Training at race pace...or not?

Hi, 

Should I be doing my training at race pace?  Logically I can't expect to make my body run the speed I would in a race in all my runs without getting injured but what bothers me is that I seem to do my long runs very slowly and my interval/speed sessions fast (for me) so how am I supposed to know what speed to race comfortably at?  Currently I've been starting off slowly in my races and running  as I feel all the way through but there must be a better way of judging pacing that that.  I'm training for my first half-marathon at the moment and I'm following the RW "get you round schedule" but most of the long runs are slower than the pace I'm supposed to magically hit on the day.  Should I incude a tempo run where I do the middle section of a run at the pace I am aiming for on race day? 

 Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi

Yep your long runs should be slower than race pace. Trust in the schedule they tend to be put together buy people who know what they are on about. I wouldn't include a tempo in the middle of my long runs but what I do it start slowly and build up towards the end of the run.  If you are finding the current paces to easy maybe revise your target.  

You say 'magically' hit on the day. You know what - you will. But you won;t believe it till after the race so till then do what the programme tells you and don't mess with the long runs.

Do a tempo run or a race paced run on other days by all means but your long runs are there to build your aerobic endurance and if you do them too fast or start messing about with them then they will not be as effective.

Okay - thanks for the advice and encouragement.  It seems like I'm blindly following these training schedules and I'm trying to understand what they're aiming at but it is all a bit of a fog to me.  I did my long run of the week tonight - schedule said 10M time-trial or 9 mile easy.  I tried the time trial and finished a few minutes faster than the suggested time so I was pleased with that.  Never run that far before!

Each type of run is trying to improve a particular area of your running fitness.

Long slow runs - to improve aerobic endurance (improves fat burning whilst running too as body learns to utilise more fat for fuel)
Race pace - this is about getting the feel of the pace you are aiming for and getting your body used to it
Tempo, intervals, fartlek etc - running at different paces teaches different things. Some short fast intervals are good for improving leg speed, some help to improve your oxygen uptake ( and energy production in the muscles), some to improve how your body copes with lactic acid. All these things add up to an easier faster run (although I have doubtless forgotten things - kids are calling from the kitchen so have to type quickly)

Beginners running schedules shouldnt pack to much in as the most important thing is to improve your endurance and with that comes improvement to other areas as well. Once you have been running for a while a good coach would seek out your weaknesses and then give you a programme that emphasised the training to help eliminate that weakness whilst working on all other areas too.

That's why so many different types of runs

Thanks GymAddict! That helps. 

I only run at race pace in, er, races.  The only time I run at, or faster than, race pace is doing intervals on the track.  When I race I give it my all and, if I'm not in pain, exhausted and knackered after racing, then I know I haven't given it my all.  Once you're more experienced, you'll get to know your race pace and realise how much faster you can run in a race than in training.

but colonel blimp..........your race pace for a marathon is going to be a lot different to your 5k race3 pace.........

therefore doing a 20 mile long run should be slower than your marathon pace........not just slower than your 10k pace.

I'm sure a lot of the shorter  tempo runs in the week  should be done quicker than marathon pace.

Well obviously LSR's should be done at a much slower pace and, yes, mara pace is going to be about 1 1/2 minutes slower than 5k pace.  Thing is, no-one said anything about training for a marathon...