Running at our own pace

"Don't rush it. I know you want to finish the length of the swimming pool but I want you to focus on your stroke and follow the *beep* of your timer. Now you need to do it right and constant pace. Not doing it fast." that was my coach said to us during our lesson this week.
She also said that it's easy to just go faster but we will feel exhausted before the entire distance we supposed to cover.
This Saturday I went jogging with my friend and after 2km mark, I looked at my 735XT, it was showing around 7:40 but my heart rate (HR) was already at up high (zone 5) because of the hills.
Anyway.. my brain relates these experience to normal daily life that, sometimes we have different milestone than our friends, some might get married first, some might already have their house while others might have great career.
We run at different pace in our marathon called life.

  • There are times when you need to run harder during the hills till your lung screams.
  • There are times when you are just cruising at steady pace.
  • Or there are times when you're walking to recover.

But as long as you're still running, isn't it okay?

PS: I don't really get the science behind making use the HR data to run more efficiently. And according to my triathlete friend, try to be at zone 3 – forever running zone as much as possible.