197. Race Strategy Fundamentals: How to Pace Every Type of Race

This episode is about racing and the pacing approaches available to you to help you run your best. Most of us would love to run faster and a big part of that is how you approach racing.  But I’ve gotten countless questions about race strategy over the years, like… How do I negative split a marathon? Should I run even splits or run the first few miles slower? How do I get through the middle of a race where I always slow down? When do I know if I should go out really fast? And I want to give you a set of guiding principles that will help you select the race strategy that works best for you. Because race strategy can take many forms. Maybe you’re trying to win your age group, run a new Personal Best, or just finish the race. No matter the goal, a good race strategy is a must-have to perform at the level that you’d like to. Links from the show: 13 Lucky Racing Tips Elemental Labs Thank you Elemental Labs! A big thanks to Elemental Labs for their support of this episode! They make electrolyte drinks for athletes and low-carb folks with no sugar, artificial ingredients, or colors. Elemental Labs’ products have some of the highest sodium concentrations that you can find. Anybody who runs a lot knows that sodium, as well as other electrolytes like magnesium and potassium, are essential to our performance and how we feel throughout the day. The citrus flavor has quickly become my favorite. I’m drinking one a day now to help me get enough fluids in our dry Colorado air. It’s tasty and delicious and I find that I’m not peeing every 45 minutes throughout the day, which might be an indication I wasn’t eating enough sodium. There’s now mounting evidence that higher sodium intake levels are not unhealthy – and athletes need substantially more than your typical sedentary person. Of course, ask your doctor if you’re worried. But for those athletes running outside in the heat, an electrolyte replacement makes a lot of sense. They just released their first new flavor of 2021, their most requested flavor, watermelon salt. So check out Elemental Labs to get your free sample pack and get your hydration optimized.