On pace bands
When you have a goal pace for a race, what do you use to make sure your pace is on target? Your watch and brain? Mile markers and watch? A pace band? A pacer? Something else?
For races where I am pacing myself, or pacing someone else, I have gotten in to the habit of using a pace band*. Cause… my brain no work well when I’m pushing it. A pace band shows what overall time you should be at at each mile marker, so you know if you are on track.
The first time I tried using a pace band was in 2011, at the South Shore Half. I found some site that provided mile splits by goal time, printed it out, covered it in tape, and wore it for the race.
It was successful! I used this method for multiple races following that one.
Then, Races2Remember provided me with some custom pace bands for the NYC Marathon in 2011.
Their site is cool because you can choose a pace band specific for your course (slower splits on uphills, etc) and you can have it show slower warm-up miles, or all even splits, or negative splits, or whatever. And, the paper is made out of material that won’t bleed when you get it all sweaty. So you don’t have to do the silly cover it in tape thing.
The pace bands were helpful at NYC, but I didn’t met my target – no fault of the pace band though, ha ha.
But! I did find the site super useful and have used it a few times since. Um, not as a paying customer though. Shhh. I just chart it out, print it out, and yeah, cover it in tape.
Well, I was getting kind of sick of dealing with the tape, and having it fall off, etc, so for the Wisconsin Half Marathon, I bought a silicone pace band, from pacebands.com.
I actually liked the silicone paceband a lot! It didn’t feel uncomfortable, and the big numbers were easy to read. That is what kept us on track for so long, and that is how I knew it was time for Kelly to go ahead at mile 9. Ha ha.
So. Yeah. I could see myself using one of those again. The only bad part is you have to pay for them (about $9), ha ha. And you might not use them very much, if you have different goals each time you race.
Psst, no one sponsored me or asked me to write this. I am just genuinely curious how you guys pace yourselves!
*Typically half marathons, haven’t used one for anything shorter.
Themocracy
Usually, I just run like a bat out of hell, hit the wall and slog it to the finish. It’s a good strategy. I mean, a lot of people use it!
I might have to try the band thing for the fall. Well, Mark would wear it and the garmin. I think he’d look good in it.
Ha ha ha! A lot of people DO use that strategy! Let me know if Mark decides to use one! I find them so helpful so I don’t have to do math on the spot!
Uh…. pace bands? To… pace yourself? Interesting concept 🙂
Yeah, I tend to just start out by feel, then check my time and do the math, which is a horrible way of pacing for something long (which explains my crazy positive splits in the second half of Saturday’s race, for example). I had no idea something like this existed! I may have to consider that for a fall half effort, it’s probably a little more accurate than my lack of a method.
Cool, it sounds like it could really help you! For me, it’s mostly the comfort of not thinking about the math, but on Saturday, I saw we were consistently 20 secs under goals, so I knew were weren’t going out to fast 🙂
But I LIKE thinking about math!
I am super high tech and write it in sharpie on my arm…which I then sweat off and get everywhere.
I do like the silicone one you bought! It would be good to reuse if you were in a habit of pacing people to sub 2.
Does Data always like to chew on those silicone bracelets? Soxie loves them and has destroyed several of mine!
Schweet! You write each split on your arm?!
Yeah, I think sub 2 is a good one to hold on to. 🙂 And if I was better at math I could adjust it in my head for other paces… hurts just thinking about it.
I learned today that the answer to that question is yes 😉
That silicon pace band is very cool. I am a huge fan of pace bands in general. When I’m running a race, I don’t have the brain capacity to be calculating splits! At the Chicago Marathon and Illinois Marathon, they had pace-band temporary tattoos. They were the best! But if I have nothing else, I usually just remember my target per-mile pace, and then observe how far off each of my mile splits are from that pace. With that in mind, I’ve long since learned to turn off the “auto-lap” or “auto-pause” function on my Garmin during races!
I love the idea of a pace tattoo! Only… I worry that if I did not meet my goal I would want that thing off of me ASAP and bands are a bit easier to take off, lol!
Yes! Turn those off! I had a very silly Garmin mistake Saturday – my watch went in to sleep mode right as the race started, then I didn’t get satellites in time! Oops.
Wait, people actually race for TIME? LOL Kidding! I can’t run even splits to save my life, so I usually only have a loose goal in my head. Maybe if I were a better runner, I could actually plan things, but so far… not so much. =)
I have used a pace tattoo and then never actually looked at it during the race. I usually just keep an eye on my average pace throughout the race…
I love the silicone ones! Strongly considering getting one for Cleveland, so that I can focus more on my goal. Thanks for the tip!
I’ve always wondered about the pace bands, but wondered if I would get too caught up checking my times/staring at my wrist…and if you are slower then the desired pace-does it freak you out and make you go TOO fast? I know last weekend trying to do math at the 8-9 mile mark of my half was NOT fun, and subsequently made me freak out…maybe the band could have alleviated my momentary wheezing when trying to run faster? LOL! I think normally I just try to settle in and pray the last few miles I can kick it up which is my normal style of racing.
If you want to run negative splits, you could use the other company which designs the band to have you go slower in the beginning and speed up at the end.
For me though, I don’t get caught up in staring at it, since I can only check it every mile. 🙂
I haven’t tried a pace band and haven’t really run a race long enough (just one half but that was a couple of years ago and no plans to run another). I can see how they can be very helpful though as I can’t do math at all while running. Like not even 5×5. I guess I use all of my brain cells to breath! LOL
When we are exercising, much less of our blood goes to our brain when we aren’t… so yeah. I always attribute that to the math issues 😉 Like, why is this out and back have me coming up short? Or long? LOL
I can’t do math even when I’m not running, so maybe I could use a pace band in my daily life… 😉
Maybe we need a silicone bracelet that has time tables on it. Or… a watch calculator 😉
Ha – I didn’t know there was such a thing! I may have to use one for my next half!
Pacers should definitely use these!! I’ve never used one myself because if I’m going for an actual time goal I try to find an official pace group to hang around (or, you know, ask a friend to pace me :-)) Otherwise I just figure out what my average pace per mile should be and then check my Garmin every mile.
I don’t know what a pace band is but I just wanted to say hi.
Hi!
Lol, hi! How are you?
The last time I actually raced for pace was in January – I followed behind the pace that I sort of wanted to go and then finally I decided that I had enough “ooomph” to pass.
Usually, I like to give myself a generous margin, which really helps with pacing!
That is awesome that you have that kick in the end to pass the pace group! I think pace groups are a great idea, when the pacer knows what they are doing. I am sometimes surprised when the big races don’t have them!
I don’t pace myself..I just RUN!!! And of course that always fails. 🙂
I remember at a race a friend told me to write certain time splits on the back side of the bib. That way you can check it every so often and see if you’re on target.