I ran the fastest mile of my life! What it Means:

 

I’ve been favoring 400 meter repeats for my track and interval workouts, because they don’t scare me as much as longer intervals.  I know that in about two minutes, I get to stop.  I can do anything for two minutes, right?!  I find 800s much more difficult, 1200s practically undoable, and have a huge mental block when it comes to 1600s.

To motivate myself and break though my fear, I decided to make it really fun.  I had never, in two years of running, run a timed mile.  I knew that my curiosity to see how fast I could run four laps around the track without stopping would outweigh my fear about pushing myself for longer intervals.

Could I run a mile in under 8:30, my 400 meter interval pace?  Under 8?

I was thrilled, shocked and pleased to discover that I can run a mile in 7:45!

I ran a mile and a half to the track, rested [fought with my playlist] for a few minutes, and then ran my mile.  The first two laps were great – they were hard, I could see my time was good, I didn’t need to stop, my optimism was through the roof.  The third lap was all right, but nearing the end of the third lap I was thinking about making it my best 1200 meter repeat ever rather than continuing.  Only the thought that I might make it a mile in under 8 kept me going, and towards the very end, I saw that it was 7:52 average pace and SPRINTED to try to get it down to 7:45 (which sounds so, so much faster).

After a decent amount of recovery time, during which I stood around watching myself sweat (if you’ve never done this, it’s neat), I ran two more 800 meter repeats and then jogged home in time to shower and pick the boys up from their 2 hour camp session.

What this means: I found a race prediction calculator at Runner’s World that calculates “equivalent finish times” based on how fast you’ve run a set distance.

 

AHHH!!!! It predicts that it’s possible for me to run a sub two hour half marathon!

This is exciting… BUT… that’s predicting a finish time for someone who has TRAINED for that distance, and adequate half marathon training usually involves more mileage than I’ve been doing.

I’ve been using the Run Less, Run Faster training plan to help me plan my runs, but here’s the problem.  That’s a reduced mileage plan because you’re supposed to have high intensity for all your runs AND do cross training two times a week.

I’ve been doing modified versions of the interval and track workouts, keeping the heart of the recommendation intact but usually doing a 3-4 mile tempo run when the book calls for 6-7 miles.

I’ve also been going to one spin class a week… but I haven’t been rowing.

So while my mile time might predict that race result, it’s working on the assumption that I’m adequately preparing to run a half marathon, when I’d probably do better racing a 10k.

I’m still going to be adequately prepared to run the half marathon – don’t get me wrong.  I’m getting in my 10 mile runs, planning a 12 mile run for this weekend, and will absolutely finish my half marathon running AND smiling.

But I don’t think I’ll be RACING it to the ability predicted for someone who can run a mile in 7:45 and then MAINTAIN that level of athleticism for 13.1 miles.

Don’t get me wrong – I am very excited about what that chart says.  It’s a dream of mine to run a half marathon in under two hours, and I’m going to keep working towards it.

That chart predicts better race times at every level than I’ve run… and since I haven’t run a 5k without the jogging stroller in about 9 months, it makes me eager to race again and see how much progress I’ve made.

I can tell you one thing for sure.  I couldn’t have run a mile in 7 minutes and 45 seconds at this time last year.

Those track repeats are making me faster.  🙂