10 minute mile

Ever since I decided to join the Running Room, I've made it my personal goal to be able to run a 10 minute mile.

I used to just run for exercise never really paying attention to how far or how fast I was going. I just stopped when I got tired. (Which usually was after about 5 minutes!) Now that I've decided to do a 5k run, I thought I should start keeping track. The first time I got on the treadmill after that, I noticed that I could run just over a mile before getting tired but it took me over 12 minutes at my original pace. After watching an episode of Sex in the City, I noticed that Miranda was in a 10 minute mile running group and decided that I should aim for that too. Afterall, I figured that was only 2 minutes away from my current position, easy right? Wrong! The next time I went running I set my speed to 5.2 miles per hour which is probably slow for normal people but it was comfortable for me. Again, I was just under 12 minutes. Next, I sped up to 5.5 and still ended up around 11.5 minutes. Closer, but not close enough.

Today I was msning with Randy and we started talking about running. He said that he was able to run 2.5 miles at a speed of about 6.5 with an occasional boost to 9. NUTS! But after talking to him, I figured if I was going to do it then I had to buckle down and put my mind to it. So tonight, I started off at 5.5 and quickly sped up to 6. I watched my time and my distance carefully and noticed that I was able to get to 9 minutes with a tenth of a mile to go. In an effort to meet my goal, I sped up to 6.5 and just passed 10 minutes when I reached my one mile goal. It definitely wasn't easy and I thought I was going to fly off the treadmill at the end but the adrenaline was great and I felt very accomplished at the end (not to mention extremely sweaty!!). Now I know I will be able to reach my goal. Maybe it didn't happen today, but I know I'm close and I CAN DO IT! (Even if I pass out right after...)