runens is coming!

I am very excited to announce that this blog will be closed permanently. It was a great experience for me to share my passion for running and I guess I contributed a bit with the community by providing some interesting information (selected articles) and sharing my motivation as a passionate runner alongside with some of my adventures and ups and downs while training.

It's been more than a year since I started a personal project: to build a new application for runners that could truly explore the passion runners have for running and the sense of community we are all wrapped around. “Running isn’t solitary” is the power phrase that ended up becoming this idea’s mission. I say goodbye to this blog to fully embrace this new idea.

Together with my colleague Lucas Persona we envisioned runens, a mobile app that is going to change the way people run, aiming to boost motivation in real-time and to give people a sense of what’s going on anytime, anywhere.

The observation that, despite the weather conditions, traffic, or time of the day, there’s always someone brave enough to hit the ground running, always puzzled us and the fact that solutions like Garmin™ or Nike+™ weren’t quite aligned with the full potential technology could unlock, inspired us to go ahead and really design something that we believe can be a game changer. As a runner, after collecting gigabytes of performance information I never really used for anything, I realized I needed something that could learn with my running… runens is also about that.

We received the support of our company, Ci&T (www.ciandt.com) which embraced the idea and provided us a development team. We went through some bumps down the road because we didn’t have enough time to compromise on everything we needed to do, but finally we are getting there.

Stay tuned and take note of the URL www.runens.com. If you have an iPhone and you are a runner, chances are this name will become synonym of something remarkably good for you.

One Month Later...

It's definitely been a great month, but not for my running...

After the new year's eve 13.1 miles run I felt an annoying pain on the right side of my hip that was so bad that in the next day I would limp when I got out of bed. I was worried, but knew it couldn't be a major injury. I pay extreme attention to my body in situations like this because in a matter of days you can figure out if it's healing or not and take the necessary actions.

So I decided to put the marathon training on hold and wait for signs of recovery. On the 17th I felt I could try to run a bit since I wasn't feeling any major discomfort on the hip. The training is here, and what you can see is the following: I ran slowly for the first 3k and had to walk a bit because pain set in. Got back home very disappointed, but I knew I had to be patient.

Next day I could feel some soreness, but nothing major so I decided to go for another 5k on the 19th. Although I still could feel some discomfort after 2k, I kept a slow pace and managed to finish the 5k without any major signs that it wasn't improving. Then I made a very bad decision: to walk for approximately 1k back home. It was too cold and I was a bit sweaty, so a few days later I was having a cold. Besides that, NYC was extremely cold (around the 18F) and got struck again by a blizzard, so basically my 1 month break was due to many factors.
Today, January the 31st, I ran again, I was much more confident and could increase speed a bit. Did 5k and almost felt nothing. Actually my left hip got a bit sore and I wonder if it has something to do with the psychological effect of me trying to compensate for the right side potential pain.
So definitely I've been recovering and probably I will be able to get to the marathon training soon, but I am not sure how fast this will be possible and how quickly I will be able to get back to the 10-mile load that I was before the break.

In any case, it's so good not to have the pressure to train with a deadline. I would be suffering if I had registered for the Paris Marathon, April is around the corner.

Keep running!

The blog's current tag cloud

While I am still waiting for an annoying pain in my right hip to go away before I hit the road again, here's something interesting: the tag cloud of my blog up to now in the shape of the "Big Apple" ;)

Back to Marathon Training: Week 9 of 22

My long was run was part of my New Year's Eve celebration and amazingly enough it led to one of most exciting NYE's celebration I've ever experienced.

Through a friend I found out about the 4-mile midnight run that would happen in Central Park so I decided to make Central Park as the final destination of my long run and join the crowd of crazy people there. I chose a course that would lead me to 72nd st and CPW after 9 miles leaving home so that I would complete 13.1 miles in the end, a half-marathon!

