My magic mile
I started week 05 of the 100 pushups challenge yesterday. Week 05 is a bit of a massive jump up from week 04. For day 01 I was required to do 40, 32, 30, 25 and a max set (min 40). Well I managed the first 40 but that was the only ray of sunshine in this workout. I did another 20, then another ten then though Bugger this and went off to do my run. I did a comfortable 5K in about 26 minutes.
Today I wanted to do another 5K run as I’m planning on doing 8 on the 8th tomorrow. However, I was reading a post by David over at Running because I can where he was talking about running a mile as fast as you can and then I read another post that directed me to Jeff Galloway’s Race Prediction Calculator. (Apologies to whomever it was. I just can’t remember. Leave me a comment and I’ll link to you.) This calculator predicts your HM time based on how fast you can run a mile.
Anyways, as you probably guessed by now I decided to see how fast I could run a mile today. I did a kilometer at 10 minutes a mile pace just to warm up then I ran as fast as I could for a mile. I did it in 6:45 which is faster than I thought I could do. Now I only need to knock off 2:45 and I’ll be seriously fast!
When I plug my time into Jeff Galloway’s Race Prediction Calculator that predicts a half marathon time of 1:46:07 which I personally think is rather unrealistic. That’s an 8:06 min/mile pace and I’m not too sure I could maintain that. Just for comparison purposes I also plugged my time into the McMillan running calculator and it gives me 1:48:05. So maybe a sub 2 hour half is not that far fetched. Food for thought anyway.
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August 7th, 2008 13:24
6:45 for a mile is terrific! Good for you.
Week 5 sounds like yuck.
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August 7th, 2008 15:20
Sounds like your doing really well with your running. I think that your predicted times are probebly within your reach, just set your sites high!
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August 7th, 2008 20:26
You are selling yourself short – you will kill a 1:45 HM in the very near future. As I’ve said before, if I can at my age, you surely can!
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AndrewE
reply on August 8th, 2008 11:37 am:
I hope so!
Twitter: AndrewENZ
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August 7th, 2008 23:56
sounds like a fast mile to me
I am finishing week 4 of the push up challenge……..nervous about week 5 but I love how much stronger I feel……so empowering!
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August 8th, 2008 01:53
6:45 a mile, I’m jealous! Me so slow!
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August 8th, 2008 02:45
You are doing fantastic! A positive attitude is contagious! Great job!
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August 8th, 2008 04:24
I don’t think that sounds unrealistic at all. I think you could do a half in the predicted time. You are a speed demon!
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August 8th, 2008 04:40
That’s fast! Lightning fast! Blurry fast! Congrats!
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August 8th, 2008 04:54
A sub-7 mile is GREAT!! High-five!!!
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August 8th, 2008 06:11
That week 5 got me too! it’s a tough one! Great job on the run!
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August 9th, 2008 08:32
Thanks for linking to me. I have found that those racing calculators can be quite intimidating. An all-out mile or something close to that in no way reflects what you could do for a half-marathon. A 5k or 10k time is a better judge of that.
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August 9th, 2008 11:23
Just had a look at your HM prediction using Jack Daniels Running Formula (http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0736054928/andreisgettif-20/ (also see http://www.runbayou.com/jackd.htm for an online calculator) based on your mile time and he predicts 1:42:17 to 1:46:27.
I’m still at the outer limits of his method, but would put a fair bit of faith into his approach.
Also, regarding David’s comment about the mile not really representing what you can do in a HM, I would disagree. Most of these approaches work by assuming that your working at a given % of your maximum for a given distance and then solving for whatever distance you are interested.
Lets say for example that 1 mile pace all out represents going at 95% of your max (lets say 100m sprint) and that HM represents 75%. Naively, 6m 45s * 95 / 65 = HM pace per mile * 13.1 miles = 112 mins = 1hr 52 mins. Now considering I plucked these figures completely out of the air, I still hope that this give some credence to their methods.
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August 10th, 2008 12:47
Andrew, it is totally posible for you to get in the 1:46 range on the half mary. The times you are reporting are very close to times I have accomplished in the last 9 months, so it can be done. I’m living proof. And since you are training now, you may improve even more before your next races.
Keep up the great work!
Nice Blog … I love the maps!
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August 10th, 2008 13:02
Andrew, good effort on the push ups. I have let mine wane a little (well, a lot! Steve would be most disappointed.) But doing 40 in one go is a heck of an effort! You gotta be pleased with that.
How are you feel in strength terms by doing this? I know when I do it I feel good.
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AndrewE
reply on August 10th, 2008 6:17 pm:
I’ve felt quite good doing them but I’ve been having a few days off since failing with week 05 day 01.
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February 11th, 2009 07:10
I kind of did it the opposite way around. I used to run a 5K in 25 minutes and a 10K in just over 50. My half marathon time was 1:59. That was in 1991. Now, I have been using Jeff’s program after not running since 1991, and recently ran the magic mile in 7:51. This after running again for about 4 months. That correlates very nicely to my actual current 5K times as well as my old half marathon time. I was actually pretty impressed with the accuracy. With the type of time you are running, plus your reference to a “comfortable 5K in 26 minutes” you will absolutely be sub 2 hours!
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