Can I run a 5 minute mile in one month? Day 28
My training is now complete. I’ve spent over 14 hours running 115 miles over the past 28 days and I’ve done all that can be done. It’s been a careful balance of cramming as much training into one month as I can handle whilst allowing my body time to recover and avoiding overtraining, which could lead to injury. Now it just comes down to what I can do on the day.
I had a second attempt at Tuesday’s failed workout on Wednesday, running my first 800m in 2:29 and my second in 2:35 after a 400m break. I followed it up with 2x400m (74, 72 secs) and 2x200m (35, 34 secs) to round out the workout. Thursday was my final workout day — 6x300m with 200m break between each set. Yesterday and today I’ve gotten in some very slow 3-mile runs just to keep my legs moving without working them too much. My legs still had a few aches as I set out on my run today but after a short distance settled into a comfortable rhythm. I’ll get some good rest tonight, eat well and then hopefully be in good shape for tomorrow.
It’s difficult to know what to expect tomorrow. I haven’t run a test mile since the 5:31 from the start of the month. The one month timeframe meant that I couldn’t sacrifice a workout session to do a test mile and get a read on my progress, so I have very little for reference. Given that I ran 5:04 over the course of 2x800m with a 400m rest in between earlier this week I would say that things aren’t looking too promising for me to break 5:00. However, there are some other factors to take into account when considering those times — I was running on tired legs in my workout and hopefully I’ll have some additional adrenaline when I’m running for real tomorrow. If I’m honest I think it’ll be tough for me to dip under 5 minutes but I’ll give it my best shot.