It was great, Central Park was full of people, there was a station with Champagne (after the one with water). Since I got at CPW/72nd at around 10:45 to meet a friend who ran with me the 4 miles inside CP, we were early for the midnight run, but that was actually perfect because we ran in the empty course and afterwards we could appreciate the beginning of the run with fireworks when 2011 rang in. We stayed there and could also see the winners arriving at full speed (see video) while the fireworks were still on. It was amazing!

As for my run, I did it at a slower pace than planned, but it was good!

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After the blizzard that hit NYC last Sunday I was wondering if it would be possible for me to run outside at all soon again. Yesterday I went to Central Park to take some pictures and saw some brave runners, but it was already starting to get slippery so my conclusion was that today, Tuesday, would be a terrible choice to run. And so it was, but I went anyway. My friend Tatiana sent me a "field report" advising me to stay at home, but I decided to give it a try because I knew that staying in would only make me anxious.

But it was good that she called me, because I was going to Central Park and I guess that would have been a terrible choice. Instead I ran on the green way path along the west side, near my place, all the way through battery park. The picture on the left was my view after I stepped out the building. If you are not wearing proper shoes (and my running shoes aren't suitable for snow at all) it becomes really hard to simply cross a street. Fortunately, I've already been "educated" on spotting dark water puddles. Last year I stepped on a few, which taught me a hard lesson. They look like a thin layer of mud and get disguised by the asphalt, but their depth is enough to soak your feet. Anyway, the path was clen enough for a run, and I was so proud I was the only human being running there until a guy on a monocycle passed by. Yes, a monocycle! It felt like I would see an elephant next! And after that I saw many brave runners and felt normal again.

Battery park was completely covered with snow and I had to stop running there having covered only 8k, instead of the usual 10-11 of my tempo runs (6-7 miles). But it was great, I felt like I wanted more and this is a great feeling.

I could also check the tourists on Wall St on my way to the train station. By the way, the 1 train takes more time to get back to Times Square than it would take me running.

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Christmas time and I went for my Sprints run starting from the Brooklyn Bridge. It's a great motivation to do your training so that it takes you back home, more specifically to a hot bath after running in the cold. And now there's a lasagna waiting for me in the kitchen ;)

I took the A train to Brooklyn Bridge station, walked a bit, then warmed up over the bridge. There were lots of people there, I think there will always be.

I noticed I need more time to warm up, 10-20 minutes aren't enough in this cold, so I decided to start the sprints only after I felt I was warm enough. I also decided to run slower during the sprints and to start the recovery period with a bit of walking. Interestingly enough, I've never been so close to the sprint pace target: did them (12 in total) on an average of 4:30min/km or 7:14min/mile, target being 4:32 / 7:18.

I finally crossed 24 hours of running time since I started to count.

---

PARAMETERS

	min/km	min/mi
10k pace	0:05:00	0:08:03
PMP	0:05:27	0:08:46	finish 10k	0:50:00
			finish marathon	3:49:58
Run Type	plus/minus	min/km	min/mi	explanation
Sprints	0:00:45	0:04:32	0:07:18	10k pace minus 45s per mi
Tempo	0:00:20	0:05:12	0:08:23	10k pace plus 20s per mi
PMP+15	0:00:15	0:05:36	0:09:01	long run slower pace
PMP+20	0:00:20	0:05:39	0:09:06	long run slower pace
PMP+30	0:00:30	0:05:46	0:09:16	long run slower pace
PMP+45	0:00:45	0:05:55	0:09:31	long run slower pace
PMP+60	0:01:00	0:06:04	0:09:46	long run slower pace

Back to Marathon Training: Week 8 of 22

I decided to add the newer events on top from now on

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My long run tonight was an adventure! And it could have been a dangerous one...
The idea was to run between 11 and 12 miles and I hadn't had the time to plan properly, so I thought that going from home to the George Washington Bridge, cross it to touch base in NJ and then back to Manhattan would be a good idea because there's a train station near there that would take me back to Times Square. And so I went...

It's rather dark at some spots, I could barely see the bike trail and could have been hit by a cyclist, next time I should consider some type of tiny headlamp of something like that. If you think I could have been mugged up there, I gotta tell you, it never crossed my mind because no criminal would be as crazy as I was to be there with that cold weather, it simply doesn't pay off.

