Over the weekend, I decided to see how fast I could run one mile. It’s always been a revealing fitness conditioning benchmark for me. Over the years, I’ve put good training effort into running longer, fasting and better.
Now that I’m back on the running “circuit”, it makes sense to see what my current abilities are at this challenging distance and compare it to what I’ve done in the past.
About a dozen years ago, I’d regularly test myself with a timed one-mile run. I generally did these tests on a treadmill because that’s what I wanted to do. I liked the precision pace-management that treadmill running gave me and found that I was able to replicate treadmill running speed when hitting the pavement or at an all-weather track.
Back in my olden running days, when running on a treadmill, I consistently clocked a 6:00 mile. Since the treadmill I used maxed out at a 6:00 mile pace, it wasn’t possible to see if I could do better. Maybe I could have by a little but probably not much.
About five years ago, not in the same running condition as years earlier, I set a by-the-end-of-summer goal of running one mile in 6:00 and diligently trained with this goal in mind.
My training journals from this era are nowhere to be conveniently retrieved but I recall my best effort being around 6:10 on the treadmill. During a final attempt on an all-weather track, one Saturday morning as summer was coming to an end, I ran a 6:17 mile and accepted that my best effort was short of the goal set months earlier. Despite failing to achieve my goal, I was in better fitness condition than had I not made the effort. All was well in Pierini Fitness middle-aged man land.
Fast forward to Saturday, over the weekend, I ran a timed one-mile in 8:36. It was slower than the 8:00 mile pace that I reasonably thought was possible. Looking at my heart rate statistics for this effort, I realize that my effort was sub-maximum so the next time, my time should be better.
Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum
No comments:
Post a Comment