This week’s post was supposed to be about my new love affair with slant boards. Have you heard about them? They’re really great. Got one last fall on Avery’s recommendation during rehab from my hip injury. It’s been a boon for stretching tight calves and deepening squats. We’ll get to the slant board next week.
Right now, the only thing I want to think about is dropping a sub-6 minute mile on Wednesday. Not just sub-6, mind you, sub-5:50. (5:49:54 to be precise). According to various online charts whose word I am accepting because why not, that sub-5:50 time puts me right on the very edge of elite status for my age group.
In my whole life, which to date has lasted nearly 51 years, I have never once recorded a time, a split, or a pace that would have ever been classified as “elite.” I’ve been a beginner, novice, intermediate, and advanced but never elite. Gotta say, after more than half a century on this rock, it feels pretty freaking great.
The rest of this week’s newsletter is free for everyone to read because I think it carries a message that’s worth sharing with a larger audience. That message is about determination and will. It’s also about setting and achieving goals. Mostly, it’s about challenging yourself in ways that help you feel good about yourself. Isn’t that the whole point?
What’s funny is that I wasn’t sure I was ready yet. Avery did. When I asked him in April how long it would take to run sub-6 he answered, “Tomorrow.” He may have been right (he usually is about these things,) but maxing out without preparing to max out wasn’t the experience I was looking for when I came up with this goal.
I was interested in a steady progression from wherever I happened to be when I started this quest to wherever my training took me when it was time to throw down a max mile. I wanted to build speed and resilience with every 400 meter repeat, so when the time came to do this thing I would have absolute confidence in my ability to get it done.
Plus, track workouts offer a nice change of pace (get it?) from what I usually run. It’s fun to run fast without restrictions like terrain, elevation gain, or traffic lights. Track work is also challenging, which is definitely part of the appeal. You want to see what hell’s like? Try running 6-8 max effort repeats under a blistering hot sun. Want to experience Heaven on Earth? Same thing.
We started training in early May after recovering from Boston. I haven’t told this story before so I’ll tell it now. When I arrived at a local track for my first workout, there was a middle school gym class taking place on the infield. The kids mostly ignored me, but by my fourth lap I had developed a small cheering section in the bleachers.
“You can do it!” one of them yelled. “You got this!” another one answered. At one point a couple of seventh-grade boys tried keeping up with me, but I dusted them after 100 meters. By my final lap, the kids were clearing the track and cheering me on as I blazed past.
As fun (and surreal) as this experience was, my fifth grader would have been mortified if he knew this happened so I began looking for another track to hold my workouts. I found one in a neighboring town. Each track has its own unique flavor. This one tilted a bit more than others I’ve been on and featured a wind tunnel effect down the back straightaway.
At the end of the day, tracks are basically the same. They’re 400 meters around and none of them have ever told a lie. What you run is what you run. No graded efforts. No mitigating circumstances. You can get splits down to milliseconds and every second feels like a new fitness dimension waiting to be cracked. Oh, you ran 1:27? Let’s aim for 1:25 next.
I’m not sure I’d be happy living under such scrutiny all the time, but after three weeks of track workouts it was encouraging to see progress reflected in my splits. I figured I’d get a few more workout sessions before the main event, but Avery suggested I give it a try this week. Just to check in and see.
I wasn’t sure this was a great idea because I’ve been pushing myself on all fronts lately. Not just running, but life. I feel like a living, breathing monument to the old adage that the body doesn’t know miles, it knows stress. Sure enough, I woke up on the morning of the attempt feeling tired, sore, and a little bit grouchy. Then again, I always wake up feeling tired, sore, and little bit grouchy. It usually passes.
When I got to the track bright and early, another runner was already out there hammering 200s. If I had to guess, I’d think he was in his late 60s. I nodded my admiration but he was locked into his zone. Later, while I was warming up at an 8:20 pace, he put distance between us. That tells me he was running right around 8-flat. A life goal if ever there was one.
After a 2-mile warmup, it was down to business. The anticipation had been building in my brain and I started feeling anxious. I chugged some hydration mix, ran a few strides, and engaged in a breathing exercise where I brought my unconscious self into my conscious body. (Don’t laugh. This stuff’s a game changer.) The tension cleared, both mind and body felt relaxed. I focused attention on my heart center and said, “Run from here.”
My first lap was too fast, the second lap was just right. My third lap was a touch slow, but I felt like I had sub-6 in my grasp if I could just hang on and execute for the final 400 meters. You know what I thought next? F-k that. No more hanging on merely trying to survive. How about we leave no doubt instead.
Into the homestretch, down that wind tunnel straightaway, I pushed with everything I had within my body. All the while, my brain stayed focused on the task at hand. Leave. No. Doubt. I don’t know what pace I was running at the end, but my guess is it was around 5:30.
When my watch beeped and the mile was recorded, I saw that I had dropped more than 10 seconds off my goal. I leaped in the air and pumped my fist like I had just won the gold medal. I mean, I kind of did.
Looking back, I’m sure it must have hurt to push that hard. Honestly, I don’t remember any pain. Challenging, difficult, taxing? Check, check, and check. Vindicating? Sure. Validating? Absolutely. Mostly, though, running a sub-6 minute mile a few weeks shy of my 51st birthday felt satisfying. I won’t get a better present.
Brilliant stuff. Nothing beats that feeling of accomplishment. It makes the work and the effort so worthwhile 💪
Elite! (hand clap emoji)