The idea was to keep a slow pace and incredibly enough I did exactly PMP+60 that was on my schedule. Actually I wanted to do it a bit faster and did it at the beginning, but when I hit the part of the trail beneath the GW bridge I had to climb a hill and also decipher the way across the bridge which screwed my concentration and ability to keep the pace. But I guess I did it well all things considered.

The worst part of it was 1 mile before hitting GW bridge and it was so dark that I didn't see a puddle and stepped on it soaking both of my feet. Damn it! It was so cold that my toes could easily freeze after that so I quickly removed the socks and used something that I new would save me at some point: the emergency sheets that I bought on amazon. The sheets come in tiny packages that are very convenient to carry. I unpacked it and torn two smaller pieces to use as socks. It worked very well, believe me, my feet were kept warm enough. I used the rest of the sheet to cover my neck when crossing the bridge, it was insanely windy up there. Now I know that I should carry extra socks with me.

I had my endorphin fix and I am happy. In any case, the view of Manhattan while crossing the bridge was breathtaking and watching the full moon rising was yet another scene I have treasured.

---

Today was my tempo run. Sundays were actually reserved to my long runs, but because of bad weather the entire plan got shifted. Eventually my long runs will be back to Sundays, which I prefer.

I ran in Central Park and something amazing happened. I ran across a friend. It was a split second but I could recognize her. Sent her a text when I was back home and she was indeed running in Central Park. This kind of thing is what makes you feel that you start to belong to a place. That would happen very often in Brazil where I lived most of my life, but only recently I started to stumble upon people that I already know here in Manhattan.

Training was good, my tempo pace was kept on 8:15min/mi (5:08min/km) for 4 full miles. It's always great to run in Central Park, there's always someone there, no matter the time and the weather condition. I saw lots of runners today, this is very encouraging.

If I recover well, my long will be Tuesday, that's very odd, because it's a normal day of work, let's see what I can do.

---

Well, well, it's freaking freezing in NYC and I was running out of excuses so I faced the cold to go for my Sprint training tonight.

I was planning to do 12 sprints and did only 6, but instead of "cooling down" for 10-20' I ran normally. What's the point of cooling down in this freezing cold if it actually takes seconds to cool down, you just need to slow down?

This time I felt some pain in my left hamstring. There's something wrong with my left leg, I might be unbalanced in someway. Will continue to keep an eye on it and might be less aggressive in future runs.

I am glad Garmin decided to change the colors of the maps after they switched from Google to Bing. The course in red was getting confused with some main roads also represented in red. Now it's all good again and the "bird's eye" view (when you click "view details") is great by the way.


PARAMETERS

	min/km	min/mi
10k pace	0:05:00	0:08:03
PMP	0:05:27	0:08:46	finish 10k	0:50:00
			finish marathon	3:49:58
Run Type	plus/minus	min/km	min/mi	explanation
Sprints	0:00:45	0:04:32	0:07:18	10k pace minus 45s per mi
Tempo	0:00:20	0:05:12	0:08:23	10k pace plus 20s per mi
PMP+15	0:00:15	0:05:36	0:09:01	long run slower pace
PMP+20	0:00:20	0:05:39	0:09:06	long run slower pace
PMP+30	0:00:30	0:05:46	0:09:16	long run slower pace
PMP+45	0:00:45	0:05:55	0:09:31	long run slower pace
PMP+60	0:01:00	0:06:04	0:09:46	long run slower pace

Back to Marathon Training: Week 7 of 22

I was planning to do my sprint training today while there was still sunlight outside. But a business meeting went on for longer than expected and I missed the light. Well, when it's dark by 5, it's hard not to miss sunlight on a weekday. It was colder than last Sunday (30F, -1C), but I guess I've been doing well with the winter gear and layering.

I forgot to take a picture of my starting point near my home, next time.

