The Psychology and Science of Pacing Your Race - The 2% Rule

[@ivanpavlik1]

Very helpful video, I watched it before my last marathon, which was 2 weeks ago. The result: 3min negative split and the PR of 3:39. Thank you!

[@runelitecoach]

Nice work! So glad it was helpful

[@tracym.3857]

Amazing! This was the most in depth I’ve ever heard on this. Thank you

[@runelitecoach]

Glad it was helpful!

[@thecaptainchas2820]

My best (by far) marathon was Chicago 2023, where Kiptum Set the WR (RIP). I ran virtually even splits. Technically, it was a 12 second negative split (1:24:50 first half, 1:24:38 second half), but that’s like 0.1% so I’ll call it even. But my first mile was my slowest, and I intentionally ran the first 10km gradually getting to goal pace. Felt so strong at the end! I’ve been implementing a lot of principles from the book and redesigning all of my training plans to make best use of the triphasic model. Thanks for all the content, Andrew!

[@runelitecoach]

Wonderful! So glad you’re implementing and doing well! And thanks for reading the book

[@conordempsey8854]

Just checked my results from cph marathon this year: 3:28:22 overall 1:45:29 1st half 1:42:53 2nd half 2.5% faster in 2nd half, pretty good! I reckon I could've gone maybe 2mins faster overall but I enjoyed the whole race and will take that over 2 extra mins any day!

[@L0Ls0ul]

I finished my last half marathon (PBed) with a second half that was ~2.5% faster than the first half. I'm perfectly happy and considering at 7k I was already questioning if I could hold the pace (which at this point was 2 slow kilometers, 4k only 1-3s slower than my finish average and one slightly faster 1k) till the end, I can't believe I actually managed to negative split the race. That's the very first race where I actually thought I couldn't have done more.

[@runelitecoach]

That’s very good pacing. Nearly perfect. Great job!

[@potblack7951]

Excellent and very accurate video…you know your stuff…one of your best videos..imho..thank you!!

[@runelitecoach]

Glad you enjoyed it

[@andrewsnow5007]

🎉

[@RunLiveSG]

I trained track during high school decades ago and found it easier for me to be consistent with pacing if i set my Garmin to give a lap time alert at 400m instead of 1km or 1mile. It's really satisfying to look at a pace graph with even laps 😅

[@runelitecoach]

If that works for you, sounds great! In a marathon actually like to go the opposite direction personally, and take 5K splits. But whatever keeps you on pace the idea of looking at a split every 400 m for a marathon doesn’t seem fun to me, but like I say if it works for you, it’s awesome.

[@melissagrace3973]

My favorite coach!

[@CFSMTRAINING]

Excellent!!! Humble pie

[@andrewsnow5007]

awesome

[@runelitecoach]

Thank you kindly!

[@garydon19]

Excellent as ever, and gave me confidence in my own chances of a better marathon. I’ve been guilty of all of those scenarios you explained. I think the worst one is when you are slightly ahead of your goal pace and feel good, and continue, but inevitably blow up. Much more sensible to get back to goal pace or even less if you’ve ran a quicker few miles early on.

[@runelitecoach]

Well studied man you are! Thanks for watching

[@andrewhammonds4907]

Awesome explanation. This video made me feel great about my last marathon. Positive split by 0.4% 😊

[@runelitecoach]

Oh yeah that’s dang near perfect. Great job

[@vidzgo]

Great video, a few weeks ago I blew up my 10k race by starting the first 2k with a pace 0:15/k too fast. And last week I did a 5k with even splits which went great.

[@OCJoker2009]

Great explanation Coach Andrew!👏

[@runelitecoach]

Appreciate it! Glad you enjoyed

[@livegreatalways]

Coach, your analysis will be very good for a flat course. However, in my country all are undulating course usually 250-350m of total elevations during a marathon distance. So when going uphill there will be slowdown and downhill there will be speeding up, not necessarily due to extra effort. I blew up yesterday at km26 after a massive climb so your video is very important to me. Any tips for such situation? Tqvm

[@michaelnyvang3717]

Hi Andrew. Pace in running is very difficult, hence as an amateur you run alongside faster or even slower runners. Pacing alone is very easy, but on race day it is definitely not easy. You talk about 2% negative, I agree, but then you also talk about letting the inexperienced slower runner pass you. It's not a 2% difference. Maybe that was just to illustrate your point of negative split. Garmin has Negative split, but as you say GPS is not 100% correct so it might loos some time or make you think you are ahead of time. How do you pace in race with GPS/watch or by making ink note on paper/arm what your split should be.

