Improve Mile Time??

uum

I was wondering does anyone know how i could improve my mile time because i certainly don't. i seem to have hit a wall at around 5 mins 50 secs.

There was a time when i could go faster (5:30 was about my best ever time) but since then (about 2 years) ive about 2 stone of muscle put on and even though my sprint is faster i just cant get my mile time down.

I'm gonna have a go at losing about a stone (i reckon i can afford to) but there are surely better ways of closing in on the 5 min barrier. If i could do a mile in 5 mins it'd b chickety boo!

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

silverside

You should join a club and do some interval training with them. Try crusaders - look at www. crusadersac. org for training times.

Niacom

What training are you doing at the moment Uum?
Are you doing much long runs?
Running a good mile requires both good speed and endurance. If your sprints have improved over the last couple of years then it's possible that your endurance is slowing you down over the mile distance.
You should make sure you are getting 1 long run in a week. If you are concentrating on improving your mile then a 60-70 minute steady run should do for your long run.

For your speed work you could also do a Fartlek run once a week. Your Fartlek run could be a 45-60 minute run. It could consist of say: 15minute warm-up, run hard for 3minutes then easy for 2minutes, repeat this for 3-6 times and then warm down for 15 minutes. You can change the interval of easy/hard to suit you (e.g. hard for 1min, easy for 1min etc).

Interval training can also help improve your speed. For 1 mile training 400m, 800m, 1000m or 1200m repetitions can help you improve your speed over the mile.
Hill runs can also improve your speed by strengthening your legs. You might want to do your fartlek run over a hilly terrain every second week.

uum

Originally posted by Niacom
What training are you doing at the moment Uum?
Are you doing much long runs?
Running a good mile requires both good speed and endurance. If your sprints have improved over the last couple of years then it's possible that your endurance is slowing you down over the mile distance.
You should make sure you are getting 1 long run in a week. If you are concentrating on improving your mile then a 60-70 minute steady run should do for your long run.

For your speed work you could also do a Fartlek run once a week. Your Fartlek run could be a 45-60 minute run. It could consist of say: 15minute warm-up, run hard for 3minutes then easy for 2minutes, repeat this for 3-6 times and then warm down for 15 minutes. You can change the interval of easy/hard to suit you (e.g. hard for 1min, easy for 1min etc).

Interval training can also help improve your speed. For 1 mile training 400m, 800m, 1000m or 1200m repetitions can help you improve your speed over the mile.
Hill runs can also improve your speed by strengthening your legs. You might want to do your fartlek run over a hilly terrain every second week.

Good advice thanks,
my last long run was 3 weeks ago - 7 miles in 49 mins (not bad at all i thought for a 14 stone lump of muscle)

Im goin to concentrate big time on running . I think im giving up weights for a while, I'll still do some squats for speed and dumbell curls (i just really like big arms!!) but no more benching or anything else.

It's much harder to train for running but hopefully your advice will help. Thanks

Chucky

this is kind of off the main point of this thread but I'm wondering what sort of timers ye are using? I do a fair bit of jogging currently but i just go out not knowing what distance i'm doing or what times.

Are they stop watces or some special gadgets?

thank you

Genghis

Chucky,

most people measure out a route, and then just use a stopwatch to divide the time running by the number of miles. You can do this in a few different ways, with different accuracy - for example, drive the distance in a car. However, as speedometers are often calibrated to overestimate speed, they often underestimate distance. The most accurate way to measure a distance is to use the Ordnance Survey maps. (I found that the speedometer on my car typically over estimated a distance by 1/14th everytime when compared to OS maps).

There are gadgets that use GPS and work as a watch too, and they can give you an accurate enough idea of mile times, etc - some will even monitor heart rate and are downloadable to a PC for ongoing monitoring.

You could also go to a track, 4 laps is a mile, or use a treamill (1.6 km ~ mile).

Finally, races are a great way to track your speed - if the race is in anyway official (you can tell if they require you to take a one-day membership to an athletic association such as BHAA), then you can be sure it is properly measured for distance. They also record your position and race-time, which are generally available online a couple of days later.

tunney

There are gadgets that use GPS and work as a watch too, and they can give you an accurate enough idea of mile times, etc - some will even monitor heart rate and are downloadable to a PC for ongoing monitoring.

Yip got me one of these, Timex Bodylink system! Amazing piece of kit! But it can lead yuo to run a little too much! Which can be a very bad thing when combined with bad bio-mechanics and asics 2080s! "Yes I think I'll run 20 miles every day this week", not a good idea, bring on the ITBFS!

tunney

But back to the original question. Pre-September (pre-injury) I was doing 6:45 miles for 5-6 mile runs, 8:30 for 12-20 mile runs. Never tried an individual mile though. Not too bad for someone with one 4 or 5 months running under their belt. Now, first week back running really since september back to 8:40 for 4-5 mile runs.

Crap paces but I'm hoping for an injury free season to improve.

Reyman

Can't see how you could put on two stone in two years ---that's an awful lot of muscle gain by legit. means!

What's your before and after gen. waist measurement?

If your fat levels are gone up you're definitely going to find it harder to do distances.