Now to the crux! Most of us train to race but we hardly ever race to our potential. There are many factors to why this is. One of the problems is that most people RACE their workouts. They leave their races at the track. They worry too much about hitting a specific pace which they believe will be best for them. They compete too much with themselves and lose focus on the end result. If you follow my guidelines set above about training, you will have the potential to have a good race. However, suppose you do everything that is suggested and still don’t have a good race? Well, more then likely what needs to be considered is HOW you race. Did you run a SMART race? Through my experience as a coach and a runner I have developed key components which should help you optimize your racing and get the most out of your training.

PACING

• Know your pace
Supposedly you have been training at a certain pace which is HONEST to your potential. You have to make sure you stay the course and try to run a race based on these workouts.

• Start out slow
OK, now this is potentially the most important thing on becoming a SMART RACER! You have to start SLOW! You can literally kill your race, regardless of the distance of the race within the first two minutes of the race. If you start too fast, you will probably not get the best of your race. You build too much lactic acid and your HR escalates and it is almost impossible to save your race. You will slow down at some point in the race, either now or later and that is not what you want to do. You want to constantly speed up throughout the whole race! Use your head for the first half, your guts for the rest! Be Smart! It is way better to start TOO SLOW then TOO FAST!

• Average Pace and Heart Rate: Care in using this term
A lot of experts say that you should run an even paced race for your best race. Ideally I belief this is almost right. But if you think about this in terms of HR, it doesn’t make sense. A certain pace at the beginning of a run/race will always elicit a lower HR then the same pace later on. Similarly, using the negative pace technique advocated here, the second half of a race will be faster than the first. So what does “average” mean? It just means that, the average over the whole course of the run, not what your time is on the average at any given point! You have to remember this. You want to get faster during you race!

PLANNING YOUR RACE

How do you do this? And this has to be very specific, so take care to listen to this and work with it and trust it. It has been shown that every single world record (down to even the 100 meter) is done by negative splitting. Another great example of negative splitting (or nearly even splitting) were the Colorado University Lady Buffaloes during the 2005 Cross Country National Championship. Clearly not the fastest team, maybe 4th or 5th, they managed to get 2nd place. While the faster teams ran positive splits, CU sat back and watched these teams “explode”. CU is probably the best disciplined college team in the country and regardless of their running potential will end up with great performances because Coach Wetmore’s belief in racing smart. The best scenario is that you run the first half about 1-2% slower than race pace and finish up 1-2% faster. It works and it makes you feel good too. It takes time to figure it out and you have to be patient about it. I have some key techniques to consider. They work too!