And save the red zone (harder breathing and effort) for the final miles when you need to dial in your mental zone and push to the finish. Run at an orange effort for the second act where you can hear your breathing but you are well under control. For the first part of the race, run in the green zone or at an easy effort where you can't hear your breathing and it feels effortless. The idea is to keep your energy consumption below the red line (hard effort or threshold) until the last act. If you run by the numbers (pace) and into a headwind, you will expend a lot more energy at your normal pace and risk a crash and burn performance. Break the race into three equal parts and run by your effort (feel) rather than your watch. Play the game and think about ways it could be worse.perhaps a thunderstorm, or hail, or how about having a wind so strong you see a crabby woman riding a bike with a little dog flying through the air! Once you get into it, the day's challenges will seem like gifts.

'It can always be worse' are words that have helped me through miles of ankle-deep muddy trails in the Antarctica Marathon and a 50-mile jungle trek with red biting ant and leeches in the jungles of Borneo. Wind), use a mindful mantra to keep things in perspective and avoid getting sucked into a negativity loop. If you use your energy to fight the wind, you burn through mental and physical energy at a rate so fast you can end up in the bite-me zone by mile 12. Repeat after me, 'it can always be worse.' Mind over matter.Your taper is coming to a close and it is the perfect time to focus in on three simple race day strategies. Go with the flow because you never know what race day will bring.

The next year you may get hit with a brutal Lake Superior storm, develop a blister in the first 10K and realize at mile 20 you've got two different shoes on. Every year the course fluctuates as do all the variables that go into a marathon performance (health, training, stress, fuel, sleep.) One year, the planets may be perfectly aligned, the weather gods smile down on you and all your racing apparel matches.

We tend to compare our race times for the same course year to year, but like comparing apples to oranges it just doesn't match up. A good rule to follow in racing (and life) is to go with what the day gives you. Pacing a point-to-point course like Grandma's is a unique challenge, especially if you have a headwind to deal with along the way. Do you have any suggestions for pacing? Thanks. It looks like we may have a significant wind to contend with at Grandma's Marathon this weekend.

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