Prior to last weekend, Kara Goucher had run three half marathons. Her times in those three races were 1:06:57, 1:08:30, and 1:08:05. On Sunday Kara ran her fourth half marathon, P.F. Chang’s Rock ‘n’ Roll Arizona Half Marathon, finishing in 1:14:02.
Sounds like a bad race. But maybe not. If the only legitimate purpose of racing is to perform at the highest level one is capable of, then yes, Kara’s six-minute drop-off from her usual half-marathon time was a bad race. However, if there are other legitimate purposes of racing, such as accelerating progress toward peak fitness and toward better performances in future races, then Kara likely got exactly what she wanted and needed out of her fourth half marathon.
I believe that races done relatively early in a training cycle, when one is still relatively far from peak fitness (as Kara was Sunday), are potentially very beneficial. The main reason is that we can push ourselves harder in races than we can in any workout, and performance in peak races—those races where you truly want to be ready to perform at the highest level you’re capable of—is largely a function of how hard you’ve pushed yourself in the process leading up to those most important events.
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