Every world record from 1500m to Marathon was set via even pacing

If you need any more convincing that even pacing is your best chance to have a great race, let's look at every world record performance from 1500m to Marathon.

1500 meters

First half of the race: 7.22 m/s
Second half of the race: 7.34 m/s
Difference between first/second half: 1.68%

5K (track)

First half of the race: 6.57 m/s
Second half of the race: 6.67 m/s
Difference between first/second half: 1.59%

10K (track)

First half of the race: 6.33 m/s
Second half of the race: 6.34 m/s
Difference between first/second half: <1%

Half Marathon

First half of the race: ~6.04 m/s
Second half of the race: ~6.07 m/s
Difference between first/second half: <1%

Marathon

First half of the race: 5.75 m/s
Second half of the race: 5.80 m/s
Difference between first/second half: <1%

You can see that even pacing becomes even more important as the race distance increases. The difference between the first/second half percentages are even lower for the Marathon and Half Marathon distances compared to the 1500 and 5000 meter distances.

These records were set on the track or an extremely flat race course in perfect conditions, so that means it is a lot easier to dial in on an even pace from start to finish.

However, it can still be easy to "even split" a race even when the course is hilly or the weather is windy.

Since hills and wind make your running pace unimportant for the purpose of perfect pacing, you need a different value to guide your pacing.

Running power is the answer.

Power normalizes your effort to include hills and wind so you can "evenly split" any race you do. You only need to keep a consistent power output from start to finish.

Stryd reports running power and reports that to your watch. By monitoring that number on race day, you can maintain your even power.

If you care about your finishing time, this power-based strategy for perfect pacing gives you your best chance at your best performance.

You can get Stryd by ordering here: https://store.stryd.com/

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