Looking back on our best races – we remember all the ways we felt. Riding out a rough patch to get shot out the other side with legs still intact. We can still feel the final 100m’s legs burning, eyes leaking out a few tears of joy, and the feeling of crinkly mylar at the finish. The best races we have and the worst races we have come down to preparation for that start line. We’ll remember our best races forever, and try to forget the days that every step felt like hell. When we do have bad days, it’s important to not just shove them into the back of our brains to be quickly forgotten. Tony Robbins likes to say that success leaves clues – well so does failure and I think we learn a whole lot more from our failures than we do from our successes.

Pacing/ Race Strategy

Let’s start with the most obvious way people “ruin a race” they simply misjudge their own ability and haul off the start line with the greatest intentions but by the ½ way mark they’re praying to whoever will listen to help them get back to the pace of their first miles. 

In writing this, defining a race strategy can be a laborious plan that looks at daily mileage goals for a 200 mile race, or mile splits for your next 5k. While there is no “one size fits all” strategy for both ends of the spectrum, I’ll give some insight from experience. For flat or slightly rolling races of 50K or less, your best training AND racing strategy is to learn to progress your effort and “negative split”. This has a great deal to do with how you physiologically prepare for a race – you start out too hard, you overload your bodies ability to manage the aerobic demand and lactic load. After the 50K mark we start to see the strategy move from “last half faster” to -steady, consistent effort – no matter the terrain. This is true for 50 miles up to multi-day events, one big push on a climb can completely rob you of strong capable legs by the time you hit mile 80, you still have 20 miles to go!

Take time to use tools like the Jack Daniels Calculator to determine your equivalent fitness to other recent races. If you’re setting out a goal to run under 3 hours in a marathon, your best to go through in 1:29 or 1:30 and feel comfortable vs. running 1:26 through half way and “hope you hang on” hope holds nothing with 10 miles to go. Progression, progression, progression.

• Practicing your race pace for at-least 50% or more of your goal race for races marathon and under

• Practicing your race effort for 30% of your goal race time for races up to 100 miles

• Use calculators to determine current fitness equivalents and define a strategy based on known information

Physical Preparation

Simply put, was your body ready for the demands you put on it? Were you prepared to open in 1:26 or were you “feeling good”? Did you practice taking that much nutrition in during the race? Did you practice that pace during your long runs?

As we reflect back on prior races, we have to determine if we were prepared for the race we had in mind. I can’t say enough about tracking and managing your fitness, you can use an app like Training Peaks, a basic journal, or a simple excel sheet. The most important part is giving yourself reflections and details about the good days and bad days. When you take notes don’t just write “legs were sore”. Why were they sore? Did you do a bunch of downhill over the weekend? Did you lift weights the day before? Have they been hurting for 3 straight days? All of this information is helpful if you choose to use your insights to influence your decision making in training. As a coach I can 10x someone’s results who give me insight into how they are feeling so I can compare subjective feelings to objective data.

When it comes to objective data (pace, mileage, cadence, power, etc..) there just isn’t a tool that can hang with Training Peaks for data analytics and it’s ability to accurately predict and display an athletes fatigue further pushes it away from other tools. If you’re curious about metrics and understanding how training stress creates these metrics and what they mean you can learn more about that in this YouTube video.

Tracking and managing your workouts is nearly useless if you’re not getting specific with your training. This means setting realistic parameters and sticking to them – if your goal pace is 6:45/ mile don’t make it 6:55 one day and 6:40 another – you need to build both your mental and physical fortitude. Race pace is always going to be difficult but not impossible that’s how you know you have set a realizable goal – especially for the half and full marathon distance. 

What about strength training? What about yoga and stretching? Absolutely, these are all support systems for your goal. I would love to have all my athletes do band work and integrate strength training up to 2x/w eek and use Yoga and stretching as cool down activities. I believe that we need to periodize the intensity and duration throughout training. The off-season is a great time to focus on the ancillary weaknesses like strength and flexibility that can develop when your focus as an athlete is shifted to running higher mileage.

Mental Toughness

The least leveraged tool in the game yet it’s one of the most powerful tools you can develop. It’s not above spending more time in the pain cave and suffering, it’s about recognizing the discomfort and learning how to deal with it and manage yourself in a time of stress. It takes practice to make friends with discomfort and knowing how much is “enough”. There are days that absolutely demand suffering, and there are days that it’s just not in the tank. Mental toughness requires that we go into a tough session or race with a full tank or at the very least – willingness to scrape the bottom of the tank when you’re purposely showing up with half a tank.

Mental toughness isn’t about seeing how bad you can hurt for as long as you can manage. There are many reasons you might not show up mentally ready to dig in to a tough workout or race. If you come in thinking you’re recovered to find out that your legs are zapped, that not only hurts physically but you’re now second guessing yourself on a mental and physical level.

Mental toughness is a calculated progression of risk in workout or race. It’s about hanging on until the last moment before you know you have to slide back in pace. This calculation is a balance of discipline, discomfort, and Grit. I have always thought of suffering as a reckless, slobbering at the mouth, no care for mechanics, death march.

““Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional.”

Mental toughness comes from leaning into the pain, recognizing that you can hurt but still have your brain intact. This is where grit, fight, and tenacity intertwine. The next time things get tough – let out a few deep breaths and enjoy the discomfort. That discomfort is a great reminder that we’re alive!