 |
 |
|
|
 |
Level of Effort |  |
|---|
See the Index for more topics, information, hints and tips.
Learn to listen to your body to understand your level of effort. This is especially important for half marathon distances and longer, but also applies to shorter distances. Your body is only capable of sustaining a specific level of effort for a limited amount of time. So for a 5K, you can be more aggressive because it is for a short period of time. For long races, you had better stay in a zone that you are comfortable with for most of the race otherwise you will pay for it near the end of the race by ‘hitting the wall’ or bonking.
Pace is not always good indicator of your level of effort because of all the variables that can influence it. This is especially true if you are running on trails because of their varied terrain and other challenges. Heart rate is a better indicator, but it is best to know your body and your level of effort.
Things that you should be aware of that can affect your level of effort include: heat, humidity, cold, elevation, elevation gain, running surface, dehydration, under nourished, stress, sickness, emotional state, … Under these conditions your perceived level of effort will be higher and probably your heart rate will be higher than normal.
Monitoring your level of effort and learning to control it is perhaps most important on trail running. Many trails are at higher elevations, steeper inclines, and more challenging weather conditions.
By learning to listen to your body and running within your abilities, you will do much better when put into unfamiliar situations. For example if you are used to training on relatively flat ground near sea level and have a big race at higher elevations on steep terrain you should not expect to be able to run at the same pace. You may not know ahead of time what pace you are capable of running under these conditions. But if you learn to listen to your body and know the level of effort you are capable of sustaining for the duration of the race, then you can use that to help set your pace.
Imaging you are running at your fastest one mile pace. During this you would certainly be thinking that you couldn’t possibly keep that up for two miles or even longer. Now run at a couple minutes per mile slower. Now you are probably thinking that you could keep that pace up for quite a while. If you slow down a couple more minutes per mile you may be thinking that you are not going very fast, but you could keep up that pace all day long or until you got bored. Now you are starting to learn to listen to your body. With this power you can periodically ask yourself “Can I maintain this level of effort for the remainder of the race?” If the answer is no, then you’d better back off and start conserving yourself.