It was the first time I had to keep the sprint pace (7:18min/mile / 04:32min/km) for 3 minutes but I guess I did it very well, a little bit higher than that though.

---

My tempo run was right on target, although I had to climb parts of Amsterdan Avenue. On my way back I went through Riverside Park and there wasn't anybody around, it was as if NYC had been evacuated.

I felt a bit of pain on my left leg and will have to keep an eye on it before my long run this Sunday.

This picture is from the place I finished my run, at the Intrepid Museum.

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Sunday began with lots of rain and it took me a lot of time to get out of bed, feeling demotivation by the fact that I wouldn't be able to run. Then I noticed my left calf was really sore. Not sure what happened, I could've had cramps during the night.

Then a good thought: pain and rain, I should postpone the long run. But now the rain has stopped, I looked at my window and saw people running. It's been hard to resist, but I think I should wait until tomorrow afternoon, my calf will probably be back to normal and I will be able to run in balance. We usually don't notice, but when a side of the body is hurt we unconsciously compensate and end up hurting the other side because of the unbalanced movement.

I feel bad right now, because all I want is to go running.

---

I think it's the first time I do a long run on a Monday and I am very glad I did it. I almost gave up on mile 4 because I wasn't running smoothly, I felt heavier than normal and my left calf was giving me signs that something was wrong. But then it happened: it started to snow! Very lightly, but enough to cover my shoulders for a while. It was thrilling and I kept running.

I slowed down the pace and most of the time I kept it at PMP+45 which was my goal but ended up slowing down more at the end because I was afraid I could hurt myself. Hopefully nothing has happened.

The view of Midtown Manhattan from the east side was fantastic.

I learned something from this run: whenever you're not finishing the run close to your home or to a train station you should be very careful. I stopped at Grand Central and couldn't get a cab, stayed in the cold for more than 10min and almost freezed, seriously, I couldn't feel several fingers of my right hand. Desperately I decided to run home. So, in the end I ran 1.5 miles more. I decided I should read more about effects of cold in situations like that.

---

Parameters:

	min/km	min/mi
10k pace	0:05:00	0:08:03
PMP	0:05:27	0:08:46	finish 10k	0:50:00
			finish marathon	3:49:58
Run Type	plus/minus	min/km	min/mi	explanation
Sprints	0:00:45	0:04:32	0:07:18	10k pace minus 45s per mi
Tempo	0:00:20	0:05:12	0:08:23	10k pace plus 20s per mi
PMP+15	0:00:15	0:05:36	0:09:01	long run slower pace
PMP+20	0:00:20	0:05:39	0:09:06	long run slower pace
PMP+30	0:00:30	0:05:46	0:09:16	long run slower pace
PMP+45	0:00:45	0:05:55	0:09:31	long run slower pace
PMP+60	0:01:00	0:06:04	0:09:46	long run slower pace

I will never run on a treadmill again

In a previous post I said I would never run on a treadmill again and mentioned I would have a separate post about it, here I go.

If you google it, you’ll find hundreds of articles talking about the pros and cons of running on treadmills. I have run on treadmills since I started running, back in 2003 and have accumulated enough experience to deliberately say: a true runner runs exclusively outdoors.

Many people will disagree and they will have a list of pro-treadmills arguments ready to fight back. I really don’t care about those facts, they are valid for sure, but they don’t change my perception of what running on treadmills represent both physically and psychologically.

Treadmills were historically used as a method of reforming offenders in prison, an innovation introduced by Sir William Cubitt in 1817. The first private health club in the U.S. was started by Professor Louis Attila in 1894. It is undeniable that treadmills became very popular at gyms everywhere in the world and they are great for warm-ups before other exercises. They’re also great at home as an exotic piece of furniture to hang clothing. They helped medicine to establish some protocols for identifying some heart-related diseases and are a terrific tool for people willing to lose weight or in rehabilitation. But we are talking about runners, the ones who run because they love it, and they want to push their bodies to the next challenge, be it a 5k, a 10k or half-marathons, marathons or even ultra-marathons. For runners, running on treadmills is somewhat like cheating.

