I ran for a mile with out walking for the first time this week

It felt great too!

I’ve been running now for about a year and I still had one thing in my head that was a mental block – running for 1 mile without walking.  I don’t feel like I need to do it fast, I just need to do it  – and I finally did.

Setting out on a colder summer morning at the Columbia River High School track, my wife and I started doing some running. She was working on speed workouts and I decided that I would try running for a mile and see how long it took me.  Starting slowly at about about an 11 min/mile pace I was able to get about a half mile in and was still feeling good. Nothing was sore, my endurance was in good shape and I knew that I could push a little bit – so I did.  I sped up for the 3rd lap around the track at about an 8:15 pace and held it for the entire lap. That felt fast – I don’t know that I have run that fast before for that length of time. Coming up on the 4th lap I pulled back a little bit but still kep going strong.  My final 1 mile time was 9:13 – not too bad!

I just was hoping that I could come in under 10 minutes for a mile – isn’t that what they make you run in high school? (I skipped those days)

After pushing for mile I decided to walk for a minute or so and regroup, only to start pushing again with a secondary goal of running my fastest 5k time.  I pushed hard and was able to finish a 5k in 34:30, my best yet. That was awesome.

After I run my 5ks I am done. But not this time – I decided to see what my 8K time would be – it’s only about 5 miles, I could do that.  And I did – in 1:04:35 with a 12:55 pace. I was really surposed to see my 8k time overall be under a 13 minute pace.  Just a few months ago I was happy to run a 5k with a sub 13 or 12 minute per mile pace.

So what’s the secret to running for 1 mile without walking? Work up to it, try using run/walk intervals that are a little bit longer than your usual run.  Believe in yourself.

Running Sucks, running a mile really sucks, but if you run the whole mile, it’s over faster =)