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6 Minute mile and base training
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Way back in 7/8th grade I ran a 6:02 mile. For a long time I have wanted to get under 6 minutes, but it was always just a thought and not something that I actually worked on. Most of my life I have been generally fit and done some exercising. Last year I used the 16 week mountaineering training plan to get ready to climb Mt Baker and maybe Rainier. Since that time I have kept up 7-12 hours of training per week. Mostly similar to the training plan, I varied things a little to get ready for back country activities this winter and to not get bored.
Buuutttt I also want to finally get under a 6 min mile by March. Last week I went to a track and ran a 6:39 minute mile so I definitely think my goal is achievable. In addition to just being something that I think is cool I would also like to increase my pace vs heart rate. I am shocked that I enjoy running long distances on trails so much, but it is true so I may think about a 50k trail run this fall. I am hoping that pushing for a 6 minute mile and increased pace/heart rate are compatible. Intuitively that makes sense to me that they would be, but I haven’t really looked into it. I am just finishing “Training for the New Alpinism” but have cracked open “Training for the Uphill Athlete” yet.
When I am out running I normally hit the trails nearby that have a lot of elevation variation and so I really don’t know what my pace is at AeT or any other heart rate for that matter. I imagine that I should spend some time figuring that out? What other tips do people have for this sort of endeavor? Is it well advised? Are there pitfalls I should look out for? Base training will still be the majority of what I do but I also want to include speed work and likely more HIIT type stuff than usual. What sort of impacts to my sub AeT fitness might I encounter? Any other thoughts people have?
With no more than 8-10 weeks till you want to run sub 6 minutes for a mile, you do need to start adding in runs that are at your targeted pace. You can’t do that on rolling or hilly trails. Best to do this on a track. One day/week, do 10x400m at the target pace (1:30). Take as long a rest as you need at first. In subsequent workouts, reduce the rest between reps while maintaining the 1:30 time. When down to 1 min rest go to 4×800 done the same way. 10 weeks may seem like a long time, but genetics and training history will be big factors in the improvement rate. One steady state run/week of 2×10 min at about 7 min pace with 4 min walking recovery. One day of strides on the rack 12×100 at a floating fast pace with 3 min recovery. Any other running now should be very easy and fairly low volume. On such a compressed schedule, you are essentially going to need to do this on whatever your current aerobic base is. You can’t do enough volume to build aerobic base and handle this intensity without the intensity being affected. You can go back to base building when you do this thing. But for know the goal is to get a bit faster.
Good Luck,
Scott
I find that when my base improves i.e. top of zone 2; my all out mile pace improves too even without any speed/anaerobic training.
Thanks Scott, this is really helpful! After posting I found Jack’s article on speed and so started adding in strides/hill sprints 1 per week each, but your detail is very helpful! We’ll see how I do, but your comments are very appreciated!
Scott,
After putting your suggestions in training peaks and looking over my other workouts I have a couple of follow up Qs. Note that I will roll straight into the 16 week Mountaineering course after I am done with this. No specific objectives this year other than be ready for WA volcano ski season: Mt Adams, Mt St Helens, maybe Mt Baker again. Anyways on to the Qs:
- I should probably have a rest week in the next 8 weeks. What would that look like?
- Keep intensity but lower the volume?
- replace 4×800 @ 6 min pace and 2x10min @ 7 min pace with Z1 recovery workouts and keep the strides workout?
- I plan to keep strength training 2-3x per week (as I already have been doing) Is there any reason to modify this or be concerned about the days this happens? (I plan to have speed and strength on different days)
James,
Agreed that my all out mile has improved over the last year of focusing on aerobic base, but I am still 37 seconds short of beating my 7th grade self 😉
Love that Scott is able to give amazing suggestions on training to run a mile PR 😄.
I don’t have an answer to the questions, other than I’d recommend cutting the strength work down to 1 per week to maintain what you’ve built, and to add one week every 4 weeks where you take it down a notch on the intensity/overall volume to recover a bit (obviously do this also on race week). This is coming from someone with absolutely no qualifications (other than ONCE having run a 4:57 mile). Scott talks about doing a maintenance work out in TFTNA, but obviously in very different context/goals.
5:45!!!
Last Friday was the day! I had planned on it being Saturday/Sunday but due to weather I moved the day up, I wasn’t feeling all that great and had been counting on another day of rest, but still felt that I could pull it off and I wanted to start my mountaineering plan this week without anything else hanging over me.
Thanks Scott for the training advice it really worked! I got sick and went on a cruise with the family but was able to stick to it enough to pull it off. Thanks SKMS for the excellent suggestion about strength training, easing off was very helpful to feeling fresher in my speed focused workouts
Question about on going maintenance: Should I do these same type of workouts every 7-10 days? Or shift to hill sprints every 7-10 days? Or just leave them be for now and do another block of them in x number of weeks? I would like to keep my pace near the 6 min mark as I do feel great and that it helped pull my pace per beat down quite a bit. Note that last year my AeT was ~135bpm at slower than 12 min mile and today I ran the outdoor test at 9:30 pace with a drift of only 1.4% (138 -> 141 bpm) But with that sort of improvement I am happy to repeat the test, I just didn’t think that I would have improved so much .. I am sure this has more to do with a year of base building than 10 weeks of speed training, but I would still like to stay my fastest ever self for a while
Congratulations on your 5:45 mile. I’m sure there are still a lot of improvements that would be possible for you if you had given more time. If you redid your aerobic threshold test, you may now find that your aerobic threshold running pace and heart rate have increased above the 9:30 you most recently hit. I agree that most of your aerobic threshold pace and heart rate improvement has come from the aerobic base training you’ve been doing. You shouldn’t cut back on that volume in order to add more intensity. I would continue to keep the hill sprints and strides in your weekly training.
There are several ways to maintain that 6 minutes per mile with one workout per week. The simplest one would be to do one tempo run each week at about 85% of your current 1-mile best time. Run as long as you can at that 85% and notice when the speed begins to drop off. The next week, do the same thing. You should find that you’re able to hold that 85% for 30 to 60 seconds each time you do it. You could do this during your long weekend run.
Another way would be to dedicate one workout a week to doing mile repeats at about 90 to 95% of your current best mile time.
I hope this helps,
Scott
- I should probably have a rest week in the next 8 weeks. What would that look like?
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