Marathon Pace Strategies

[Jose Jimenez]

I know some people plan their Marathon pace strategies by simply trying to run an even race and keep their average under the required overall average pace for their target time.  I have run marathons like this before with some success.  However, recently I have divided the course into 4-5 target pace sections that if met will help me achieve my overall target pace.  For example: Miles 1-8 at 7:20 pace average , Miles 8-13 at 7:30 average, Miles 13-17 at 7:35 average, etc.  I tried this at Ogden with some success, improving my PR from Mesquite by 16 minutes (3:20 vs. 3:36).  I know that all my PR was not due to pace strategy but I am sure pace strategy was helpful.

I am now wondering if running this way is not too conservative and even detrimental.  Each pace section is critical to my overall performance.  If I miss one section’s average pace, even by a few seconds, I could have thrown the whole race.  I guess this depends on the length of each section.  I find it unwieldy to have a pace goal for every mile so I decided to use pace sections.
 So here is my question to you marathoners:  what is your pace strategy approach in the Marathon and why does it work for you?

[April G]

I have only run two marathons.  The first one I went for a pre-set realistic pace suggested by Sasha and slowed down a lot at the end--more due to inexperience and lack of conditioning than anything.  My second marathon I started out slower than my target pace and tried to pick it up the second half.  The conservative start is the way to go, I think.  I slowed down at the end but only by about 10-15 seconds per mile, and not until the last 4 miles, and managed to slightly negative split the marathon and PR by 15 minutes.  In my inexperienced opinion, if it is a flat course of similar difficulty throughout, the conservative first half is definitely better.  I find it interesting how you divide your race into sections.  I have thought of both of my marathons as 5x5 mile sections with a 1.2 mile push at the end, and this seems to mentally get me through.

[Jon Allen]

Jose- scientifically, in Advanced Marathoning, Pfitzinger and Douglas state that the optimal pacing strategy is to run at a relatively even effort, depending on the particular characteristics of the course (aka hills, wind, etc). Surging will waste valuable glycogen (energy stores), and running slower than pace will force you to make up for the lapse later.

That being said, I would say that it is much better to run slightly slower/conservative at the start, and pick up the pace (or effort) at the end, versus starting off too fast and bonking hard.  It is natural to have a 1-3% slowdown from start to finish, so if your planned pace slowdown is within that range, you're doing pretty good.

For my last marathon, I took a Top of Utah pace chart (which gave me goal splits for each mile, accounting for hills).  I printed off and laminated a small card that gave each 5 mile split for the marathon, and then checked myself to make sure I wasn't too far off the goal time.  For the first 5 miles, I had to force myself to slow down a bit, but I then had the energy to run fast at the end and pass people in the last miles.  And the split for my last 13.1 miles of the race was only 23 seconds slower than my goal!  But by having a goal time for each 5 mile split, I only had to worry about that portion.

[Jose Jimenez]

Both of you seem to take a similar approach to mine.  However, I have yet to experience a negative split in a marathon.  I wonder if keeping track of time goals for each section is better than keeping track of overall average pace for each section.  I may try that in my next long run.  I also print out the course profile from the course tool to get my splits, which I write with marker on my forearm, but I wonder if I give too much credence to the suggested paces based on elevation.  In marathons like Utah Valley and ToU this results in much faster first halves, which may be sabotaging my performance during the second half.

I have been strictly adjusting my pace sections based on overall elevation and grade.  But I am thinking I may have to also adjust for early level of effort vs. effort required on the last half in order to get as even a pace as possible.  The combination of these two things (elevation/grade and spread of effort) is what makes setting out a pace strategy tricky for me.  Another question is (and Jon alluded to this already), how do you use your Garmin/Watch to keep pace throughout the race?

[Jon Allen]

I don't wear my garmin during a race, just a regular watch.  Then I check my segment splits using the marathon mile markers (i.e. 5 mile split of 29:45), rather than individual mile pace.

[Mikal Epperson]

In my earlier marathons, I went for positive splits (banking time for what I thought was the inevitable slow-down of the second half), then I tried equal splits, and finally negative splits.  The biggest success for me has been negative splitting.  I almost always lost more time in the second half when I'd fall apart from going out too fast.  Equal splits also hasn't panned out much for me either.  With Ogden and Utah Valley this year, I headed out with the strategy of hanging back a couple of minutes from goal pace for the first half.  I then ramped up my pace for the second half.  This yielded a negative split of 6:40 at Ogden and 7:54 at Utah Valley.  I have also avoided bonking, and feel much better as a whole.

