How to improve my mile time by 1 minute in 4 days?

Question

Ok so I have to improve my mile time before my track meet monday and i am thinking of running 14 miles a day by waking up early. Is this a good idea? Please answer quickly.

Answer 1

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Running 14 miles a day, starting today, Thursday, will . . . only make you sore and tired on Monday.

Presuming you have been running some . . . and you're fairly young so you have a fair amount of muscle resiliency . . . and you're hoping to go from, say an 8 minute mile to a 7 minute mile (not from a 6 to a 5) . . . there are a few things you can do that will help you run faster come Monday.  Consider the following.

Friday - this is your last day, your last chance for any type of improvement for Monday.  

Take your target time, say 7 minutes a mile.  Which means that right now, with an effort, you can cover a half mile in say 3:15, or even 3:00.  On Friday, and only on Friday, do a gradual warm up of a couple of miles easy run followed by four or five one-hundred meter strides.

Run four half-miles at that 3:15 or 3:00 pace.  Take plenty of rest in between - jog, don't walk, for whatever it takes for you to recover, say 5, 6, 7 minutes, between repetitions.

Cool down with a few miles easy jog.  That's it.  That's your hope.

Your hope is in practicing running at a pace slightly faster than race pace so that on race day it will feel easier for you to run at your target pace.

Saturday - run 2 or 3 miles easy.  Follow that up with four or five 100 meter strides.  Cool down with 1 or 2 miles easy running.  

Make sure to get a good night's sleep Saturday night - that's two nights before the race.

Sunday - take a walk!  An easy one, at that!  For an hour, max.  Don't eat meat or much of any type of protein - meat often takes more than 24 hours to digest.

Don't worry about carbo loading - that has benefits, if any, for races of an hour or longer.

On Monday, presuming the race is in the afternoon, run an easy mile or two in the morning.  Easy.  Not fast.

When you run the race, go out the first quarter at what you would expect to be your average pace for the whole race.  If it's a seven minute mile you are looking to do, then the first lap would be 1:50.  Then try to sustain that speed for the rest of the race.

Let us know how it goes!

Regards,

Running_Dad

Answer 2

Just run faster at the race.

Answer 3

14 miles is a LOT.....if you can handle it, great.  If you wanna improve your time, definitely DONT listen to these guys and take steroids..........when you chew mint gum, you breathe much better and with your mouth closed.....of course, always stretch before and after your workout, AND pick up your feet when you run......it helps a lot with speed and not getting tired as much.  Just pace yourself, don't go too fast to get a side ache and dont go too slow to get bored.  :)

And i meant chew mint gum while you're running (like winterfresh or something) trust me you'll notice a big difference

Answer 4

Running long-distance (14 mile runs) will no timprove your speed. you need to do short-distance sprints and stuff like that. Also, DON"T DO STEROIDS!

Answer 5

run faster

Answer 6

no..running 14 miles a day won't improve your 1 mile time anyhow.  If you want to improve over such a short distance, you have to run fartleks and sprints.  But it's really too late to have that make an impact on a race 4 days from now.  You need at least a couple weeks.

Answer 7

yes 14 miles will help you drasticly..trust me....but dont run the day before the track meet

Answer 8

Steroids

Answer 9

you cannot improve in that little of time, the best thing to do would be to do a long run tomorrow, some speed work saturday, and an easy 40 minute run on sunday. Also get a lot of sleep and be well hydrated on monday if you want to perform  ur best.

Answer 10

sounds good to me...just remember to hydrate yourself

Answer 11

No.

You will not improve your time by running 14 miles a day. You will actually harm your body. You should not do very long distance running so soon before a race. Your body needs to be mostly healed, not torn down.

You really don't have many options but to be fully rested, have your body full of the best nutrients and liquids that you can, be fully warmed up and stretch well. Also think about modifying your stride although if you have not trained with it it to can work against you.

But, I ran long distance (2 miles -13 mile races) for many years and one time my time improved 3 minutes on a 2 mile race. I did not do anything different but it just...happened. Probably had a lot to do with my thinking and attitude at the time.

Good luck!

Answer 12

its not a good idea to run that much everyday before a track meet because by the time your track meet comes up, you will be too tired to want to run.

what i would do is run about 1-2 miles at a time, then take around a 30 minute rest and drink lots of fluids and do that again, but only around 3 times a day or you will wear yourself out before you can run at your track meet

Answer 13

if u think that will make u faster. Running 3 miles and stretching will make u faster, so do whatever u want to do, but my suggestion is

Today: i mile when it cools down

tomorrow: 2-3 miles

Saturday: 2-3 miles

Sunday: stretch reall well and push ur legs as far as they could go since u runn the mile the next day

Answer 14

no.maybe only 1 or 2 miles a day.