Week 81: Pace is not about being constant & we need to come to terms with it ‪

Unedited unabridged version of Run&Bee column in Hindustan Times

Pacing in life and in running is crucial. There is a misconception that you need to keep that pace constant for best results. Nature is the one that teaches you the best.

The general consensus in the scientific fraternity is that Big Bang led to the very beginning of everything. 

Just a hundredth of a billionth of a trillionth of a trillionth of a second after Universe’s birth, there was inflation, a magnificent unimaginable burst of expansion, in which space expanded faster than speed of light. In this fraction of a second that we can’t even comprehend, doubling in size more than 90 times. And then the speed of growth slowed down remarkably. 

Some would argue that Big Bang is a just a theory. Alexander Tsiaras, a Mathematician, was offered a position as associate professor of medicine, and chief of scientific visualization at Yale University in the department of medicine.

In his 2011 Ted Talk, Conception to Birth —visualised, summarising his work, he stated that growth of the baby inside the mother’s womb is at its most rapid development from roughly 4th to 7th week. If the growth continues at this speed for the entire 9 months, it would be 1.5 tons at birth. 

If the growth of the universe had remained constant, it soon would have spread too thin, leading to self destruction even before anything really happened. As for the 1.5 ton baby, that would have never happened because the mother herself would have been blown away, much like the ever-inflating universe, long before delivery. 

We need to apply the same in running, both in training as well in the race itself. 

All expect constant improvement in their running, speed and endurance, and target personal best times in any event that they sign up for. As it is, people end up racing in almost all weekends. 

Also they want to sign up for the longest races they have ever heard of only a few months after having picked up running, and then they wonder how did they manage to get injured.

In the first few weeks after you pick up running, you will struggle to get moving, so the idea should only to spend time on feet, walking will work. There is no need to run yet. Most complain about breathlessness on attempting to run non-stop for even 10-15 minutes. 

How do they plan to do that when you can’t even mindfully breathe for three minutes while sitting down? So just stick with walking for first month, gradually increasing the duration. 

Then comes the stage where runners simply can’t get enough of this new high as their running is improving by leaps and bounds. Let’s compare this to our school days. The scope of improvement is the most in someone who is not only failing but is getting close to zero marks, same goes for beginners in running. 

Even though folks could have picked up running together, some would end up getting to 60, 70, 80 or 90 percentile.

Once they hit their peak, performance would plateau off.

For all of us mere mortals, I always suggest start slower than your race pace for first kilometre or two. It’ll help you settle down and not get annoyed with other slow runners in front of you. 

After that, if all feels good, get on to your race pace. You might want to be slower if it seems like a tough day for whatever reason. The target should be getting to half distance mark as fresh as you possibly can.

When you get to the last quarter mark, reassess how you feel. If you think you have ample fuel in the tank, push yourself slightly so harder. And at all smiles, keep that crooked smile on.

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