First posted in 1996

Like many long-term runners (racing since the very early 1970s), I found that years of pounding the roads had done me in. During my 30s I had run at or close to the 33-minute 10K level equivalency all the way from a 4:31 mile, a 33:01 10K and a 54:45 10-miler. I did this on 60-70 miles of week.

By the time I reached 50 in 1995, I could no longer break 6 minutes for a single mile. I had steadily declined throughout my 40s, still thinking that miles on the road was the answer to my problems.

In 1995, I made the decision to improve my base speed by concentrating on the mile. Twenty years before, my goal had been to run a sub 4:40 mile. Now, 20 years later, I knew that a sub 5:20 would be a reasonable, equivalent performance.

I decided to cut my training down to the bare essentials. I was still trying to run anywhere from 35-40 miles per week, but my legs were always tired. I time-trialed a mile on the track in January 1995 and ran 6:01 so I knew right off that I had my work cut out for me.

I decided that I would subordinate all other training goals and concentrate on the mile. I knew right away that this didn’t call for many miles on a weekly basis. Did this mean intervals up the kazoo? It didn’t.

I decided that the most important element necessary to run a sub-5:20 mile
was to be able to time-trail 1200 meters (or 1320 yards) in 4 minutes with impunity. In other words, I had to be able to do it at will. I figured that if I could do this I would figure a way of running 79 seconds (or less) for the last quarter to hit my goal.

I got the idea for this from Roger Bannister's book, “The Four Minute Mile.” He had gotten himself to the point where he could time-trial a 1320 in 2:59. Once he did this, he knew he was ready to run a sub 4. He did so less than two weeks later at Iffly Road Track in Oxford, England.

My goal race was a mile competition in July 1995. I started training in earnest in February 1995. This is what my training week looked like when I reached peak shape.

Monday: Rest

Tuesday: 4-6 miles slow. I tried not to go over 75% of max heart rate and, yes, I normally wore a heart monitor.

Wednesday: This was the key day. I ran one of four workouts on a rotating basis. Either 2-4 400 meters at round 68-70 or 1-2 800s at 2:35-38 or 1 x 1200 (eventually getting this down under 4:00) or 1x 1600 in the 5:30s.

Thursday: Same as Tuesday. If I was really tired, I moved this workout to Friday.

Friday: Generally off

Saturday: 3-6 miles easy.

Sunday: 8-10 miles slow. This was my one weekly sacrifice to the endurance gods.

I found that by following this schedule I arrived at a point in late spring where I could consistently run right around 4:00 for 1200 meters while in control (as in, I could have done another lap).

I worked my 400s down under 70 seconds but took long rests between each one. The idea was that the fast 400s would prepare me to run a fast last lap.

In July 1995, I ran a 5:19 with a 73-second last lap. I fell asleep during the first 3 laps running 82-82-82 (it was a tactical race) but had plenty left to make my goal time. My contention is that this will work for faster times. A good friend of mine uses a similar schedule with even fewer weekly miles to run 4:47-50 for the mile.

What amazed me the most was that before I began this program I couldn’t run under 19:30 for 5K. After running 5:19, I went out on the roads and ran over a minute faster.