Can I run a 5 minute mile in one month? Day 8
I’m over a quarter of the way through the month already now, and I got my second ‘workout’ in on Thursday. This was a 2 mile ‘tempo’ run — the goal being to run 2 miles with the second faster than the first. In short, I achieved the exact opposite by starting out too ambitiously and gradually slowing to come in with mile splits of 6:00 and 6:20. I think this partially down to me still trying to figure out what ‘fast’ feels like and to judge my pace more accurately. I have to say it was a horrible experience overall, feeling increasingly fatigued throughout the tempo and each step becoming harder than the last. I spent a decent chunk of the second mile thinking about whether I should throw in the towel on this challenge altogether, which is probably not the ideal running mentality.
After a breather the next goal was to run at 80% for 75 seconds (75 seconds is the target 400m time) twice over, with a recovery period in between. With already fatigued legs I felt utterly destroyed by the time I reached the end of the workout and was just about ready to give up running for life. We started on the mile warm-down and as my breathing returned to normal I began to feel more pleased that I’d got the workout done. Turns out running is quite an emotional roller-coaster, which I’m going to have to find a way to deal with for the sake of my own sanity.
I got in a rest-day run on my own on Friday — 3.1 miles at 7:25 — which got me a stern look from my wife who had given me strict instructions to ‘take it easy’ and 7:25 apparently did not fit that description. Saturday was a real rest day with no running at all. I did go surfing for about 3 hours in the morning so with all the paddling I feel like I got some cross training in at least. This evening I went for a run with my well-rested legs and came in at 6:53 pace over 5.7 miles. I was surprised when I looked at my time at the end of the run as it had felt fairly comfortable. Clearly rest helps!
Over the past few days I’ve noticed that my training has started to manifest itself in some physical changes. My calf muscles feel bigger than before, but elsewhere I feel like I’m losing some body fat. Admittedly I didn’t have a whole heap of body fat to begin with, but I’m definitely looking more lean. That’s in spite of the fact that my appetite has noticeably increased and I feel like I’m constantly hungry or eating. I’m fairly sure I’m losing some muscle from my upper body, especially given I’ve mostly neglected lifting weights for the last 6 weeks — not ideal but I’ll have to live with that and work on getting it back next month. According to my wife I’m starting to look ‘more like a runner’. Hopefully that means I’ll start to run more like a runner too.
