'm slow). I take 15 seconds away from that. I figure I'm going to run the last 4 miles at 8:45 or faster if I can handle it. I want to beat 2hours for a half marathon, so my target pace is 9:09, which will be my pace for the middle portion. 9:09 minus 8:45 is 24 seconds. 9:09 + :24 is 9:33, which is my target pace for the first 4 miles. This is good, because I regularly train at this pace, and I know I can easily maintain it for the entirety of the race if I'm not feeling it, and it helps prevent injury.
So to recap my splits would look something like...
Miles 1-4 - 9:33/mi
Miles 5-9 - 9:09
Miles 10-13.1 - 8:45
If you feel really good by the middle portion you can go for a faster pace, but I try not to get to far from the goal at this point. If you still feel good, you can really push it to the end, and try to get ahead of your pace, and use up all of your gas. My personal rule of thumb is that the further I am from the finish, the stricter I try to be with the pacing.
However the first mile is the most difficult because I try to do it by feel, because it's usually too crowded to look at the watch an check the pace, without risking running into someone. So I try to concentrate on my surroundings.
Like OO said, it's tough to perfect, but my experience so far has been that you end up feeling better after the race, plus you become the one passing everyone at the end instead of the one being passed, and dragging in. You always want a good finish line photo.
Most of what I've read and tried to do is break the race into thirds.
First you need to determine what you think your best pace will be at the end of the race. If it's a half marathon, this will be about 4 miles. I try to use my 5k pace, minus 10-15 seconds, since I'll a little tire. Take that time, and subtract it from your target overall pace.that difference is how much over the target pace I try to run the first 3rd of the race.
For the 2nd 3rd, I try to run at the target pace.
So for example, my 5k pace is 8:30 (yes I'm slow). I take 15 seconds away from that. I figure I'm going to run the last 4 miles at 8:45 or faster if I can handle it. I want to beat 2hours for a half marathon, so my target pace is 9:09, which will be my pace for the middle portion. 9:09 minus 8:45 is 24 seconds. 9:09 + :24 is 9:33, which is my target pace for the first 4 miles. This is good, because I regularly train at this pace, and I know I can easily maintain it for the entirety of the race if I'm not feeling it, and it helps prevent injury.
So to recap my splits would look something like...
Miles 1-4 - 9:33/mi
Miles 5-9 - 9:09
Miles 10-13.1 - 8:45
If you feel really good by the middle portion you can go for a faster pace, but I try not to get to far from the goal at this point. If you still feel good, you can really push it to the end, and try to get ahead of your pace, and use up all of your gas. My personal rule of thumb is that the further I am from the finish, the stricter I try to be with the pacing.
However the first mile is the most difficult because I try to do it by feel, because it's usually too crowded to look at the watch an check the pace, without risking running into someone. So I try to concentrate on my surroundings.