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United States1427 Posts
My Goal:
Run a mile (or 2 seconds faster for a 1600m) in under 5:00.
Goalpost date:
09/01/2013
Reason:
None in particular other than disappointment of running a 5:01 junior year and never getting a chance to run track senior year (after which I was quite a bit faster) due to injuries by track season.
If you're not a runner, it sounds like an elite achievement. If you ran varsity in high school, you were probably faster (I wasn't).
A couple of weeks ago I timed myself to see where I was at. 7:09 (I'll argue sub-optimal conditions, but really not the point).
I bought myself an overpriced nike+ sports watch with gps just to be able to more easily measure my workouts. I think if you ran in high school and couldn't do it, as an adult it might be easier. My first mini-goal is to run a sub 6 minute mile at my old high school on 12/15/12. If I can't do that I might need to adjust my goals.
How I got here:
Well, I was an ok high school runner. Weighed about 180 going into my senior year at 6'1" which was probably my peak fitness. Was regularly doing 6-8 mile workouts at 7-7:30 pace (making my current mile look pretty sad). 4 years of college with bad eating habits and I gained over 70 pounds to my peak weight at around 255. I've been much better over the last few years getting down to 220 which is still pretty heavy. My fitness isn't too bad, but obviously to meet my running goals I'm probably going to have to drop at least 20 pounds over the next year.
My Training:
I think eventually I'll need some real speed work, but I'm starting out trying to up my miles while remaining (mostly) injury free. I pushed myself a little bit too much possibly over my first couple of weeks of training and I'm starting to have some mild pains in places where I shouldn't (upper hip near my pelvis) so I'm trying to run without pain as I don't want to develop injuries from compensating.
Steps as I see them:
1. Build a base
2. Incorporate distance speed
3. Do speed work only in the last few months.
Specifically for 1. my goal is to get to about 20 miles per week to start. Then try to get my workouts about 4-miles at a time now at consistently sub 8:00 pace. Then I hope to try to slowly increase my runs to 5-6 miles at similar paces (maybe go up to 8:30 then try to bring it back down for health). Will focus a lot on flexibility and still incorporate some lifting / strength a couple of days a week for balance and overall fitness.
Towards then end I'll likely have to start doing some speed work. I haven't worked it out exactly, but I could start with just some intervals and then maybe try working towards an 8x400m workout all 71-72 which should prep me. I wasn't a very even running in high school, I had some races where I ran splits like 71, 75, 85, 77 so I think I want to try as I do time trials along the way to really hit even splits or very slightly positive splits. I could imagine my race going 74, 75, 75, 74 under ideal circumstances.
I hope I'm not deluding myself in my goals. I get looks even from people that knew me in high school. Wish me luck in my training and I'll try to post some updates if there's enough interest.
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Good luck! I dont think you need to focus too much on speed, personally. I never broke the 5 minute mile (PR something like 5:15) but I never ran too seriously either. The pace for sub 5 minutes shouldnt require a ton of speed, just consistent speed. If you can manage a solid pace with 6 miles I think you can do it with no problem 
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Good luck. I know shit about running, but I think you would benefit the most from something like 600 meters plus 1.5-2mile running mostly, and some longer distance for a cardio base. Or do you plan to actually sprint at some point? (100 meter or less)
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Nice, I never ran seriously in school or anything but used to be consistently at around 6:30-7 minute miles. I had a really lazy past two years but got back into it 2 months ago and I've been running about 15 miles a week and back under 8 minute miles again for the first time in 2 years. Feels really good. Good luck getting under 5 minutes, I'm shooting for a sub 6 minuter within a couple months.
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The number one thing is to stick with it, stick with it, stick with it. Once you get up to about 30 miles per week, with one or two days of speed work per week, after a few months you will run sub 5 for sure. But sticking with it is the hardest thing, especially now that you're doing it on your own instead of on a xc or track team like in high school. I recommend printing out some motivational quotes for yourself and taping them around your house, like above your toilet, on doors, on mirrors, etc. Also, remember to not give yourself excuses. If you have a terrible illness, then okay, don't run, but otherwise just go for an easy 3 miles or something. Oh, you're sore, or were drinking a lot last night, or stayed up late to watch GSL or OSL? Too bad, go run.