Are you a hamster?

From the mechanics standpoint running on a treadmill or running on the deck of a moving boat is essentially the same thing: your muscles have to “defeat” gravity in order to transfer the movement from one leg to the other. But the treadmill offers an additional force brought to you by a moving belt and this makes all the difference to our neuromuscular dynamics. To anybody that isn’t convinced that for our brain and body running on a treadmill is different, just remember what you feel right after you step out of it.

Since I am not a biophysics specialist, I am not going to go deeper on these differences, many of them aren’t even completely understood. It is common sense, though, that running on treadmills is easier than running on an equivalently flat distance outdoors because the ground is smooth and there is no wind resistance. Studies measuring the difference find that an average person running between 5 miles per hour (8.0 km/h) and 9 miles per hour (14 km/h) will expend between 0 and 5 percent more energy running outdoors. A person running outdoors faster than 10 miles per hour (16 km/h) (6 minute mile pace) will expend up to 10% more energy than an indoor runner. Treadmills can approximate the additional effort of running outdoors by setting the incline to 1%, which theoretically account for air resistance.

What I think is more determinant is the fact that you can sustain a higher speed on a treadmill as opposed to outdoor running and as an effect people tend to run at unnatural speeds on treadmills, which in turn may lead to injuries. How many times you were proud of running at 12.5MPH (20km/h) for some minutes on a treadmill and you knew for sure that wouldn’t even be possible on the streets? Many, if not all, of the running-related injuries I had in the past were directly related to workouts I did on treadmills trying those unnatural speeds that artificially helped me feel more like an elite runner. Speed trainings (sprints) are much easier to control on treadmills, but they are the most dangerous. If you can afford a GPS-based running tool, I highly recommend you do it and start doing speed trainings outdoors, you’ll quickly notice how much more difficult it is to sustain higher speeds.

I’ve seen many runners developing bad habits because they almost never run outdoors. When you have to run against the wind and on uneven surfaces everything changes and a treadmill-runner will resemble a ballerina with a short bouncing gait.

One of the strongest arguments in pro of treadmills is that they reduce impact to your joints. Surely this is true, running on concrete and asphalt hurts much more, but come on, just go slower, respect your body and you’ll be fine wherever you run on. The other strong argument is that sometimes weather sucks, like during wintertime. I’m training for a marathon during wintertime in NYC to show that this isn’t a critical barrier, just gear up and go.

So, that’s the deal, you are a runner not a hamster, you’re proud of being a runner and going farther and for longer, exploring the ground where you live in or visit; you appreciate the wind on your face, the sun, the rain, the snow, natural hills, you like to see other people’s faces while they do what you’re doing. Running outdoors can be much less solitary.

Still not convinced? Check out how natural this dog looks:

Back to Marathon Training: Week 6 of 22

It was VERY hard to go running tonight. It was dark, cold and rainy. And since I decided I won't do a single run on a treadmill anymore in my life (this will be the subject of a separate post), I had to face the weather, it will get worse as the end of year approaches. Friends helped a lot today and I thank them for this, it was very much appreciated!

The run itself was difficult, I feel like the 10 days in Brazil helped me a lot to get out of shape. Good food, good weather, then food poisoning and rain and gastritis. That was hell.

I did 10 sprints of 1min each today, 2 minutes of recovery, on the last 2 I walked to recover but was able to keep a good sprint pace in all of them. I am satisfied with the results.

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I went to Philadelphia this past Friday for a conference on mobile trends and had this fantastic opportunity to do my tempo run along the Schuylkill river, just "behind" the Philadelphia Museum of Art where the movie Rocky was once shot. It was a fantastic ride, very cold evening but this didn't prevent me - and some other people - to enjoy a good run along the river and the night scenery.

I decided I will now post a picture of what I see at the beginning of my runs. This is the Philadelphia City Hall as seen from Broad St.

After 2 miles of warm-up (literally as I was freezing), I ran 3 miles at my tempo pace (8:22 min/mi or 5:12 min/km). The average of the three miles was actually faster: 8:14min/mi or 5:07min/km which made me very happy because it wasn't exhaustive at all.

