Strategy for Windy Races

Audio Transcript

Coach Sinead: Welcome back to the RunnersConnect, Run to the Top Extra Kick podcast.

Today, we have a great question on how to strategize for windy races.Today’s question comes from Jared, who’s concerned about, how to strategize for a windy race.

Jared says if the course is basically an out and back type set up, with the out portion being downwind and the in portion being into the wind, how should someone approach the downwind part strategically?

Is it best to try and maintain your normal pace and save energy for the into the wind part, by having to work less?

Or should you let the wind help push your pace faster than normal, since you’ll most likely lose time fighting the wind coming back in?

This is a really good question, one that I think is especially appropriate given we are going into our spring races now.

Spring is notoriously windy.

This is a question most runners have asked at one point or another. When you step to the line, and you look up and see the flags are blowing in a gale-force wind, it’s not typically a pleasant sight and the first thing we do is try and think of a way to strategize, in such a way that will minimize the effects of the wind.

Running against a wind of 20 miles per hour can produce a 20% increase in energy cost.

It does take quite a bit more energy out of you to run against a wind like that.

You have to take into account how your race day strategy might change, for a race like the one our questioner describes, in which you might be running with wind at your back on the way out, but then running with wind in your face on the way in.

The short answer is to let the wind help you.

While you might be expending a lot more energy when you’ve got the wind blowing against you, you’re going to feel great when you’ve got the wind at your back. This is where I think it’s good to take advantage of any sort of advantage that you come across in the race.

This can either be letting wind at your back push you a little bit, or for another example, when you come across a downhill on a race, are you going to stop and walk down the hill?

Probably not; you’re going to let gravity do the work and just allow yourself to roll down the hill with as little effort as possible.

This is where I think it’s good to let the wind assist as much as you can, without getting too excited.

You don’t want to expend too much energy but I think the best strategy for a race like this is to almost accept your fate.

Realize that when you’ve got the wind at your back, you’re going to be running a little bit quicker, and when you have the wind blowing against you, needless to say, your times are going to slip a little bit.

You’re probably not going to see negative splits or even even splits in this race, so you have to realize that when conditions are less than favorable, you have to put more emphasis on effort rather than pace.

This is true for any condition.

If you are training for a race and you look at the forecast, and there’s going to be record heat that day, you do have to adjust your strategy slightly.

You can’t expect your body to do exactly what it could with ideal conditions.

When it’s a windy day, your best bet, at a good finishing time, is to let the wind assist you when you can, and do as best as you can when you’re running into the headwind.

For the situation our questioner describes, when you’re heading out and you’ve got the wind behind you, your effort is going to be far lower during this half, than it will be on the second half when you’re coming back into the wind, and that’s completely fine.

Just realize that your aim in a race like that should not be to negative split; that could come back to bite you in the end so I would definitely avoid doing that.

Again, let the wind assist you when you can and also try and draft off some people if you can, even if you have to be sneaky about it. It really does help.

It lowers the cost of energy that you are expending, when you’re running into the headwind like that, so if you can do that without being too blatant about it, definitely try and draft a little bit as well.

I have been in races before, especially track races, where you’re running into a wind and it feels like every time you hit the back stretch, you’ve been frozen in place.

What I have done there, and what I have seen a lot of runners do, is you can find someone who is running about the same pace as you and ask them if they want to trade off laps.

I’ve done that in 10Ks before and it has helped tremendously.

It’s definitely helped save you some energy when you can trade off like that, and you don’t have to run head first into the wind, every time you come around.

You can recover a little bit more before it’s your turn to take the lead, and so if you can find a friendly face during a race, and see if they want to take turns shielding the wind for reach, that can be a really huge help, and it might actually allow you both to achieve the race goal that you are shooting for that day.

Thank you so much for submitting this question, Jared.

I hope this has helped you and all of our listeners today who have asked this question at one point or another, when they’ve checked the forecast to see that there are winds of 15 to 20 miles per hour that day.

I hope this has provided a few good pointers for days like those.

Again, if you have a question that you would like our coaches to answer in an upcoming podcast, please submit it at runnersconnect.net/daily.

If you enjoy this podcast and have a little time, please subscribe or leave a review at iTunes or your favorite podcast directory.

I hope you have a fantastic day until next time.

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