[@brianmessemer2973]

That's a nice tip. Thank you!!

[@runelitecoach]

You bet!

[@alexgjo3132]

Hey Andrew, thanks for the amazing content that you provide. What is your opinion on taking protein powders (plant-based, vegan) and creatine. I’ve watched a lot of your videos and even read your book, but I’ve never heard you talking about this. Regards

[@runelitecoach]

You can get all of your protein implants. It’s not difficult at whatsoever. The highest protein foods are beans and greens. You can just ask yourself. Where did my protein get its protein? For example, if you eat beef, where did the cow get its protein? It plants of course. Animals that are most genetically similar to us. Eat plants. A gorilla eats greens all day long and they have a lot of muscle. Chimpanzees eat, almost exclusively fruit for their calories. Creatine, I have an entire video coming on that very soon, so stay tuned and subscribe if you’re not already. I sift through about 40 research papers for this video and you can expect it within the next month

[@alexgjo3132]

@@runelitecoach thanks for your answer Andrew. I really appreciate it. I’m a vegan runner so I wouldn’t eat beef to get my protein. I even bought the book The Starch Solution based on your recommendation in one of your videos and I started listening to Dr. McDougall. So you say that taking additional protein from protein powder won’t benefit my running? According to Dr. McDougall, he’s even saying that additional isolated proteins may even hurt us, but he’s mentioning just isolated soy protein not pea or rice. What do you think about that? P.S. I can’t wait for your video about creatine!

[@Nothing2CHere]

Great content. (The stock video clips are hilarious.)

[@runelitecoach]

Glad you like them! I particularly like the Dumb and Dumber one with the Gu packets

[@blastofftv7641]

This kicks ass! Thank you

[@runelitecoach]

Haha 😆 welcome

[@hman2912]

Even when I think I'm pacing evenly, I look at the data afterwards and during each kilometre the pace is wildly erratic. After 20 years of running, I still struggle with it.

[@runelitecoach]

Yes it’s hard to master. But it’s critical for your best times

[@nicksmith4507]

I recently got a Half PB in London 1:32:20 and I managed to go fairly evenly for most of the race, although near the hot end felt the need for a little walk... But then found walking harder (wobbly) than running so pushed back to running. Is that a thing? It was a new experience for me. I am over 50.

[@mostlyunimportant3846]

I've always been a 5K runner, for the last 8 years or so I would run a daily 5K. My PR in the 5K is 17 minutes 24 seconds. Average is about 1830. Last weekend I ran my first marathon, which I did not properly train for, in 4 hours and 4 minutes. Is it realistic for me to start a 16-week training plan and achieve a 3-hour 45-minute marathon at the end of the 16 weeks?

[@OliviaWaller-d1o]

This is so good, thanks.

[@runelitecoach]

Thank you too!

[@Naxx1987]

How can i predict a marathon time I'm capable off. Is there a lind of benchmark run before the marathon which give a hint?

[@runelitecoach]

Sure, you can use a conversion calculator. Try the McMillan Running) calculator. But those times are only indicative of equivalent performances if you train specifically for each event. So for most people, their marathon will be slower than predicted, simply because they haven’t done enough long runs.

[@L0Ls0ul]

This approach seems to require you to know before the race, what your finish time is supposed to be. What do you recommend to determine an achievable finish time for the marathon?

[@runelitecoach]

Use a similar distance and then McMillain calculator to estimate your finish time

[@acasualviewer5861]

RIP Kiptum

[@runelitecoach]

Yes

[@edwin5419]

Yeah but Kipchoge positively split that race because he was going for a sub-2 hour on the road and eventually settled for a world record

[@runelitecoach]

Yup and still got a WR