Racing on Autopilot
In this month’s issue of The Running Times magazine, there is an article about improving your marathon efforts. Within that article, they discuss runners going on auto pilot during the middle of races.
I can certainly identify with this concept. Sometimes in smaller races where I am literally running by myself, it is all too easy to shift the focus away from racing and on to something more pleasant. Although the side effect of this is usually a slowing of the pace.
In reality, in any race the hardest parts are not the start or the finish, but it is the middle miles. At the start everyone is bunched together so it is easy to feed off the energy from others. And at the finish, you have the clock ticking. I have never thought of anything more motivating than trying to get the finish as soon as possible. But those middle miles are tough as you are trying to grind out the effort and know there are still more miles to come.
Are there ways to avoid going on autopilot? Well, I have a few.
The easiest way is look for a bigger race. When you have more people around you, you tend not to use the auto pilot mode. Mainly, this is because you end up racing these people i.e. competitive spirit. That competitive spirit is in all of us and is great for getting the most out of our selves.
Another technique, that I like to use, is to pick a point and run to it and then pick another point and then run to it. With each point, choose a different approach for reaching that point. Maybe, you can try striding to it – Try lifting your knees. Or maybe, you can surge to it and cruise to the next point. The idea being that you keep your mind focused on the task at hand which is to race.
A variation of the above technique is just running a consistent pace overall and throwing in 1\4 mile surges at each of the miles in the middle of a race, it can reduce your overall time by seconds in the end.
So the next race that you run, try avoiding the autopilot mode.
I can certainly identify with this concept. Sometimes in smaller races where I am literally running by myself, it is all too easy to shift the focus away from racing and on to something more pleasant. Although the side effect of this is usually a slowing of the pace.
In reality, in any race the hardest parts are not the start or the finish, but it is the middle miles. At the start everyone is bunched together so it is easy to feed off the energy from others. And at the finish, you have the clock ticking. I have never thought of anything more motivating than trying to get the finish as soon as possible. But those middle miles are tough as you are trying to grind out the effort and know there are still more miles to come.
Are there ways to avoid going on autopilot? Well, I have a few.
The easiest way is look for a bigger race. When you have more people around you, you tend not to use the auto pilot mode. Mainly, this is because you end up racing these people i.e. competitive spirit. That competitive spirit is in all of us and is great for getting the most out of our selves.
Another technique, that I like to use, is to pick a point and run to it and then pick another point and then run to it. With each point, choose a different approach for reaching that point. Maybe, you can try striding to it – Try lifting your knees. Or maybe, you can surge to it and cruise to the next point. The idea being that you keep your mind focused on the task at hand which is to race.
A variation of the above technique is just running a consistent pace overall and throwing in 1\4 mile surges at each of the miles in the middle of a race, it can reduce your overall time by seconds in the end.
So the next race that you run, try avoiding the autopilot mode.
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