Outside: 'How Our Totally Average Runner Broke the Sub-Five Minute Mile'

I was one month shy of my 49th birthday.

Having done a bunch of centuries and a couple double centuries on the bike, I knew if I just kept going eventually I'd recover a bit. Sure enough, once the calories started I was able to run again (slower than before, of course).

My goal for when I'm 50 is a 50-mile ultra and then a couple months later a 500-mile, three-day bike tour.

 

I have done two marathons, but they were almost 15 years ago. I don't count them to what I am doing now, but I am remembering the pain of hitting the wall and not training properly

 

My friend wants me to do Ragbrai in Iowa with him next year or some year soon, and I'll probably bite on that. But I have no interest in ultras. At this point, even the marathon is kind of just to fulfill my old goal of qualifying for and running Boston (hopefully in under 3 hours).

My real passion, I'm finding out, is for the mile and 5Ks. I just enjoy the near all-out effort over a shorter distance than logging mile after mile after mile. Don't get me wrong, I respect ultra-runners. My cousin's husband is really into it. Personal preference. Probably my ADHD-like tendencies (mostly the "H") showing through here.

 

I think the ultras are pulling me thanks to the scenery and wilderness aspect. And my training partners have gotten into it.

During the marathon training I also got a lot of pressure/encouragement to do a tri. That might be an option too. But I'm not sure I've got the free time to properly train.

 

This morning I did 10 miles at race pace, 7:14. Next week 12. Following week 14. Hopefully by early November I'll be able to just thrown down 7:14s like a machine. That's the goal anyway.

 

Did the 12 miles this morning aiming for race pace, 7:14. Got beat down by the humidity and came in at 7:18. Still, with 2.5 months to go, I really feel like Boston is within my grasp.

 

Could only do the mile at 5:54 this week, though my other three mile intervals were faster than previous ones. Who knows? Maybe I wasn't all the way awake yet. Maybe I started too slow. Maybe it was the beer I drank on Saturday night at my fantasy football draft.

Did my 20-mile marathon training run this morning and felt great at the end, though. Ripped off about five 7:3x miles after dropping 9:3xs at the start.

The marathon itself is in November.

 

So did my first set of Yasso 80os. My aggregate time for seven was 2:59. I am both optimistic and pessimistic. My brain tells me there is no damn way I am doing a three hour marathon at age 40. But my heart says that I have two months to fully get ready, and make it happen. I do my second set, eight reps, this weekend. My goal is to start really prepping post Labor Day aka really watching my diet so I can drop some pounds to make my speed better.

As usual, the posts on this page give me courage to keep going.

 

This morning was speed day, and my personal training plan called for me to shoot for a 5K PR. (I have an actual 5K scheduled in two weeks, in Chicago, on a weeknight.)

I ran a 19:29, which was four seconds faster than the last time I attempted it in late July - and a workout PR. The clock says it was a 6:18 pace, though that was the same as last time and I was flashing between 6:17 and 6:18 late this time.

That's not much time, but I'm fairly well pleased considering my weekends have been sponsored by Miller Lite lately, between camping, concerts, races, and White Sox games.

There are essentially seven or eight more weeks of high mileage and hard workouts left before my run at a BQ time, depending on how I want to play the taper, and I'll be mostly cutting out drinking at all from here on out. The next challenge will be Thursday, when I attempt to run 14 miles at race pace, 7:14. Last time I did that run, two weeks ago, I ran 12 miles at 7:18.

 

If you ran 19:29 on a training 5K, no reason you can't run 18:50 or so in your race. The competition and having other runners around you will make you run faster.

A 3-hour marathon is an accomplishment. I ran 35:34 PR and regularly in the low 36s for 10Ks but could never beat 3;23 in a marathon. My body just wasn't built for it.

 

14-mile race pace run today. Had it on target for about 10 miles, but hit a headwind I had to fight through and never got it back. Ended up at 7:28 instead of 7:14, the goal. That said, I feel good. I ran a hard 5K two days ago, 10 miles yesterday. My weekend was also sponsored by Miller Lite and Makers Mark. I'm not running on fresh legs right now. Hopefully next week I can keep laying down the 7:14s all the way through the 14 miles.

 

Hopefully next week I can keep laying down the 7:14s all the way through the 14 miles.

That's all well and good but if you try that in your first marathon you will crash and burn, guaranteed. Start out slow and then slow down, at least for the first 10 miles. Any time you fall off the pace in that span you'll easily make up in the second half, simply by staying moving at a consistent pace.