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Old 10-11-2007, 06:50 AM
swingdoc swingdoc is offline
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Join Date: Dec 2006
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Default Re: Prop bet - 5 minute mile

I'm kinda sleepy, so maybe I missed this, but how old are you, OP? That's actually gonna be pretty important. Also, how are you going to attempt this, exactly? On a standard 400m track? Don't forget a mile is 1610 meters. Will you have people to race against or are you gonna try this all by your lonesome? I'm a fatty now, but was pretty serious about cross country and track in high school when I normally ran miles faster than this. You are probably in a lot of trouble here. Assuming you have average aerobic capacity, it's possible. However, the amount of work involved with this is gonna be pretty tremendous.

If you have to run this all alone, you're probably looking at the equivalent of a 4:50 mile if you had others to run with/draft off. Maybe slightly faster, actually. The drafting is only half of the problem, simply having someone to to chase instead of worrying about the pace yourself is huge. Oh, forgot to ask: do you live in the northern or southern hemisphere? You're going to need to put in quite a few base miles over the next 3-4 months and winter isn't always the kindest time to do this. I'll try to think about the best way to train for this, but it's gonna basically follow this sort of setup:

I. Base miles - 4 months. Most of your runs should be at a "comfortable" pace where you could carry on a conversation. Start with whatever you're comfortable running now and add more days running or more miles/day (never more than a 10% increase from previous week) until you're at 35-40 miles per week. 1 run per week should be something totally different from your normal (fartlek, intervals, hills, etc). I would for sure lift weights pretty intensely during this phase, make sure you work out upper and lower body well.

II. Strength endurance - 1.5 months. Here you keep your mileage up around 35 miles per week but start doing two serious strengthening workouts per week. Something like 10 x hills (150 meter gentle(ish) hill) running strong up the hill, jogging to the bottom. Or straight intervals like 8 x 600m running slightly slower than goal pace (2:00-2:10). Or a run where you run comfortable for 2 miles, then 1 or 2 miles at 6:00 pace or so and then 2 miles comfortably again. Running a 5k race a couple times per month would be perfect here. More hardcore weightlifting, especially circuits.

III. Final prep/speed - 1.5 months. Here you absolutely have to train your body to run at the pace you'll be racing at and slightly faster. ~30 miles per week here. 1 workout from phase II each week. The other hard workout should be at or faster than race pace. I'd really recommend starting with 4 x 200 at 37seconds. Increase one rep each week for a final of 10 x 200 at 37 seconds. Or run 1 x 100, 1 x 200, 1 x 300, 1 x 400, 1 x 300, 1 x 200, 1 x 100 at race pace. You just need to train your body to run at the pace you need. 2 weeks before your d day, run a trial mile for time. Cut back weight lifting for the last 2 weeks for sure, you can reduce it during this whole phase if you like.
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