Now that it's the heart of fall racing season and I'm getting antsy not being able to race, I thought it'd be a good time for the first in a new series of posts. I write a lot about various aspects of training that go into race day and I also recap race efforts fairly often, but I haven't written much about the strategy and tactics that go into each competition.
In fact, not many people do talk about tactics. If anything, they get a bad rap in running circles -- as in a sarcastic, "oh great, another tactical race." When you hear people talk about tactics, they do so in a negative tone: a tactical race is one that is slow, where the runners just jog around for 90% of the time until someone finally sprints to the finish. Sit-n-kick.
Of course, this is one tactic (an effective one, at that) and one you see often in championship-style races, where place matters more than time and most athletes are of about the same fitness caliber. But race tactics can be much more complex than a binary system between either "sit-n-kick" or "balls-to-the-wall." These various strategies -- when to use them, how to execute, why they're effective -- are what I want to highlight starting in this series.
But first, a note: if you want to run your fastest time over a given distance, then your best bet is to run an even pace or slightly negative splits. But in some race circumstances (conference championships, Districts-Regionals-State, NCAAs, etc.), time isn't really all that important; what matters more is the primal competitive nature of simply beating people. That's what I'm highlighting here: how can I bury my competitors?
Today's tactic is a great one for the strength-oriented cross country runner: the 50/50 Surge.
Execution of this is pretty simple: you run the first half to two-thirds of a race with the lead pack, no matter how slow it is. Then, at a pre-determined point in the race, you simply shift gears and begin a long drive to the finish.
Here's an example of Dathan Ritzenhein doing is masterfully at the 2000 Footlocker High School Championships. When everyone thought he'd go hard from the gun, he hung back for the first mile before surging and driving a punishing final two miles. (Boy's race starts at about 13:20)
You make the move when you know you can sustain it to the finish. But you're doing it far enough out -- and fast enough -- that no one else can hang on. Plant the seed of doubt into your competitors' minds.
The nice thing about waiting until 1/2 - 2/3 of the race is that you give yourself a chance to warm into the pace. We've all done interval workouts where the first rep felt really really hard -- way harder than it should have been -- but then we settle into a groove on the subsequent repetitions. Going out too hard the first mile is the race version of that: it leaves you tired and burns up needless energy that you may not be able to access when you need to late in the race. Starting more relaxed before shifting gears allows you to warm up, almost as if you're storing up energy for your long drive to the finish.
That said, this is the type of tactic for a certain kind of runner: you must be aerobically strong (stamina-oriented) to pull this off. Because you're making your move far out from the finish, you have to be ready to suffer -- because that's what you are going to make your competitors do, too. As such, you have to be fit enough to break them but not break yourself. Because if you don't drop them before the finish, well...you'll probably be out-kicked to the line. This happened to Almaz Ayana in the Rio Olympics 5,000m when she employed this 50/50 strategy -- her failure almost cost her a medal. (That said, she tried the same thing in the 10,000m a week earlier and was much more successful, coming away with a gold medal and world record.)
This was my go-to tactic when I was running cross country in college, as I knew I was running more miles per week than most other people. I didn't have the foot speed to out-kick many runners, but I knew I could sustain a long drive to the finish that other runners might not be able to. In the collegiate standard 8k distance, I tried to relax for much of the first 5k before surging for the final 3k.
The end of the season, when races count isn't always the best time to try out new strategies, but this is a relatively simple one to execute. If you fit the mold this requires -- aerobically strong, stamina-oriented, with a lot of miles under your belt and mentally willing to suffer -- give it a try. You might be surprised how good you feel and how much chaos it wrecks on the rest of the field.
In fact, not many people do talk about tactics. If anything, they get a bad rap in running circles -- as in a sarcastic, "oh great, another tactical race." When you hear people talk about tactics, they do so in a negative tone: a tactical race is one that is slow, where the runners just jog around for 90% of the time until someone finally sprints to the finish. Sit-n-kick.
Of course, this is one tactic (an effective one, at that) and one you see often in championship-style races, where place matters more than time and most athletes are of about the same fitness caliber. But race tactics can be much more complex than a binary system between either "sit-n-kick" or "balls-to-the-wall." These various strategies -- when to use them, how to execute, why they're effective -- are what I want to highlight starting in this series.
But first, a note: if you want to run your fastest time over a given distance, then your best bet is to run an even pace or slightly negative splits. But in some race circumstances (conference championships, Districts-Regionals-State, NCAAs, etc.), time isn't really all that important; what matters more is the primal competitive nature of simply beating people. That's what I'm highlighting here: how can I bury my competitors?
Today's tactic is a great one for the strength-oriented cross country runner: the 50/50 Surge.
Execution of this is pretty simple: you run the first half to two-thirds of a race with the lead pack, no matter how slow it is. Then, at a pre-determined point in the race, you simply shift gears and begin a long drive to the finish.
Here's an example of Dathan Ritzenhein doing is masterfully at the 2000 Footlocker High School Championships. When everyone thought he'd go hard from the gun, he hung back for the first mile before surging and driving a punishing final two miles. (Boy's race starts at about 13:20)
You make the move when you know you can sustain it to the finish. But you're doing it far enough out -- and fast enough -- that no one else can hang on. Plant the seed of doubt into your competitors' minds.
The nice thing about waiting until 1/2 - 2/3 of the race is that you give yourself a chance to warm into the pace. We've all done interval workouts where the first rep felt really really hard -- way harder than it should have been -- but then we settle into a groove on the subsequent repetitions. Going out too hard the first mile is the race version of that: it leaves you tired and burns up needless energy that you may not be able to access when you need to late in the race. Starting more relaxed before shifting gears allows you to warm up, almost as if you're storing up energy for your long drive to the finish.
That said, this is the type of tactic for a certain kind of runner: you must be aerobically strong (stamina-oriented) to pull this off. Because you're making your move far out from the finish, you have to be ready to suffer -- because that's what you are going to make your competitors do, too. As such, you have to be fit enough to break them but not break yourself. Because if you don't drop them before the finish, well...you'll probably be out-kicked to the line. This happened to Almaz Ayana in the Rio Olympics 5,000m when she employed this 50/50 strategy -- her failure almost cost her a medal. (That said, she tried the same thing in the 10,000m a week earlier and was much more successful, coming away with a gold medal and world record.)
This was my go-to tactic when I was running cross country in college, as I knew I was running more miles per week than most other people. I didn't have the foot speed to out-kick many runners, but I knew I could sustain a long drive to the finish that other runners might not be able to. In the collegiate standard 8k distance, I tried to relax for much of the first 5k before surging for the final 3k.
The end of the season, when races count isn't always the best time to try out new strategies, but this is a relatively simple one to execute. If you fit the mold this requires -- aerobically strong, stamina-oriented, with a lot of miles under your belt and mentally willing to suffer -- give it a try. You might be surprised how good you feel and how much chaos it wrecks on the rest of the field.
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