I currently do 4-6 runs a week and usually 5 miles every time. Between 7:30-7:40 pace. Not a ton of structured speedwork yet but I often increase my final mile until I’m running all out for the last .5 or .25
Today I did a 1 mile warmup and then 6x400 at 1:22 which is my target pace for the mile. The last one felt tough. Oh 1:00 rest between.
What’s a better pace to shoot for? Or should I be doing 800s instead?
it all
Now that I typed this all out I realized I need a benchmark which I havent set yet but I know I’m somewhere south of 6:00.
Need more info (as you already noted in your post).
First, we do need a Mile time to look at. Then we need:
a) Age, Gender, Running Background (all of these things effect what kind of training you can absorb and recover from, where your strengths will be), Weight, Nutrition?
b) Are you naturally a sprinter, long distance runner, a blend of both? This will determine whether you need to be starting with 200s, 400s, or 800s to either bring up your speed or endurance specific fitness for the mile.
c) Are you doing hill sprints (something like 8% grade, 6 x 8 seconds) / structured fartlek intervals / longer hill sets (6 x 200m @ 4-5% grade at 1 mile RPE) for muscle strength and turn over.
This would all be a good place to start really breaking it down to plan to improve your 1 mile time. And 5:30 is a bugger to hit, but great when you get over that hump psychologically, so definitely good luck with it.
Neither. Starting small. Talking about just a mile right now. Years ago I could do it with no real speedwork. Lost a lot of natural speed when I switched to longer distances but want that speed back.
I picked up the current Competitor magazine at my local running shop last week. The cover article is about running the mile. It even has workout plans for beginner, intermediate and advanced runners.
No experience with it personally, but the guys at the Training Bible Podcast did a thing called “Goal Mile” recently. It is a series of one specific workout per week designed to get you to your goal mile in 14 weeks. General overviews are here (look back to Nov/ Dec/ Jan, listen if you want specifics). Seemed like a well thought out method.
I am on a similar quest but a little faster, currently in 5:00 range, working towards a pr of 4:30. I’m working up to 40 miles a week, trying to stick to the 10% rule while building. I’m currently doing one day of hills, one day of intervals at our local wood chipped trail which is marked at every 100m, and one day at threshold pace and strides on easy days.
When I get closer to my races, I’ll switch the hills to a longer track day.
I would say at the very least you should be throwing in a day of threshold work and a day or two with some strides.
Do you do strides? They are great for increasing speed without pounding your body too hard. On a slow run do 10 minutes of 5x (30 seconds @2 mile effort, 90 seconds walk/jog). Great to keep fast muscle memory without a hard track workout.
Do you do strides? They are great for increasing speed without pounding your body too hard. On a slow run do 10 minutes of 5x (30 seconds @2 mile effort, 90 seconds walk/jog). Great to keep fast muscle memory without a hard track workout.
No I don’t. At least I don’t think I do. Stupid question…is it a different technique or is it just the name like fartlek?
I did two types of workouts last year while dealing with an injury that kept me from running more than about 6-7 miles a week. Funny though, speed work didn’t aggravate it.
I’ll preface this with these worked for me, may not necessarily work for anyone else.
Run a mile. All out. Each week. You don’t know how fast you can run a mile unless you do it.
200m with 30s rest at 40s or less (<= 5:20 mile pace). Start with 16 and build up to doing 24+. Start at 40s, basically working on trying to hit each one at the same time. You’ll notice after few weeks you’ll be running faster than 40s without trying.
based on what Ive read about you so far, your 400 intervals should get get you there…you will need atleast 1 of these per week and atleast 3 weeks(3 of these workouts) before you really see a difference…I bet if you go for 4 total(3 more interval workouts) then you will be pretty darn close to your goal in June. But shoot for a little faster pace in your intervals…maybe 3 to 5 seconds each. Be sure to give yourself atleast 3 or 4 days of recovery after your last interval day before you test yourself. you can run in between those days but keep it mellow.
to really get you there…try this workout
run 3x200meters with 20 to 30 seconds in between each 200. your pace should be about 5 or sub 5 minute pace. try to do 3 sets (9 200’s total). you can rest however long in between the sets as you need…as long as your recovered enough to get the speed in. these are called butt-burners…youll find out why. Good luck
Agreed the 400’s will get you there with the other consistent running during the week. Work your way to 10 X 400 at least at goal mile pace. If you are really just looking at mile time, a great second workout would be 15-20 200’s on 90 seconds (almost like a swim set); faster than mile pace (in your case <40 seconds for the 200), walk for recovery circling at point on track and than hit the next 200. The first 5-7 should feel easy. Work your way to 20.
Word of caution to progression based on injury/run history. Don’t rush it and cut the workout per plan even if you feel you could do more…don’t make a good day go bad.
I do these 2 workouts for 5 weeks straight and get some of the turbo back of my now over 45 year old diesel engine quickly.
oh and a fairly typical “miler” workout is 10 x 400 at goal pace with equal or less rest.
Talk about old school! But, back in the stone age I used to aim for ~5 seconds less per quarter than goal pace, but, take an easy 400 jog between, so, that would probably come out in the wash. So, for me I “knew” I’d go way under sub 5 if I’d do 10x400 in 70.
No I don’t. At least I don’t think I do. Stupid question…is it a different technique or is it just the name like fartlek?
Strides are short (50-100 meters), controlled, near-sprint (90-95%) efforts with a walk back to the starting place. Time is not necessarily important. The focus is typically on form and running technique. Some coaches even advocate doing the strides barefoot on infield grass and try to repeat the foot stride and strike.
I currently do 4-6 runs a week and usually 5 miles every time. Between 7:30-7:40 pace. Not a ton of structured speedwork yet but I often increase my final mile until I’m running all out for the last .5 or .25
Today I did a 1 mile warmup and then 6x400 at 1:22 which is my target pace for the mile. The last one felt tough. Oh 1:00 rest between.
What’s a better pace to shoot for? Or should I be doing 800s instead?
it all
Now that I typed this all out I realized I need a benchmark which I havent set yet but I know I’m somewhere south of 6:00.
Thanks!
This is really simple. We train folks for the 1.5 mile Navy fitness test all the time. Same principles apply. If I were doing a 6 month build, I would go through phase 1, 2 and 3 that are described in the link in my signature. We get the job done mainly on the strength of 5-6 weeks of track intervals done once per week. We start with 1/4 mile intervals, then 1/2 mile intervals, then 3/4 mile, then we drill a mile hard, then 1 mile - rest 2 mintues- 1/2 mile. Then we are ready for the test. We do this over 5-6 weeks. The other runs are primarily steady runs with 1-2 tempo sessions thrown in. Works like magic.
