My 10 Minute Mile Barrier

And how I broke it tonight! Woo!

We had a coached track workout tonight, in the rain, and there was a surprisingly large turnout. The warmup consisted of 4 x 100 meters of drills, including lunges, butt-kicks, high knees, and a slow jog. Then we got to the main set. Oh, the main set.

4 sets of 10 minutes of running, with 5-ish minutes of core work in between. I was determined to break 10 minutes on my first mile, then just try to keep it close to a mile in each of the remaining three 10 minute running periods. I purposely didn't look at my watch, I just ran, and I ran hard. I did try to get splits at each lap, and stopped the timer after my first mile.

So yeah, I broke ten minutes! By more than I thought possible!

My first lap was 2:10.55, the second lap was 2:19.26, the third lap was 2:23.33, and the last now-I'm-getting-desperate lap was 2:22.99, for a total mile time of...

9:16.13!

HOLY CRAP!

Of course, even though the ten minute period wasn't over, I had to walk - I was dying. Like thought my legs were going to shatter and my lungs were going to spontaneously combust kind of dying. Whoo.

I walked about a half lap before we stopped to do core work, which involved a lot of squats and lunges and not a ton of actual core, but whatever!

My second 10 minute period I nearly made it a mile - I was about 1/8th of a lap short, so I'd guess my mile time would be about 10 minutes and 10 seconds, or something close to it.

The third 10 minute period I made it a bit less than that - about 1/4 of a lap short.

The last 10 minute mile period was less stellar - I was about 1/2 lap short. That would still be under an 11-minute mile, and I held THAT pace for 4 miles. Even though they weren't continuous, I'm absolutely thrilled with that performance.

Of course now I feel not so great, and getting off the couch is rather challenging, but that's how you improve...