Do the Guess and Check Drill to Improve Pace Perception

Do the Run and Check drill to learn what different paces feel like. This can help with pacing in races. It is particularly helpful for runners who tend to go out too fast or too slow.

After warming up, Runner A tells Runner B what pace to run, and they run together with Runner B setting the pace. When runner B thinks he/she is running the specified pace, he/she says, "Check!" Runner A checks the watch and calls out the actual speed. Then A and B switch roles. Do this at various paces switching back and forth between A and B. The purpose is not to go fast, but to improve pace perception.

So it works like this. Runners A and B warmup. Runner A calls out "10:20!" Runner B adjusts speed until she thinks she is running at that pace. She yells, "Check!"

Runner A checks her GPS watch, and calls out the actual time.

Then Runner B calls out a pace and so on. As the runners continue this way, they should get more and more accurate. This drill should be repeated periodically, and over time, runners will improve their pace perception.

After several months, when this drill has been performed several times and runners are doing a good job of preceiving pace, it is possible to make this drill much more difficult by doing it after a longer workout or when cooling down from a speed workout. It will be more difficult because the same speed, of course, feels different when you're tired. This is when the drill really has a lesson to teach.

Many runners regularly fail to perform in races as well as their training would indicate they should, and often this is because they go out too fast or too slow. This drill might help these runners to overcome this problem.