Look forward to my long run this Sunday in Manhattan, it's going to be something between 9 and 10 miles.

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It was very cold this morning when I decided to go running for my long run. Actually it was already noon, I was waiting for the weather to get a bit warmer. When I left home it was 32F (0C) but I geared up and off I went. I started my run near Grand Central and the plan was to go up 1st avenue and then to Central Park for the big loop, since this will be part of my "Manhattan Marathon". You gotta get used to the running course! ;)

Garmin lost the GPS lock during the course and I nearly lost 10 minutes of data recording, but hopefully I had my iPhone and "runens" app on. Runens is a project I am doing on the side, I will be sharing more info about it soon. So, instead of running 9 miles, I ended up running 10.6, also because I wanted to complete the Central Park big loop. It was a fantastic run even though the park wasn't really filled with many runners, probably because of the weather. I could sense empathy between everyone who was there running, this is something only runners can understand, real runners face the weather and run on the streets, no matter what. And they always give their best.

My average pace should've been PMP+20sec/mile or 9:06min/mile, but I ended up doing 8:45 min/mile, which is actually my PMP. This is great, but again when you are running faster than you should, you must pay double attention to the signals your body give to you. At the very first sign of overuse you should slow down or even stop. Hopefully I had the feeling I could've gone for more miles.

I feel like I recovered from the bad two weeks of training in Brazil and this makes me very happy.I am over 100 miles since I started this Marathon Training.

When you are a long distance runner in NYC, it does not matter where you live, Central Park is always nearby.

Back to Marathon Training: Week 5 of 22

Monday the 22nd arrived and there was a big storm in Campinas, the city where I was working from, so my plans to run the 9 miles got literally washed away.

I then decided to skip one week on my program and consider now 21 weeks.

But week 5 was very complicated for me. On the 23rd, after doing my sprint training, I got food poisoning after having a sandwich at the hotel. I switched the hotel, but suffered the entire week, barely being able to eat. I got better on Friday and did the tempo run, but on Saturday I had gastritis and wasn't able to run my long run on Sunday either.

The final result to my training of my trip to Brazil is: I kinda lost two weeks.

It is common sense but I was able to confirm some facts:

• If you change your diet dramatically, your performance reduces dramatically
• Temperature plays a major role on performance. It's silly to try to keep the same pace you were being able to keep on much cooler temperatures. There is a rule of thumb to reduce x miles per second per each F in temperature change, but I think there's no way to make this precisely: if it's warmer, just slow down a bit
• I tried to keep my pacing despite the fact I wasn't training in Manhattan. Going fast on hills demands a lot more of your muscles and my legs felt that

I am back to Manhattan, still recovering from the gastritis, but I guess I am back to my normal training this week, let's see.

Back to Marathon Training: Week 4 of 20

Doing a sprint training right before an international business trip means you are committed to running, for sure.

Garmin website is down, so I won't be able to post the results now. I did 15' warm-up, 6 sprints of 1min with 2min recovery and then 10-15' cool down back home. It was extremely windy today in NYC and although I protected my neck, it was really annoying. I learned that running sprints against the wind is horrible! I am sure my timing for the first 3 are much better than the last ones.

Write more from Brazil!

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Today, Friday, I ran my tempo run. It's been two days I've been to Brazil and all I did was eat great food in quantity so because of this - and the fact that it's much warmer and the course was much hillier - I suffered a lot to run my 2 miles easy, 2 miles at tempo and another 2 miles easy. I was able to manage to keep my tempo pace on the 2 miles in the middle despite all the hills and I sweat a lot.

I forgot my usb adaptor for the Garmin so I will only update my results when I'm back to NYC on the 29th.

Can't wait for my long run this Sunday!

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Well, my Sunday run didn't fully happen. I had the stupid idea of going running at 11am and it was above 85F and sunny. After four miles - I was being able to keep the pace - I made the wise decision to stop because I would surely get an injury or dehydrate. Tomorrow night I will try to run my 9 miles.

