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Improving my mile time from beginning?

  • 10-07-2009 6:28pm
    #1
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 91 ✭✭


    Hi all,
    First time poster to the athletics forum. Well as the title says I’m aiming for the target of running a fast mile. I’m 178cm, 85kg, 31 and looking to work towards a goal. I was out of nearly all sports for over a year with a shoulder injury and only getting back doing stuff now. My background - I was never playing any sport seriously but I'd always be doing something, ie. 5 a sides, swimming, cycling and a few fun runs. I want to do a fast mile as I’m not an endurance person (I’ve always had knee problems, more of a rugby build and was more of a speed person when I was young), plus I thought the speed work would transfer over to football and just good general fitness. I was looking at the target of a mile in 5 min 30 or under by around Christmas time. As a guide, I ran 1600m in 6mins 33 last Monday and I’m looking for any training programs for the mile that people can recommend.

    Things I’ve marked myself to work on are: i) eat better and loose up to 3-4 kg, ii) improve my flexibility ALOT (large part of my knee problems), iii) work on my core as like most people sitting at a desk all day it’s dreadful and iv) try doing some interval training as well as just doing plain old 3km runs.
    So, does anyone have any advice? How often should I train (is 3-4 times a week enough)? Is 5 months enough time to make a marked improvement in your running times? Would it help to join a club or are they only for people who are very serious into their running? Should I include weights training? Most of the Training logs seem oriented towards 10ks and longer so all responses welcome.


Comments

  • Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 3,841 ✭✭✭Running Bing


    BillieBob wrote: »

    Things I’ve marked myself to work on are: i) eat better and loose up to 3-4 kg, ii) improve my flexibility ALOT (large part of my knee problems), iii) work on my core as like most people sitting at a desk all day it’s dreadful and iv) try doing some interval training as well as just doing plain old 3km runs.

    Sounds good but remember the mile is a lot more aerobic than a lot of people think, to really improve I personally feel mileage is important.

    Your pretty much in the same spot as me. I wanted to improve my mile time and started a programme last April and I have been very happy with my progress (I have a training log so that might be of some use to you).

    I gradually upped my mileage to around 40 mpw and I feel that made a big difference for me, at this stage I really feel the road to better times is to improve my endurance and keep working on aerobic strength.

    Wouldnt bother with weights yet unless specifically prescribed to you by somebody with a lot of knowledge (but I have found a good core workout with lots of bodyweight exercises pretty beneficial). I imagine being in a club would help quite a bit and I think 5 months is more than enough time to make good improvements as long as you have a decent base of fitness built up. I think the main thing is though dont fall into the trap of thinking of the mile as a really short race and just hammer out really fast workouts and the odd 3k run here and there. You really need to keep the mileage up and throw in a few longer runs.


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