Can I run a 5 minute mile in one month? Day 11
Monday was another workout day — this time ‘hill training’, which was another first for me. Now the mile I’ll be running at the end of the month will be on a perfectly flat track with no hills in sight, but the goal of this exercise is to improve my strength and power in a more intense workout. We found a suitable looking hill and ran up it 8 times at around 80% intensity (45–50 seconds each time), catching my breath with an easy jog on the way down. Whilst the final 10–15 seconds of each repeat were undeniably painful, overall I actually found the workout quite manageable.
Tuesday was a ‘rest day’ which meant a steady run of 4.9 miles at 7:13 pace. One point where I really notice the difference since when I started running is that I can actually run and be comfortable. Previously even when I ran a mile I would be looking forward to it being over, but now I feel like I can run at a moderate pace feeling almost as though I were walking it. Rather than thinking of a mile run as a ‘workout’ I’m now thinking of it as a warmup. I’m not sure when this shift in mindset happened exactly, but it has certainly changed how I think about running overall.
Today was another workout day. This time back on the track with the goal of running 3 x 1km repeats with a 400m rest in between. I was shooting for 3:20-3:25 times and came in at 3:21 and 3:28 in my first two repeats (that’s 5:22 and 5:38 mile pace respectively). However same as before, I found that I was setting out too fast and then burning out and slowing throughout the run. My final repeat was cut short by my wife after 800m as I was off-pace, running at around 5:46. I need to manage my pace better and build the base strength in my legs to able to maintain this pace for longer if I want to have a shot at 5 minutes.
The next part was some speed workouts — 4 x 200m repeats, with 200m rest in between. All my splits were all on track at 30–35 seconds, though the thought of having to run a 37.5 second 200m eight times over does still seem quite daunting.
