Taking time off to rest my knee has me rethinking how I approach my training as it pertains to the long races and in particular race day itself.
For perspective, my primary goal has always been to finish. In a very real sense the only time I've cared about was finishing. I am slow, but have managed to finish all 8 races.
2011
Disneyland Half 3:05
2012 Disneyland Half 3:06
2012 Wine & Dine Half 3:12
2015 Star Wars Half 3:16
2016 Star Wars Half 3:07
2017 Star Wars Half 3:07
2017 Dark Side Half 3:27
2017 Avengers Half 3:22
The 2011 half is the only continually moving race. All other races have featured multiple stops for photos, etc. If it helps, the 2017 Dark Side came mere days after the busiest work deadline of the year and was in temperatures deemed hot enough to warn runners to take it slow. The 2017 Avengers Half was ran on 3 weeks of training.
For years, I've read about the concept of slowing down to run faster. However, due to my speed, I have done every single training run whether short or long at no slower than minimum race pace. For the most part all long runs have been done at roughly 15 minutes per mile.
If I were to have time goal, it would be under 3 hours including photo stops. More than ever recently, I've been giving thought to possibly attempting a marathon, likely the 2019 Walt Disney World marathon and that may include Goofy or Dopey. Running Avengers on just 3 weeks caused me to look at training differently. I've always adhered fairly strictly to the Galloway plans until Avengers Half where the modified 4 week plan I used caused me to do longer maintenance runs than usual during my training including the introduction of intervals or run walk for the first time ever with all slow paces at a speed under 16 minutes per mile. In my mind, so long as I can maintain the minimum pace, I will achieve the stated goal of finishing.
With an eye towards a possible sub 3 hour Dark Side Half in April as part of the 5K and First Order Challenge, I've incorporated more speed training including on all the heretofore long runs. In consequence of a faster pace during those longer runs, I've noticed that my peak minutes has also increased and the runs have been harder. It's still be doable and where necessary I've taken longer slow breaks so as to not overdo it.
Now, all my reading up on taking the long runs slower and combined with wondering about how to minimize injury has brought me to wondering how a new approach will work. If I were to do all short runs at my recently achievable faster pace and then do all long runs at 15-16 minutes per mile, I'm coming to understand that on the day of the half itself, I could successfully run most if not all of the race at the faster pace even though none of my long runs will have been at this faster pace.
Am I wildly off base here? How much injury risk is inherent in this idea?
For point of reference, my current run walk ratio is roughly 13:30 for 1 1/2 minutes of running and roughly 15:45 for 2 1/2 minutes of walking.
If this works the way I hope it does, this will allow me to continue working on increasing my speed on the short runs without compromising my training on the long runs and reducing injury risk. Am I thinking the right way or am I missing something.
