Sub 5 minute mile at age 50

 It's been a while since I've posted anything, but I've been keeping busy. I once again rode at Rebecca's Private Idaho in September, finishing 18th in the Queen's Stage Race. I've struggled a bit in 2022 with motivation and finding the time, being super busy with our 3 kids sports. For example, whereas I rode more than 8K miles in 2021, through November 2022, I've only ridden 4,607 miles. 

However, I've also rediscovered my first love that is running. Our middle kid, Janek, turned 12 in June, and he's a member of a local running club, the Rain City Flyers, where I help coach. It's a great group of kids with some seriously fast youth among them. Janek has been part of their cross-country set up for the past few years, but this has been the first year he has decided to train. He ended the track season with a PR of 5:13 for the 1,500m, and as we started cross-country season in September, he was not coming in as unfit as he has in prior years. Consequently, he and his team-mates have been having a great season so far with the highlight being their excellent performance at Junior Olympics Association meet this past weekend where Janek finished 2nd in 10:37 for 3K in the 11-12 boys bracket.

The upshot of all this running is that I got back into it and have swapped the bike for a pair of running shoes. Since September, I've been averaging about 35 miles per week, and probably most importantly, doing the interval sessions with the kids each Tuesday and Thursday. I've also been racing! On October 1st, I finished 1st in a 1 mile cross-country race in a time of 5:25 at West Seattle, where the kids had also been racing.

That prompted me to think about whether it'd be feasible to run a sub 5 minute mile at the almost age of 50 (I'll actually be 50 in 6 months). I had read that about 15 Americans over 50 run a sub-5 each year. I also found a website called MastersRankings that had a list of 30 athletes aged 50-54 worldwide that had run under 5 minutes in 2021. No idea if all of this is true or complete, but it seemed like a compelling enough challenge. So, I continued the training and decided to enter into the Pacific Northwest Masters Cross-Country championships, and to my surprise, I ran 29:10 over the 8K course, finishing 6th overall and 1st in the 45-49 age bracket. I haven't raced an 8K cross-country course since college 25 years ago!

This past weekend, following the kids Association meet, I decided to head to Ballard track and see how close to a 5 minute mile I was. I just wanted to set a benchmark to understand how far I had to go, thinking I've got another 6 or so months until I actually turn 50 and track season is upon us. Janek came with me to call out the laps on the stopwatch.

After warming up and lacing up my new Nike Air Zoom Victory spikes for the first time, I set off solo on a cold but relatively calm afternoon. After lap 1, I came through in 70 secs which was way faster than I'd intended. I settled in though, and came around lap 2 in 2:25 which was right on target lap pace. The 3rd lap I struggled a bit with focus and fatigue and went through in 3:42. With 200m to go, I was able to pick it back up a bit and crossed the line in 4:57. Overall, I was pleased to know that I can still dip below 5 and felt like with more training and competition conditions, getting closer to a sub 4:50 could be a good target.

The best part of this was having Janek there and I'm looking forward to continuing to train with him and see how close to sub-5 he can go next year! 

As for me, I have the Regional cross-country masters champs this weekend, right after Janek and his team on the same course. Thereafter, I have no more races planned, but I am intending to keep going with the training and see how fast I can go next May when I actually turn 50! 

Finally, you may be wondering what my training looks like from week to week. Well, it varies, but generally, here's what a given week might look like:

• Monday: rest or 4-5 miles easy (8 minutes p/mile, HR < 130bpmm)
• Tuesday: aerobic fitness-based intervals e.g. 5x800m w/ 400m jog recovery. I run these at around 2:40 - 2:45
• Wednesday: 8-10 miles easy (8 mins p/mile, HR < 130bpm)
• Thursday: speed-oriented intervals e.g. 10x150m hills w 90 sec recovery
• Friday: 4-5 miles easy
• Saturday: race or tempo/threshold run e.g. 1 mile warm up, 3 miles at 5:45, 1 mile cooldown
• Sunday: 10 miles easy (8 mins p/mile, HR < 130bpm)

If you're reading this and thinking you'd like to run a sub-5 minute mile as a master's athlete, feel free to email me and happy to compare notes and give some pointers.