How to run a mile
Not run a mile as in ‘just step out of the house and keep going’, or winning a race. Running a mile as in going round a track 4 and a bit times as fast as you can.
1. Know what you are trying to do: A mile isn’t 1600 metres, it’s 1608 metres, but the extra is added to the beginning, the starting line is that curved line just before the finish line. That’s where you want to add the extra, not at the end when you’re trying to breathe through your skin.
2. Getting up to speed: Most time this phrase is used at a metaphor, here it’s meant literally. Your first job is to get up to the speed you want to be running as quickly as possible. The irony is that when you’re running 100 metres you want to accelerate in a controlled way in order to hit top speed later in the race and have as little time decelerating as possible, but here you just want to put in that initial burst to be going at the speed you want within in the first 10-20 metres.
3. Even pacing: How fast to go? Take the time you want to do and divide it by 4 and that’s how quickly you want to do each lap. This doesn’t apply if you’re racing and want to sit and kick but if you’re just wanting to run as fast as you can then as close to an even pace is how to do it. You may want to pace yourself to leave yourself something extra for a last lap push but actually the energy you save by running each of the first 3 laps 3 seconds slower will not get you an extra 10 seconds for the final lap.
4. Concentrate: The biggest key to running fast is to focus on what you are doing. Make each pace and each breath deliberate, focusing on what you need to focus on. For me the key thing is picking my feet up quickly. If I’m doing that I’ll do Ok. Letting your mind drift for a moment will result in a small drop in speed. Focus.
5. Lap 1: This will feel Ok, you’ll be breathing heavily and you’ll be noticing your legs but basically it will be comfortable running.
6. Lap 2: By half way you’ll be feeling it. Breathing will be starting to be painful. This is the point where, if you were just running normally and not trying to run a mile, you’d stop.
7. Lap 3: This is the hard bit. You can run the first half relatively easily and the last lap is the last lap but the third lap is where it’s hard work with the end point is still a way off. Chris Boardman described riding time trials as asking if you can keep going at this effort, Yes means you’re not going hard enough, no and it’s already too late, the answer you’re looking for is maybe. That is the level of effort you are looking for.
8. Two Thirds of the way through: At 2/3 it will cross your mind that you can stop. All you need to do is stop running and it will stop hurting. The 2/3 moment occurs at every distance, whether it’s 66 metres into a 100 or 17.5 miles into a marathon. There will always be a moment when it seems like good idea to quit. Don’t. As explained in Born to Run our bodies are designed to want us to save some energy just in case a lion turns up. There will be a moment when your body will tell you it can’t do any more. It’s lying, ignore it (obviously within reason, if you’ve broken your leg or are having a heart attack then please stop).
9. The Days of Thunder moment: In Days of Thunder there is a scene where Tom Cruise has just lost control of his car and is heading for a concrete wall. He hasn’t hit it yet, but he’s going to and there’s nothing he can do to stop it. At this point he says, “This is going to hurt”. This is the point you’ll say the same thing.
10. Lap 4: This is the simple part, you simply run it as hard as you can. There’s no pacing, no saving anything, it’s eyeballs out and leaving it all on the track and whatever other clichés you feel like using at this point.
11. Recommitting: This is the moment where you say, “yes I am doing this, I’m going to push this as hard as you can”. As the run progresses these moments will get closer. Beginning and end of curves, halfway through straights, every other stride. These are all good moments to push it a little further and decide to keep going. The final lap is recommitment after recommitment till you get to the end
12. Final stretch. This is the final recommitment, leading up to the final 60 metres or so when you really are running as hard and fast as you can, remembering to breath, keeping your strides controlled, your cadence high.
13. The end: This is where you stagger, fall over, throw up, swear never again, and check you time and feel the satisfaction of having reached your goal.
While this is how approach running a mile the general principles apply to doing just about anything else, from clearing out the garage, to managing an organisational change programme, it’s all basically the same process.
Have fun.
