Do you often struggle to choose the right pace for your races? That’s perfectly normal, since race pace is never the same for every event: it depends on a variety of factors.

‘Flat out’ might be what comes to mind when you think about race pace. That may be true if your race is 100 metres long. However, in races beyond 200 metres you need to balance speed with control right from the start. In a much longer race, such as a half marathon or marathon, you are running at a pace that is no longer comparable to a 100-metre sprint. If you go ‘flat out’ from the start, you'll be forced to stop after 100 metres – even though the race still has several minutes or even hours to go.

This example shows that race pace depends on the distance or duration. The longer the race, the slower your pace will be. This can be mentally challenging, especially at the beginning of a longer event, because you may feel capable of running much faster and have to hold yourself back to avoid setting off too fast.

The better your fitness level, the higher the intensity you can sustain – and for longer periods. That is exactly what training is designed to optimise: you should aim to run at the highest possible intensity for as long as possible.

So, how do you achieve this? First of all, it’s important to understand that simply spending as much time as possible at race pace is not the most effective approach. Every race distance requires a balance between aerobic capacity (your endurance base) and speed (faster training sessions). The shorter the race distance, the more important speed becomes – and vice versa. Nevertheless, endurance underpins everything.

The five most important tips for training and racing

1. Spend most of your training time on genuinely easy sessions to build the foundation for your performance.
2. Include targeted high-intensity sessions that become more race-specific as your goal event draws closer.
3. Only train once you have properly recovered from your previous session.
4. Choose the right intensity from the very start of your race by being clear about how long you are likely to be out on the course. Remember that the correct starting pace for longer races feels slower at the beginning than what you might be capable of running, but it allows you to maintain your pace throughout the entire distance.
5. For races lasting longer than 60 minutes, think carefully about your nutrition strategy to avoid a drop in performance and practise your fuelling in training beforehand.