10 Mins WU @ Easy Pace (RPE: 2)
10 Miles @ HM Pace (RPE: 5-9)
10 Mins CD @ Easy Pace (RPE: 3)
With the hills, I’ve found half marathon pace is the best we can hope for here, but obviously that will fluctuate greatly depending on the section you are on. Dig deep up the hills and focus on good form.
Some of the team find targets helpful, others hate them. It’s up to you really whether you would like me to set targets. For me I find it can make the race more enjoyable. I recalculate my progress after each lap (mile). So if I ran the first mile (uphill) in 9:30 and the target was 9:20, I know I’m 10 seconds off pace. What this does is help focus the mind on 1 mile at a time and when things do get tough up the hills you keep pushing to ensure you don’t lose much time.
Speaking of hills. Trying to maintain a consistent effort whether it be uphill, downhill or on the flat is a good strategy and once I learnt this my times in these type of races improved significantly. Previously I’d always worked super hard up the hill to maintain a good pace and then when I reached the top I was so tired I eased back. Once I started to slow down uphill, conserve some energy, I was able to run the flats and downhills much quicker. So the focus was on trying to maintain a 6-7 RPE regardless whether I was going uphill or downhill. I hope that makes sense.
Finally, sorry for the long notes. We are still really early in your plan, so no pressure, no expectations, this is a good training run at the end of the day.
