When most of us enter a road race, we’re trying to run the fastest time possible on that day.  But often place matters — either overall or within your age group.  When that’s the case, it’s going to be important to approach the race differently.  Let’s look at a few areas where racing is significantly different from time trialing:

1)  Early pace – if you’re trying for your best time, you want to run the race fairly even and not waste too much energy at the beginning of the race.  If you’re concerned with place, you’ll want to establish position early in the race.  By staying “within striking distance” of your competition early on it will be easier mentally to catch them later in the race.

You can practice this in workouts by either starting the first rep of a workout faster than normal, or by running the first lap of a longer rep faster than pace before settling in for the rest of the rep.

2)  Middle of the race surges — again, if you’re trying to run as fast as possible, you want to run an even pace throughout the race.  But you’ll find a surge in the middle of a race can drop an opponent who is struggling.  You’ll want the ability to counter this type of surge by your competition.

In workouts, set specific reps that will be “surge reps.” Run those faster than your pace for the rest of the workout and focus on getting right back on pace in the next rep.  This will add a challenging, race-simulation element to your workout that you miss if you run each rep at the same pace.

3)  Different kicks — at the end of a race you’ll have to decide the best type of kick to use.  Sometimes it’s grinding from a half-mile or more out from the finish.  Other times it’s waiting until the last possible moment to kick past your opponent.  Generally the more tired your opponent seems, the farther out you want to make your move — no need to let them hang around and gain confidence.  This can also be effective if you’re feeling tired.  You may be able to demoralize them into giving up, even when you don’t have much left yourself — nothing wrong with a good bluff!

In workouts, mix up the distance of your last rep.  For example, run a 1K as your last interval one week to practice running hard for a long period at the end of a race.  The next workout, finish with a few blazing 200′s to work on your finishing kick.

By understanding and training for these differences, you can develop a racing style that will let you run fast and finish high!

Tags: coaching advice, racing, running, time trialing, training