[Dan]

Jose- Your Garmin question, did you want to know your pace for each of your splits or overall pace (that should be easy)? You can custom set the Garmin speed zones to go off if you are going to fast or slow and set that for custom miles.  So if you want to run about a certain pace for the first 5 miles and a different pace for the next 5 and so on it can be done that way. If I am misunderstanding  or if you want it more detailed let me know!

All- this topic interests me as I want to become more efficient in marathon running. Keep the info up

[Jose Jimenez]

Dan - I would like to see how you can do that on a Garmin 305.  That would be helpful.  Thus far I have been following average lap pace and hitting the lap button at the end of each section.

I guess I really need to give negative splits an honest try.  I just get spooked about going out slower and not being able to recover at the end.  Does everyone agree that negative splits is the way to go or does it really depend on the course I am running.  I can see negative splits being a good option for a course like St. George but would it make sense for a course like ToU?

[Paul Petersen]

It's unlikely you would want to run negative splits at TOU, as the course is skewed in favor of the first half. If you run an even effort, your first half will be roughly 2-3 minutes faster than the second half.

But in general negative splits are a lot more run than positive splits. Once you try it, you won't want to go back.

[Dan]

Jose- I also have a 305 so it should be semi-easy to explain.
Once you are at the main screen after turning the Garmin on press 'Mode' Then...
--> Training
--> Workouts
--> Advanced
--> Create New - then 'edit'
Here you should see something like this:

1. Open no target
<add new step>

select 1. hit enter and then 'edit step'
Two boxes will be there.
'Duration' change this to 'distance'
Then put how many miles you want on this split. Say you put in '8'

The next set of boxes will be-
'Target' make this equal 'Speed'
Next is a tad tricky as you will see all the Garmin pre-setup paces. Ignore those and arrow up and select 'Custom'
Now you have two more boxes at the bottom. One is slowest pace and one is fastest pace. So in your original example (which I understand you are looking to change) you said your first 8 miles you wanted to run at a 7:20 pace.
So in the first pace I would put in something like 7:23 and the second pace something like 7:17. (you can fine tune as you see fit)

Now that is done you can 'add new step' and do the next 8 miles with a 7:33 and a 7:27 or something like that.

What this will do as you run with the Garmin,  it will beep at you if your pace is too fast (faster than the 7:17) or if the pace is too slow (7:23).
Once you pass 8 miles it will automatically switch to the next step. You can add as many steps as you want. I have a few custom runs with 10 steps changing pace more frequently (well I used too, currently I am just adding base miles and not as much speed work).

Okay I hope this all makes sense- give it a try and ask me if it doesn't make sense!

[Jose Jimenez]

Thanks Dan.  I will try this for my long run tomorrow.

[Jon Allen]

I wore a garmin once with pace alerts.  Between the inherent pace uncertainty of the garmin, plus the small rolling hills of the run, the thing beeped at me practically the whole time that I was either too fast or too slow.  I just about took the watch off and threw it at a car.  Hopefully it doesn't annoy you as much as it did me.

[Dave Holt]

One time one of my runners put the pace alerts on for a tempo run.  It was a bad day and we weren't hitting anything and I about pushed him into oncoming traffic to shut the stupid thing up!  (It is the only time I have ever been happy to have a kid really fall off in a workout!)

[Chris M]

I have found the default garmin 'instant' pace setting is totally unreliable but if you set it to lap at one mile and display the current average pace for the current mile it is a lot more consistent and useful!

[Sasha Pachev]

I remember in 2007 TOU Garmin said I had just run a quarter in 70 seconds (4:40 pace) on a rolling terrain at 4500 feet in the middle of mile 24! I was actually going around 6:00. I find such nonsense very distracting. If I worked on that software, I would teach it to not say anything at all if it did not have anything intelligent to say. You must learn to tell how fast you are going without Garmin.

Regarding pacing, even effort does not give me even pacing even on a perfectly flat terrain. I have run over 50 marathons, most attempts at a negative split ended in a disaster - second half was still slower than the first, but I have run some good ones by running a very aggressive first half. So I would say it depends on the runner. I would not worry about it too much. Run mile 1 with an effort you think you can sustain for 26. Run mile 2 with the effort you think you can sustain for 25. Run mile N with the effort you think you can sustain for 26 - N. Your body when trained has a good idea of how much juice it has left. After a few marathons you will figure out what works best for your body.