Hopefully by race day with all the training you’ve been doing you have developed a good sense of pacing for longer runs and have begun to find the correlation between HR and perceived effort. If so then leave you HR monitor chest strap at home on race day. Pacing is a very difficult thing to learn and to coach. But here are some easy to grasp general guidelines.
When you start you will feel rested, fresh and ready to go. BUT…..So will everyone else and there is a tendency to get sucked into too fast a pace too early in the race. The is normally a big mistake and here’s why:
A pace that is too fast, even 15 seconds per mile, in the early miles can easily cost you minutes per mile in the late stages of the race. Having some reserves in the later miles can allow you to advance several places as other runners who DID go out too fast are fading. It is much easier to make up time and places in the last 10 miles than in the first 10 miles.
Because you will be feeling excited and rested you will need to constrain yourself to an even easier pace that feel right. Adrenaline and endorphins can mask your normal perception of effort. If you are inexperienced I highly recommend this conservative approach. If you don’t trust your perception and need HR to be a limiter then by all means use it. If you are pretty knew to mountain races try to limit the time you drift into Z3 especially on the big climbs to under 60min total in a 50km and no stretches longer 10min in the first 35km. SAve some gas for the end. Spending too much time in Z3 especially early on is what can really slow you to a walk near the end.
I know of no hard and fast rules but these above guidelines have served me well in coaching racers from 100 miles to a VK to even very short races like a Cross Country skiing sprint 4min long.
I hope these ideas help.
Scott
