When the best laid plans fall apart

This weekend was the Calgary marathon and long story short, I'll talk about it more later this week, shit didn't go right.  But that brings me to today's topic, what to do when the best laid plans start falling apart.

Well I went in with a couple plans, with plan A to target a very aggressive PB time, but that was only if everything was going right. I scaled back those ambitions as I realized that it wasn't realistic to finish within that time.  It always helps to latch onto someone to help you get through to the finish like I did with the 4 hour marathon pace bunnies, but more on that in a bit.

The biggest thing that can offset plans is running off your pace (and it really is the root of all problems) how do you get back on track.  You can either go too fast, or go too slow

Too Slow
If you're finding that you're falling off your pace due to going too slow, you can pick it up if you catch it early enough and do some mental math.  For example I figured out after about 8 miles that I was about 2 minutes behind schedule, and realized hey 240 seconds isn't a whole lot that you need to make up.  Resist the urge to suddenly speed up to make it all back in one go because this just saps out energy for later on.  Slowly pick the pace back up, go slightly under what your target needs to be, and then back it off a bit.  This should get you back on track, but the most important thing is over a long distance race like half or full marathons, 2 minutes is not a huge deal and is easily make uppable (just like that word is).

Too Fast
This one is the same idea, if you're going to fast, just slow it down gradually, don't just slam on the brakes and bring that pace down directly because you're just asking for cramps to happen. 

When SH#* hits the fan
Well when that happens, it's good to have a plan b, or a plan c.  My plan b for example was just to conserve as much energy as possible and just finish within four hours and call it a day.  Work out what you need to run in order to hit that target for backup plan.  Other little things that I've come to appreciate in the past is the awesomeness of a run walk strategy.  I ran at a 9 min/mile pace or thereabouts, for 10 minutes and then took a 1 minute walk break, and then kept at it till I felt alright again and just pushed through.  I used to think that once you stopped moving forward you were done, and it's not quite that clear cut anymore. 

So at the end of the day all the best laid plans don't mean anything if execution can't follow with it.  When execution can't follow you need to figure out where you are, what you can do, and then make a new plan and start going down that path.  If that doesn't work then have a third plan ready.  Just plan in advance, and be ready to use them if the need arises.

~Cheers