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I just ran a 7:52 in the mile and I was wondering what time would be considered athletic and when should I add on time.
I'm 17 years old and my goal is to get as fit as quickly as possible.
I do not have any formal training, so running strategies and advice would be helpful too.
[edit] How should I when should I add on time to my run once I get a good enough time in the mile?
Basically, how should I progress.
Last edited by Mister Miaugie; 03-15-2013 at 07:29 PM..
Talk in person to one of the coaches at your school. Im sure they will be happy to help you.
^^^Good advice.
But also, what you do next really depends on whether you just want to run for fun (and fitness), or join the cross-country team, or train for a marathon, or lose weight, or whatever.
RE: tips, I find Runner's World magazine to be highly motivational!! They have a great web site at, big surprise, runnersworld.com . Here's an article running now:
Good luck with it -- for years I was addicted to running (OK, jogging, I was slow), but these days I can't do as much as I want as my knees have not held up. Don't let that happen to you!! (which is another reason why the advice about talking to a coach at your school is really good)
The quickest way to improve speed is to do some form of interval training. You run fast for a short distance, then run slow for a short distance, allowing your heart rate to drop down. Repeat this for x number of times.
For example I do a workout of half mile repeats on the treadmill once a week. I run a half mile (about 805 meters) at a fast rate, then a quarter mile at a very slow jog, and repeat this 10 times. This is a staple workout for me. THere are endless variations. Instead of going by distance, you could go by time (e.g. 3 minutes of fast running, then 2 minutes slow). You can play with the duration of the interval, the recovery (i.e. slow jog portion), and the number of repeats. Some people do 'alternations' where the recovery is fairly fast, say 80% of the speed of the interval itself.
The main thing is to get out there and try something. You could start with just two half mile repeats (since you are currently running one mile) and slowly build the number of repeats, week by week. Or you could start with something shorter, say 200 meter repeats, so that you can complete at least 5 or so of them.
Intervals are considered a hard workout and should only be done once or twice per week. The body does not build fitness when you are actually exercising. Rather the rebuilding and strengthening of muscles etc. takes place between workouts, when you are resting and recovering from your running.
PS if you want to rate your progress, you can plug in your distance, time, gender, and age into an 'age graded calculator.' It will come back with a percentage. 100% presumably means you are world class, 90% is elite class, and so on:
Depends on what you mean by "athletic". If you're seriously competing, you would easily need a sub-6:00-6:30 mile. For an average adult, not training for anything, a mile below 8 minutes is decent. Agree w/ an above poster, if you want to improve, you need to do interval training. Sprint as fast as you can for a 1/4 mile, take 1 minute rest. Do another 1/4 mile sprint, rest. As you get better start cutting down on your rest times. Then on the weekends try a few single mile runs to test your time.
I would argue that "athletic" is strictly relative. A sub 6 minute mile is slow by elite standards, but the average Joe would consider a 10 minute mile to be amazing shape. By this standard 7:52 is "athletic."
Anyway a wise man once told me, it's now where you start, it's where you end up.
...If you're seriously competing, you would easily need a sub-6:00-6:30 mile...
If you want to come in last
Even in mid level HS track meets, boys will break 5:00 in the mile. 11:15 in the two mile. 16:30 in the 5k.
In HS, I ran consistent 18:0x 5ks in cross country. I couldn't even make varsity on a team of 20... A 18:00 5k is 5:48/mile.
The average person would not be able to run a 10 minute mile, though.
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