Finally cracked a 90 second mile at 42 years old

I used to dream about breaking 3 hours in a marathon back in my 20s but then life happened (kids, job, you know). Last Saturday during a local 5k in Austin I ran a 5:37 mile split and realized I'm actually faster now than when I was training seriously. Has anyone else found that letting go of a big dream led to surprising little wins like this?

3 comments

3 Comments

jenny471mo ago

Wait, did you actually train hard back then or were you more casual about it? Curious if you changed up your routine or just stopped caring about times.

anderson.piper1mo ago

Actually trained hard"? Whoa, hold up. I used to run track in high school and my coach would make us do hill repeats until we puked. I never said I was casual about it, lol. That was literally the opposite of casual.

sage3081mo ago

Oh man, I feel that. @jenny47, I had a coach in cross country who made us do suicide sprints on the track until our legs were jelly. But honestly, what helped me was just mixing things up. I'd hit the trails instead of pavement a few days a week, and I stopped obsessing over my mile times. Just running for the hell of it made me enjoy it more and I actually got faster without trying as hard. Hill repeats are brutal but they work, you just gotta find a rhythm that doesn't make you hate it.