Monday, April 30, 2012

Who am I? How Fast am I?

Hello Runners,
Welcome to my first ever blog, and subsequently, my first ever blog post.  This site is designed to follow my quest to run a sub-5 minute mile.  
QUICK BACKGROUND ON ME:  I'm a pretty avid distance runner and have been for quite some time.  I ran cross country and track all through middle and high school.  I never broke 5 minutes in high school.  Never - To be fair, I hardly ever ran the mile in high school, I mostly ran the 800.  Anyway, after somewhat of a hiatus from competitive running during college, I started beefing up my mileage and running consistency after I graduated and moved to Milwaukee in 2004.  I've since run 6 marathons (including Boston in 2008), 14 half marathons, and numerous other road races.  I consider myself to be an above average (but not great) distance runner. Even with all of my running in the past decade, I've never attempted a 1 mile race since high school.  That is, until last month.


After nearly two years living abroad, I made my triumphant return to the U.S. in March.  Having registered for the Green Bay Half Marathon (to be run on May, 20th), I've been slowly building a base the past couple of months.  After a "somewhat difficult" 8 miler with my friend Jay in late March, we both decided we were WAY out of shape.  How out of shape?  We weren't quite sure.  Therefore, what better way to test our level of running-fitness than to run a timed mile?  Something neither of us had done for YEARS.  Done and done.  A few days later Jay and I hit up the Neenah High School track.  It was cold and windy (it was March in Wisconsin, after all).  I surprisingly threw down a 5:48, with Jay right on my tail.  Pleasantly surprised, we decided to make this a monthly race to see how our time and fitness will progress throughout the summer. 


Last Friday (4/27) Jay and I hit the track for timed mile #2.  This time, wearing road flats, I ran 5:35 (splits: 84, 84, 84, 82... how's that for consistent?).  After some conversation, Jay subtly asked me my mile PR.  I answered with "Five...ummm...ten".  "Five??" said Jay.  "You never broke 5?".  "No", I replied and if my memory serves me correct, my PR is around 5:08-5:10.  After a short conversation and some positive reinforcement from Jay, I decided to see if I can run a 4:59 mile sometime this summer.  That's it, nothing special.  4:59.  My summer running goal.   


This blog is intended to follow my training and 1 mile race attempts as I try to finally do what many distance runners first did when they were in high school, go sub-5.


Wish me luck!  


-Andy