The Magic Mile



If you're interested in sports in general, and a runner in particular, then you'll know who Roger Bannister is. Heck, you should know it even without being a jock because Roger was (is!) the first dude ever to run a sub  4 minute mile, which he did in 1954 whilst pracitising as a junior doctor. A few days ago I was reading The Guardian's running blog and came across an article about Marathon Talk's Magic Mile Challenge. In short it's about running a single mile as fast as you can between August 24th and September 8th. Now running a mile isn't normally something I'd do, especially since being Swedish means that I'd never used miles as a measurement unit until relocating to the UK, but I like the idea of challenging myself to speed up over a shorter distance so I'm on it like a car bonnet.

In my head I'd already started to plan my mile challenge when I yesterday hit Barry's Bootcamp for a full body Friday - and a fitness test! It so turns out that they do a little fitness test every Friday - press ups, sit ups and running one mile! Coach Olly told us what kind of pace we needed to keep to run a 7 minute mile (and also a 6 and an 8 minute mile) and off we went. My legs felt heavy and tired so I settled on running slightly faster than a 7 minute mile but with a vision that over the coming few weeks I'd try and run a little faster every Friday. Having treated myself to a Silver membership at Barry's Bootcamp in August (like The Academy, but you don't have to settle on the same specific time every day which would be hard for me with my working pattern). I know that I'll be hitting those Woodway treadmills at least 5 times a week and I'm planning to make the most of it. Watch out Roger Bannister, I'm hitting the mile too!