Personal Best – a Sub 9 Minute Mile!

I just got back from my excellent Saturday “long” run (just a smidge under 6 miles). It was quite cold and very windy today but luckily the forecasted snow managed to miss us completely (our neighbors to the South are not so lucky). My Saturday routine always includes a nice long weight lifting session so we headed to the gym first. It was so windy on my walk to the gym that I contemplated hitting in the dreadmill instead. But, I knew that getting in 6 miles on the treadmill would be pure torture so I decided to suck it up and run outside. 

As usual I’m glad I headed outside. I warmed up pretty quickly and there was really only one other time where I felt cold and that was really just my face when the wind was blowing so hard that I couldn’t hear my iPod.  

I started doing this route in early January and now that I have my Garmin I can easily track my progress.  I’ve done the route four times in the last month and my times and splits have improved immensely! Today I even had my first split under 9 minutes! After seeing 8:48 for Mile 1 I was worried I was really going to pay for it on the next mile. Well, I held steady with 9:02, 9:05, and 9:02. On Mile 5 I was getting tired and there was a steep grade so my split slowed a bit down to 9:34 an the final .9 miles was 8:51.

	1/9/10	1/17/10	1/23/10	2/6/10
Mile 1	9:12	9:15	9:09	8:48
Mile 2	9:42	9:43	9:37	9:02
Mile 3	9:43	10:00	9:31	9:05
Mile 4	9:10	9:21*	9:03	9:02
Mile 5	9:31	9:24*	9:10	9:34
Mile 6 (.91)	8:51	10:19*	8:55	8:51
Total Time	56:13	55:56	54:57	53:31
Pace	9:27	9:39*	9:14	9:04
AHR	175	172	167	176
MHR	181	182	179	184

*It started to rain after mile 3 so I put my watch in my pocket and it messed up my splits & average.

While I am thrilled with these improvements I don’t really know what has caused them! I do think that overall my running has greatly benefited from adding regular core training. I now do core exercises 5 times a week for about 10 minutes.  I can hold better running form for much longer and I don’t start hunching over and shuffling my feet like this in the last mile of the Massachusetts State Triathlon last summer: 

I also think that having the Garmin to track my splits has helped motivate me. I really like being able to see how fast I completed each mile and it motivates me to keep pushing! Did you notice a difference with your running after getting a GPS or heart rate watch?