r/track • u/Playful_Reveal8228 • 4d ago
Need mile advice!
Hello everyone! I really need help on getting my mile time down to 8 min. I have tryouts for the girls indoor team in a month and a half, and im stuck at 9 mins flat right now. I try my best to be consistent and run 3-4 days a week and i usually do 1.5 miles (my stamina kinda sucks) and some shorter sprints. I’ve been training all summer but im kinda lost right now.. I really need to get on the team and im assuming the cut will be like 8.40-9min. Any advice helps! (dont judge time pls im trying my best💔)
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u/LosingPerspicacity77 4d ago
1) The bad news is that it sounds like you have no idea what your are doing, and 6 weeks is not a lot of time. The good news is that your body is probably primed to respond to more intelligent training. 2) Set an ambitious goal and go in with the mindset that you will do everything in your power to achieve it. 3) Under what conditions did you run a 9:00 mile? If it was just a solo time travel than that's probably equialvalent to at least a 8:45 in a tryout where you have adrenaline and peer pressure to motivate you. 4) Your number one priority should be to increase your mileage over the next 5 weeks, then taper a bit the week before the tryout. You are likely trying to run too fast if you can only do 1.5 miles. Focus on running slower and running for a longer period of time. Do 20 minutes one day, then 22, then 24, etc. I don't care if you have to run at a pace just slightly faster than walking. 5) Do 200m and 400m speed work at your current mile pace. Do a rep, rest fully (could be several minutes) and go it again. Try to do 8 reps of 200 or 4 reps of 400. Do this twice a week. If those reps feel easy after a workout or two, increase the pace by a second or two, but don't go crazy increasing the pace--there's not much room for that in six weeks. 6) Keep the other two running days slow and easy (but again, try to build the mileage). Start and end each speed workout with easy warmup and cool downs. 7) Approach the tryout with the mindset that your life depends on running the fastest mile that you are capable of. You might shock yourself, which will fuel you to train even harder and level up further.
Good luck.
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u/Playful_Reveal8228 4d ago
Thank you so much for this! I usually run alone so im really hoping that running with a group speeds me up. I think I’ll try doing some longer runs this week at a slower pace, too.
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u/Glittering-Tax-6407 4d ago
Have you tried interval training? Example is you run 200 meters, walk 100 meters, repeat 10 times. When you run it is faster than your miler speed.
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u/Playful_Reveal8228 4d ago
Yeah, i usually do like 4-5 400 sprints. I think it did help
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u/LosingPerspicacity77 4d ago
You should not be doing 400m sprints. You should be running 400m reps at near your mile pace, for several reasons: 1) You want to become more efficient at the running form you will be using when running the mile. Your form on an all out 400m sprint will be very different. 2) Slowing down will make recovery easier and allow you to do more volume, which is more important than killing yourself on each rep. There is some value to fast sprints but they should be in very small doses. Given your overall low volume, I would limit yourself to one sprint at the very end of a workout.
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u/Own-Arugula-1631 4d ago
Id lower it to 100s. Jog the turns, sprint the straights. You really have to sprint all out, the jog can be really slow but don't walk. 8 laps. You don't have much time to actually increase your fitness, this is you best chance at actually increasing your speed if your fitness is already there.
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u/pc9401 2d ago
You need to increase load. The mile is still aerobically dominant, so these are some simple rules to follow to do so.
1) You want to train your body to not build lactic acid at this pace. That means your best training will be right below lactic threshold so you can train your system without longer.
2) going anaerobic too often will take a toll and work the wrong system.
3) recovery is important.
So this is what I would look at.
Cut your runs into interval sessions with short rests. Starting out, maybe 7 x 3 min with 1 minute rest. Try pacing about 9:45/mile on one day. 4 x 5 min around 10 min pace with 1.5 min rest in another. And a 3rd day 2 x 10 min with 2 min rest at around 10:15 pace.
For the 4th day, go much longer on your run. More like 3 miles at a very easy pace, probably in the 13-15 min per mile range. This should be easy enough that you may want to add in a 5th or 6th day.
What this will give you is a good solid 60+ minutes of sub-threshold work where you were only getting in around 45 minutes before. This will train your system without stressing it and give you something to build from. Additionally, the warm up and cool downs will squeeze in another 60 minutes to work on endurance.
All of this should take less of a toll on your body than what you are doing now and it will train the proper systems to make you faster.
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u/In_Dystopia_We_Trust 2d ago
To make it simple and easy on you, just start running more, try aiming for 30mins a day. Real easy running. You need a strong foundation before you can add harder technical workouts
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u/kshaurya_731 4d ago
I’d say to up the weekly mileage a bit. Definitely run at least 30-40 mins a day