That 8 Minute Mile

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  • Joanna_77
    Joanna_77 Posts: 14 Member
    Has anyone mentioned fartleks yet?
  • mranlett
    mranlett Posts: 56 Member
    I'm a 42 year old guy with no serious running beyond gym class in middle school, high school, and college. I spent about two years after the birth of my son a decade ago getting into better shape - including running a marathon. I ran my marathon with a 4 hour 30 minute target pace and was on track until I hurt myself in the back half (finished it, but it took me more than 6 hours to cross that line). Right after I recovered from that run, I was playing soccer with friends and tore my ACL. That caused me to quit all exercise for 6 years, during which time I gained back all that weight I lost and basically reset the fitness clock.

    I do most of my running these days on a treadmill in an OrangeTheory gym. The classes are 1 hour long, with either 14 or 23 minutes spent on the treadmill (excluding warm-up time) depending on the size of the class. The treadmill portions are either endurance workouts (longer running blocks), power workouts (faster but shorter running blocks), or strength workouts (running up hills) or a mix of the three types. I've been going to this OrangeTheory Fitness gym for nearly 2 years, with almost no outdoor running at all. I've managed to use the class to improve my running times from unable to consistently run a single mile to now I'm able to run a mile in under 6 minutes! I'm faster than I've ever been, including my high school gym class days. I can run a 5k in under 23 minutes on the treadmill and I've run a local charity 5k in about 24 minutes outdoors. This is without any outdoor practice or long runs beyond what the gym class does.

    TL;DR - don't overthink it. Run some longer runs, run some shorter faster spints. Add hills! The key is consistency of practice.
  • spiriteagle99
    spiriteagle99 Posts: 3,749 Member
    Some of it depends on your age and genetics and how many years you've been running. I can do an 8 minute mile when I'm doing speed intervals of 400 m. to 1200 m. That is slightly slower than my supposed 5k pace. (I haven't raced a 5k in years, but McMillan translates my HM time to a 7:54 5k pace). I will probably never be able to do that pace for anything longer than 5k. Improvement comes easily the first few years you run, but after 7 years, it is a lot harder to get significantly faster. At 62, I'm limited in what my body can do. I have BQed in my last three marathons, so I know I am fit for my age, but that doesn't mean I'll ever be able to improve my MP that much. I've gone from a 10 minute mile to a 9:10 mm at marathon distance over the past 5 years, but another minute is extremely unlikely.

    That said, I did improve a lot by running more miles during my training, running more long runs (10 over 16 miles during my 18 week marathon training), doing more long tempo runs to improve stamina (the ability to hold the pace), doing more speed intervals and weekly strides, and doing race pace miles during my long runs.
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