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I ran like 3.3 km (2miles) in 12 minutes in highschool while i was doing sports on a nearly daily basis but i can only fathom how slow i am now (blame them games and college ~~).
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Good luck!
I only ran track Sophmore year in HS, and my PR was a 5:40 I think so I wasn't that great compared to other people on the team, probably because my workout involved screwing around and talking to my friends for 40 minutes, sometimes just running over to Safeway or KFC to get food 
However, I've been working out a pretty good amount over the summer and I am in better physical condition than I was back then, so I think that running a sub 5 is very possible for me and it's something that I want to try to achieve during college.
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Well I hope this thread is a source of inspiration for you because I think motivation is something you will need. 220 pounds is quite heavy for your height I have to fear. You have to lose quite a lot of pounds to get that time going I guess. Good luck with it! Not sure how much weight actually weighs in a one mile speed run, but running a couple more runs will certainly not be an easy feat.
Good luck finding a good balance in life while chasing this. Food is very important and I think youl'l have to make some sacrifices ( i.e eat healthy ).
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United States1427 Posts
On September 12 2012 06:18 Mondieu wrote:
Well I hope this thread is a source of inspiration for you because I think motivation is something you will need. 220 pounds is quite heavy for your height I have to fear. You have to lose quite a lot of pounds to get that time going I guess. Good luck with it! Not sure how much weight actually weighs in a one mile speed run, but running a couple more runs will certainly not be an easy feat.
Good luck finding a good balance in life while chasing this. Food is very important and I think youl'l have to make some sacrifices ( i.e eat healthy ).
220 is definitely heavy. I don't want to make too many excuses. I think 190 is still technically overweight by BMI for my height which seems unbelievable given my fitness even at 220. This means when I was 180 and looked paper thin in cross country in high school I was on the upper range of "normal" BMI which seems kind of like bullshit. My goal weight is 200.
Food is obviously the biggest driver of weight. Much easier in practice to increase your activity by 400 calories and cut 700 in food than the other way around. I have food all around me at work, which for many sounds nice, but it's really a constant effort to be disciplined and not snack in a relatively high stress environment.
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Good luck. Getting towards the end, train speed with 400m intervals. You'll be shocked what that'll do for your endurance.
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I'd rather be heavier than thin (recent studies have shown that people that are slightly overweight are much less likely to have a heart attack than someone that's at average weight or thinner) Also, extra weight helps you when you get sick or if you ever become terminally ill. I'd be cautious about running though and suggest riding a bike or power walking, running is bad for your health and in my opinion will cause more health problems than not).
Lately all I've been hearing about is people having heart attacks while running and running causing joint, cortisol problems, increasing the risk of a heart attack, and all kinds of other stuff. No need to over do it, try walking and eating better if you want to slim down. I've been doing that and I've been having a lot of success with power walking long distances and cutting one meal out, so instead of eating three meals a day I skip lunch and it seems to work well as I've lost and kept off a good amount of weight thus far.
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On September 12 2012 12:57 Sovern wrote:
I'd rather be heavier than thin (recent studies have shown that people that are slightly overweight are much less likely to have a heart attack than someone that's at average weight or thinner) Also, extra weight helps you when you get sick or if you ever become terminally ill.
fml ;______;
Also this is just semantics, but if you're terminally ill it just means you're going to die anyway, so it won't really help. Though you might mean that it would help you last longer, in which case, point taken.
Good luck! I don't have too much experience with running, but I also second the interval training idea. It does do absolute wonders to your times to do interval training when you normally don't.
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hey good luck man! i ran in high school a few years ago and broke 5 my senior year. easily up there in my top 5-10 happiest moments. you can definitely pull it off too!
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You can do it. Without a doubt in my mind. Come by the running thread in the health&fitness section if you ever want help or motivation over the coming year
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Yeah check out the running thread. Keep us updated.
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Gl man, I'll be keeping up with this blog to see how you're coming along: D
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EPT
