A Comfortably Hard Race

I've got the red rock half marathon this saturday morning, and I'm looking forward to it despite the elevation change that will be involved. Basically the first half is uphill 1000 feet and the second part downhill the same. A half marathon roller coaster.

I feel good, I've been taking the training easy this week so I should be fresh enough to put in a good effort. I'm aiming for an average pace of just over 7 minutes a mile, maybe closer to 7:15 if the incline proves particularly tough. I'm not looking for a PR here.

It's a smaller race with 300 to 400 runners so I'm hoping to be somewhere near the front. My goal is to keep the lead "peloton" in sight by running comfortably hard, which is what a 7 minute pace should be for me, about a 160 pulse with long full breaths but no heavy breathing.

I want to be very careful not to push it into the gasping/panting zone on the initial uphill in an effort to keep up with the leaders - this is something I've fallen for before and it will kill my effort at having a strong second half and negative split.

After the halfway point the game plan is to accelerate on the downhills with at least 5 on the toes sprints and hopefully reel in some fish. I've been practicing mixing in 100 yard sprints into my tempo runs and this should be something within my ability to pull off. I'd love to finish in the top 10, which seems plausible based on last year's results. My current PR is a 1:28 at this past December's Vegas half, which was flat and fast. Still I'd like to run close to that.

But until Saturday morning I've just got to chill out, taper, eat moderately and get enough sleep. And then come race day, do what I do every day, just a little bit harder.