Improving mile

*i would have made varsity if some things had not happened

Run an 800 all out, every other day leading up to the race. Believe you me, you will have a great 800 split!

I would focus less on speed if you're going for that 7 minute mile. I understand you're coming from a soccer background, which means speed workouts are more in your ballpark, but you don't really need a ton of them to get down to 7 minutes. I would start doing some longer runs, 4 days a week. Run 25-30 minutes, 8:30 mile pace to start with. As you start getting more comfortable with those runs, try going even faster. I like the workout you mentioned in your original post, (jogging 5 minutes, faster pace for 10 minutes, sprint for end) that will definitely help you with base, but since you're going for a specific time, you might wanna find a track and do very specific pacework. Lemme give you a sample schedule.

Monday: 25 minutes, 8:30 pace. 4x100m strides (buildups to sprints) afterward. Light Core.

Tuesday: At Track: 10 minute warm up. 6x400 meters (1 lap), at 1:45 (your goal mile pace). 2 minutes rest in between each. 10 minute jog cool down.

Wednesday: Easy day (crucial). 20 minute jog. Focus on hard core/weights today.

Thursday: 10 minute warm up, 5 minutes at faster pace (try for 8 minute pace), 10 minute cool down.

Friday: Same as Wednesday.

Saturday: 30 minutes, 8:30 pace. 4x100m strides (buildups to sprints) afterward. Light core.

Sunday: Rest from running. Hard Core/weights.

Sounds like you are quite the hard worker from your original post. I have no doubt you'll run that 7 minute mile and make the varsity team in 3 weeks! Just train smart.

Btw do not listen to "advicegiver"'s post.

Thanks so much for the advice and schedule concerning the training. I was wondering how long I should train every day.

(With your schedule)

The length of your runs are in the schedule. You should be spending about 60-90 minutes a day working out, when including stretching and core. If you have any more questions just email me. Good luck!

Looks like a solid schedule.. when I tried out for soccer, I wasn't even close to being a good runner, a good workout I did was a "lightpole fartlek"

run easy until you get to a lightpole, then sprint to the next, do that for 10 minutes between a 10 minute warm-up and a 10 minute cool-down. Really helps with acceleration as well, not just speed.

then I eventually got better at running and didn't like the soccer scene as much and jumped ship. Best of luck to you

megaranation wrote:

Monday: 25 minutes, 8:30 pace. 4x100m strides (buildups to sprints) afterward. Light Core.

8:30 pace when her PR (obviously not super meaningful if she only runs a mile once per year) is only 8:10? And you're having her do core (and weights) 4 days a week??? She can make HUGE aerobic gains right now -- core at most will shave off a few seconds. And if she plays soccer regularly she probably has decent core strength anyway.

From your untrained state doing pretty much anything will get you in decent shape quickly, the details of a plan aren't super important. That said, megaranation's plan looks reasonable enough (other than the above criticisms), although 6 days of running might be a lot when you're starting out. Yeah actually depending on your base fitness you might need to start out much easier, hard to know.

Good luck!

How did it end up going?