Pace is a rate of movement, especially in stepping, walking, activity, progress, growth, performance etc. One of the most important lessons that I have learnt from running multiple 26 miles marathons in the past decade is the value of pacing yourself. Every marathon course is different; you need a strategy to navigate the course, weather and other unforeseen circumstances. The marathon is a very egalitarian sport as everyone starts simultaneously, the rich, poor, skinny, big, learned, ignorant, etc. The difference between the winner and other participants is the pace at which they run, which is determined by their training volume, pacing, stamina and running strategy.

The finishing time of a marathon race can be predicted based on the running pace you maintain throughout your running time. For example to run a three hours 30 minutes finishing time for a marathon, you would have to run at a pace of 5:00 min per km or 8:03 min per mile. The pace is predictable but executing the pace throughout the course of a marathon is what differentiates the elite runners and amateur runners. The elite runners have put in the training through base runs, recovery runs, long runs, tempo runs, threshold workout, progression runs, interval runs, to name but a few. All these training runs are done keeping a particular tempo as you need to conserve your energy to execute well in training. If you cannot do it in training, it is going to be hard to execute it on race day.

One of the strategies used by elite runners is called negative splitting. It is a racing strategy that involves completing the second half of a race faster than the first half. It is defined by the intentional setting of a slower initial pace, followed by a gradual or sudden increase of speed towards the end of the race. By pacing your self, you conserve your energy in the first half of the race and you pick up the momentum in the second half od the race.

Long distance marathon running is a great metaphor for life as you also need to pace yourself in whatever you find your self doing. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once quipped “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” To go at your own pace in a world where you are constantly been compared with everyone and expected to have achieved some milestones at a particular age is not easy. Making tough decisions like growing your business venture in a slow methodical way as opposed to growing exponentially is not easy, deciding to have kids or get married later in life is not the norm, not using social media is seen as absurd but we all have to make our choices, design the life we want and go at a pace that is in line with our ultimate definition of happiness.

Going at your own pace in life is one of the toughest decision that most of us would have to face at some point. It is tough but you need to design your life, live by the consequence of your actions and have the courage to live a life you would be proud of. American author and speaker, Jim Rohn often said “If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you‘ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” Go at your own pace, remember the journey is the reward not the destination, keep pushing and you would be fine in the end.

“A runner is a miser, spending the pennies of his energy with great stinginess, constantly wanting to know how much he has spent and how much longer he will be expected to pay. He wants to be broke at precisely the moment he no longer needs his coin.” – John L. Parker Jr., Once a Runner

You might think the best test of maximal endurance is fairly obvious: a race. But race performance depends on highly variable factors like pacing. You may have the greatest endurance in the world, but if you’re an incurable optimist who can’t resist starting out at a sprint (or a coward who always sets off at a jog), your race times will never accurately reflect what you’re physically capable of.

If you want running at 5:00-mile pace to feel easier, you should head out the door and run at 5:00-mile pace—a lot. Over time, your heart will get stronger, your muscles will grow more energy-producing mitochondria, and you’ll sprout new capillaries to distribute oxygen-rich blood. These changes will allow you to sustain 5:00 pace with less physiological strain, and they’ll also attenuate the distress signals that your muscles and heart send back to the brain.

In the past 40 days, I have been averaging at least 10-11 KM every morning at different pace. I run daily for a lot of reasons such as getting the dopamine rush/runners high, getting fit, training for my next marathon race, preparing to deal with the challenges of the day among other things. I run at different pay during this morning run to caliberate my body for what is to come during the actual race that I am training for. As the saying goes “We play the way we train, if you cannot do it in training, it is going to be hard to do it on race race day”. Greek Poet Archilochus puts it succinctly:

“‘We don’t rise to the level of our expectations, we fall to the level of our training.’

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Being
The busyness of doing can become an addiction to a frenetic way of living, and the faster we go, the more we do, and the less we give ourselves permission to stop. There is immense value in giving ourselves permission to just be. It might take a bit of willful effort at first, but by allowing ourselves to just be, we reconnect to our heart and to who we truly are, we surface the calm that lie beneath our stress and worry.
So rather than waiting until you push yourself beyond your limits and have no choice but to stop; why not practice just being for a few moments each day.