The Perfect Mile

Last week, I was in the mood for a little inspiration so I headed over to the library and picked up The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb.  It covers the stories of Wes Santee, John Landy, and Roger Bannister as they each took their shots at breaking the four minute mile barrier.  When I think of elite runners today,  I think of people who do pretty much nothing but train, eat and sleep.  For the most part, these three guys had other responsibilities.  Perhaps they trained harder, but they spent no more time training than I do.  Bannister was a medical student in the middle of clinical rotations.  In fact, he got up in the morning and performed his rounds at the hospital in Londan before traveling to Oxford the day he broke the four minute barrier.  He had to return to the hospital the next day.

Now, I’ve yet to come close to a four minute mile.  My fastest is 5:45.  After I recover from the marathon, I’d like to take another crack at some shorter races to see how my marathon training affects my time.  I’d certainly like to think I could achieve a sub five minute mile at some point in the next couple of years.

In any case, the book is a pretty good read and it’s somewhat inspiring.  I’ve even picked up a small training tip or two by reading about their training regimens.

Today’s workout was a tempo run…

Planned workout

1 mile warmup

4 miles at 9:47 pace

1 mile cool down

Actual workout

1 mile warmup

4 miles at 9:47 pace

1 mile cool down

When I hit the 2 mile mark, I started to feel tired.  I was a little worried that I wasn’t going to make it.  I told myself to at least make it to the 5K distance.  I managed to kind of zone out during the third mile.  Once I hit 5K, it was less than a mile to go, so I just kept running.  I was counting hundredths of a mile over the last quarter mile, but I made it.  I’m not looking forward to the 8 mile run on Saturday, but I’m hoping that maybe if I run in the shade of the high rise hotels on North Miami Beach, things will be a little cooler.

Oh, and I know you’re all waiting for a blister update.  I covered the area with duct tape this morning, and things went well during the run.  I’ll try that method again on Saturday.