Happy June!

[ilanarama]

First Monday in June, so let's have a check-in. How goes your running? Any races planned for this month?

It's been rather hot in a lot of places in the Northern Hemisphere. What's your favorite cold beverage to drink after a run? (In lieu of answering, Antipodeans may instead mock us with their lovely cool temperatures.)

Comments

[ilanarama]

I've heard great things about Wineglass - several of my friends have run it.

Why run a half at marathon pace? Run it all out and that will be a great fitness assessment for what your MP should be.

[meri_oddities]

I've heard great things about Wineglass too. It seems like it's small and flat and generally very well organized.

Re: 1/2. That's an interesting idea. I had always been told not to go full out until you're actually at the target race. I expect to be in pretty good shape by then, but I don't want to blow the whole thing by PR'ing at a 1/2.

[ilanarama]

...you're kidding. Who told you that? The whole POINT of tune-up races is to help you assess your fitness. Pretty much every running book/website I've ever read has suggested running a 10K or half marathon 4-6 weeks out, and then plugging it into a calculator (although e.g. McMillan is a bit too aggressive for most people) to determine a reasonable goal for the marathon. And that's exactly when most people get their PR, too, because if you are in marathon fitness (or approaching it) you are WAY in half fitness. Although generally one doesn't taper for a tune-up race (although you will want to front-load your miles earlier in the week before, and later in the week after, and reduce your speedwork), but still - a PR should be a possibility.

The problem with running a half at MP is that it's not a very good workout. MP is too slow to be physiologically effective speedwork, and fast enough to wear you out and impact your training. It's nice to get some MP miles in toward the end of training, just to get accustomed to the pace, but I usually don't do it until even closer to the marathon, and usually the max I do is 10 easy/10MP as a long run.