In his own words: Luke Laverdiere - Perfecting the Race Day Tempo

Perfecting the Race Day Tempo

For this article, I apologize if I come off as a bit too sarcastic and/or arrogant because I'm just going on a very opinionated rant about a current running related topic.

I've started to see a growing trend in the racing dynamics of the running community in recent years. Any guesses on what it is? And, just as a clue, it's unfortunately one that I've taken part of recently. That's right, it's called the race-day tempo and it is seemingly seizing control of almost every regular season meet I've been to in possibly the last two years in some way or another. For example, at my home meet on Friday in Yarmouth the race plan was to just head out there and do "a solid team dynamic." So, my team's top four headed out there and ran a "solid tempo" exactly as planned. As it turns out, though, that day we weren't the only team doing that as many of our competitors also ran "solid tempos," if my memory is correct. It's almost as if us and the other teams had created some sort of unspoken pact that basically stated, "well, if we're going to have a meet today and it doesn't matter when considering the extent of the whole season, we might as well just get a workout in and have some fun with it."

But, don't get me wrong, this strategy serves a very clear purpose. It's cleverly used as a way to delay a mid-season peak to that one race at the end of year that people actually care about. I find it very helpful because of how long I'm trying to stretch my season this year. But as I'm writing this, I'm thinking about how people used to run every race: gutsy, all out, "balls deep and grind it out" kind of stuff. For example, Steve Prefontaine, once said  "A lot of people run a race to see who is the fastest. I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace, and then at the end, punish himself even more." Knowing how races used to be run, it pains me to see people, including myself, not give a regular season meet everything. I remember my freshman and sophomore years on the trails, I would run my absolute hardest at every meet, just out of respect to what I knew I was capable of that day. In the back of my mind I could always hear his quote, "To give anything less than your best is to sacrifice the gift."

Looking back on those seasons, I realize that while I may have not had much left in the tank for the postseason, I at least knew how to respect every meet I went to. Now, though, as a senior, I know how difficult it is to be racing hard every single week from late August until late November. For me this season, it's simply as if I take this or that week easy at the beginning of the season or pay the consequences when it matters most at the end of it. Yes, I want to push myself every week, but, yes, without a doubt I also want to achieve some of my dreams for running that I've had ever since ever since freshman fall. I'm not quite sure how to do both at the moment.

Below I've included a list of five tips you may need to consider when helping you and your team perfect this technique of race-day tempoing. I hope it helps!

1. Wear trainers, not spikes- Who needs their racing spikes to ruin their casual, nonchalant look when racing?

1. Smile/point/wave make at the cameras- All the fans go crazy when you show them some love.

1. Try hard, but not hard enough to actually tire yourself out.- Whoever it was that said "pain is temporary, pride is forever" was just simply wrong.

1. Make conversation with your teammates, if possible- This helps to keep things light and reduces stress when powering through the high intensity.

1. Conserve enough energy for that big sprint finish that totally mimics what would happen in an actual race- Got to work on that dangerous kick!

- Luke