HOW TO FIND CREATE YOUR PACES

IT WAS A hot summer afternoon on Cold Soil Road, and I had just finished the "First Speed Run," a guided run in the Nike Run Club app.

- Donna Raskin

It included eight one-minute intervals interspersed with one minute of recovery. The virtual coach of that run prescribed different speeds, including a mile pace which was "fast," a 10K pace which was "faster, but slower than a mile pace," and the slowest of the three, a marathon pace. No matter how much I tried, I couldn't run at different paces. Over the course of my various flirtations, romances, and relationships with running, I'd always seemed to move at only two speeds: run and walk.

Disappointed and discouraged, I checked to see the name of the next guided run, hoping it wouldn't force me to struggle, yet again, with unrealistic speeds. The name? "Find Your Pace." Excited about this fortuitous opportunity, I pressed download and started this short workout even though I had just struggled through the previous one.