Can I run a mile in 4:30 in 8 months?

Question

I am going to be a sophmore in high school this year. I pla on playing football, basketball, and track. In november of 2007 i ran a mile in 7:05. Now about 7 months later i can run a mile in 6:04. I have since about march of this year been going to workouts at my school and running when i can and that has helped me to improve my mile by a minute(and i lost a few pounds) maybe 6 - 8. I have good endurance, and by track in spring I would like to make a mile in 4:30. I try to run everyday and I dont get to run the actual mile on the track a lot, but for the next month or so i might be able to run the mile on the track twice per week. What can i do to run a mile in 4:30 by about late february of 2009? P.S. I would liek to run 5:15 by november(if I can)

Answer 1

Probably not. There are good runners on our track team that can't run that. Unless you are a crazy good runner it takes time a more then one season to get your time down that far. A better goal would be around 5:30. If you really want to then you need to train all three season- xc winter and spring track. Football will hurt your running, distance runners have lean muscle and are not bulky like fb players.

Answer 2

Hey, you can do anything (absolutely anything!!!) once you put your mind to it, and it seems that you have dedicated yourself to the sport, and sounds like you are on the right track to running even better! Your times are fantastic, in that you are steadily improving.Running everyday is good, but make sure that you are doing stuff like tempo runs, fartlecks,etc. And doing some 100 and 200m repeat sprints are good practice for that last sprint at the end, you know the one where you shake off the guy that has been following you the entire time. However, make sure you are not overdoing yourself, as you will get shin splints. The end of my season last year, I got them real bad, because I was practicing too hard-I have run for my high school in the mile and 3200m. Try not to always run on the track all the time- trails are great! and trails can absorb the impact and lesson the shock as you are running. It sounds like you have good endurance, and to keep that up try to do longer runs, like 5ks, etc. I would not recommend running the mile 2x a week like you said, though! You will burn yourself out way too much, just work on building up slowly. Remember that it is not the quanity that counts, but rather the quality of your runs.Don't overtrain yourself, try to do cross-training 1-2x a week, like swimming(no impact!), biking or the elliptical-my favorite! And probably the most important thing you can do, is to remember that running is supposed to be FUN! And if you are always worrying about time trials 24-7, then you will lose focus. Listen to your coach, that is what they are there for! Also, if it doesn't look like you are going to accomplish your goal, then plan a more realistic one, don't try to do things your body can not do. I wish you all the best of luck in your training, but just try to not pound yourself out, before season even begins. Running is a slow but steady kind of thing, and you are only a sophmore, so you tons of time to get better in your high school running career. Have a great time running, and relax a bit!

Answer 3

well your time seems pretty good right now. u might be Top JV or maybe even varsity with that time.  but what would probably help you is to do these things called strides which are 100m-110m sprints.  at my practice for track we would do about 20 of these every monday and with only 20 seconds rest in between. we also did speed workouts where we would do lap repeats.  with this we'd have to run a lap as quickly as we could once. and then rest about 3 minutes and then we'd repeat that for about 4 laps.

good luck

Answer 4

Sorry, but i do not think you will be able to!

Answer 5

Try alternating like running long distances than sprinting it worked for you could also try and sprint with a mouth full of water which forces you to breath through your nose and control your breathing patterns.

Answer 6

The further you get down the harder it gets. You might be able to brake 5 minutes.

Answer 7

Sorry man, I don't think you will achieve 4:30.  Maybe if you train smart enough, or if you have coach, you will break 5, but a 6:04 mile to a 5:14 mile in just a bit more than 3 months is big.  The biggest improvement I ever had was from 5:10 to 4:55.   You will probably get really close to break 5 at the beginning of next year, and you'll get really frustrated because you can't.  But then you do, and you're like yay, but you probably won't get that close to 4:30.  I am going to be a sophomore this year as well, and I trained my *** off to go from 7 minutes in the mile to 4:55.  Took me 8 months actually.  But see, the thing is, the faster you get, the harder it is to improve.  There was a point for me when I couldn't get any faster; I ran almost every one of my races between 5:09 and 5:20 except for the last 2, which I ran under 5.  And I worked my *** off; didn't have a real distance coach.  Basket ball is not bad to do, but if I was you, I'd do cross country instead of football, it would really help your mile time out and then you might actually get close to your goal.  Or at least soccer; one of the best kids in Maryland in the mile did soccer until his senior year and he owned in the mile.  Football will only bulk you up and help you somewhat with your sprinting and anaerobic system, but you really want to go for more of an aerobic sport.  My friend did football his freshman and sophomore year, and he was a distance runner.  He barely improved at all in the mile, running around the same that he did in the mile for every single race except 2 where he barely broke 5 minutes.  At the same time, he got better at distances such as the 400, which isn't bad, but he started to become more of a sprinter and it got to the point where he couldn't even run the 2 mile for a mile.

Answer 8

i got down from a 6 flat to a 4:58 in about six months and it was really hard i am trying to get down to a 4:35 by next track season because dropping time when you get below 5 is extremely hard and does not come easy

you may only drop 5-10 seconds a month at most

i think that you can break 5 for sure by next track season and probably get into the high 4:40s but i honestly do not think that you can run a 4:30 in that time