Why do runners use pace to measure speed?

It is definitely weird that runners measure speed with minutes/mile or minutes/km instead of the most common speed measures of mph or km/h. First of all, the higher the number the slower you are!

Instead of saying I run at 6.2mph you should say - if you're a runner - I run at 9:40min/mile. Or, 10km/h becoming 6:00min/km.

Why is it so? It's because pacing is a crucial component of any running training and if you fail at keeping your pace within the ideal limits while you progress one thing is bound to happen: you'll suffer a lot.

Now imagine the challenge of keeping your speed at 6.5mph. How can you get a sense of the difference between 6.2mph and 6.5mph? 0.3mph means nothing to us, let face it, but in terms of min/mile we are talking about 9:13min/mile, that is, you will be doing each mile in 27 seconds less time when compared to 9:40min/mile.

Still hard to get a sense of it, but it gives us the ability to understand that a few seconds per mile (or km) makes a lot of difference.

Let's take an example of a marathon where the runner A runs at an average pace of 9:00min/mile while runner B is only 5 seconds faster per mile 8:55min/mile.

Their final timing will be:
Runner A: 3h55m58s
Runner B: 3:53m47s

Runner B hits the finish line 2 minutes and 11 seconds earlier! That's enough to grab a beer and relax waiting for runner A.

So, if you're a runner, you should abandon mph ou km/h and embrace the beauty of pace. According to wikipedia:
In running, pace is usually defined as a ratio of the number of minutes it takes to cover a mile or kilometer. Pacing is often a critical aspect of endurance events. Some coaches advocate training at a combination of specific paces related to one's fitness in order to stimulate various physiological improvements

After some experience you'll be amazed to realize you can actually tell - approximately - the pace you're running at.

Now, a great article about the importance of pacing by Jeff Galloway:

4 Steps to Your Perfect Pace

By Jeff Galloway

When you run within your limits, every workout can be a pleasure. But start even a few seconds per mile too fast, and misery awaits: excess fatigue, loss of motivation, or even injury. That's why it's so important to know what pace is right for you. Happily, by doing a simple "magic mile" time trial, you can find the best speed for your runs, then set realistic goals and keep running—enjoyably—forever.

Run One Mile Hard
Go to a track and jog an easy lap or two for a warmup. Walk for three to four minutes. Then time yourself running four laps, which is about one mile. Don't run all out; just push a little faster than you usually do. Record your time. By running on a track—which is flat and provides the most accurate measurement of distance—you'll get a solid indication of your top speed. You can use it as a benchmark to determine what pace is appropriate for your current fitness level on daily runs. Do the time trial every two weeks or so; try to beat your previous time, and track your progress.

Slow Down Every Day
On your daily runs, aim to run two to three minutes slower per mile than your magic mile time. So if you do your magic mile in 10 minutes, aim to keep your pace around 12 to 13 minutes per mile on daily runs. At the perfect pace, you should feel comfortable and relaxed—like you can finish a sentence without having to catch your breath. If you're huffing and puffing, ease off. Don't worry about going too slow.

Set Race Goals Signed up for a race? Use the magic mile to set realistic goals for different distances. Add 33 seconds to your mile time to determine a pace for a 5K. Multiply your mile time by 1.15 for a 10K, 1.2 for a half-marathon, and 1.3 to predict your marathon potential.

Get Used To It At a race, you'll get the best results if you try to maintain a steady pace from start to finish. Here's how to practice: Once a week, try to run your goal race pace for a half to three-quarters of a mile. Each quarter mile, check your pace and adjust if you need to. Each week, run a little farther at your goal pace until you're running one-third to one-half of the race distance.

Time Trial
If you can run one mile in 10 minutes, here's your pace for other distances.

Distance: 5K
Pace per mile: 10:33

Distance: 10K
Pace per mile: 11:30

Distance: Half-Marathon
Pace per mile: 12:00

Distance: Marathon
Pace per mile: 13:00