7 Strategies to Conquer Your Fastest Mile Ever

ONE. SINGLE. MILE. For many, the distance is equally attainable and intimidating. When motivation is waning, it’s common to tell yourself “just do one mile” to get going. But when it’s time to race that mile? Well, that’s a different beast.

- SAMANTHA LEFAVE

“The mile will take you to your threshold nearly the entire time,” says Ashley Paulson, certified iFit trainer and run coach. “You’ll feel your lungs burn and the blood in your legs pulsing.”

But that doesn’t (and shouldn’t) stop us from trying to get faster at the 1600-meter distance. “As runners, we are always pushing our own boundaries,” Paulson says. “The mile is a great way to check your cardiovascular fitness, it’s a good tool to predict other race times, and it can serve as a baseline for programming other running workouts.”

So, to test your skills and have your best performance come race day, steal these training strategies for snagging a faster mile time.

Know where you’re starting

“How can you know where you’re going if you don’t know where you are?” Paulson says. “Watching yourself improve is the biggest motivator.” That’s why she recommends doing a time trial before you actually begin training to run a faster mile.

You don’t have to wait for an organized event to establish your starting point. Yes, there are benefits to doing so—a mapped-out and timed course, plus the adrenaline and energy from the crowd—but there are also variables outside of your control at races. When doing your own time trial, Paulson says, you can pick how soon you test, where you do it, and which weather conditions you’ll run in. (Feel free to skip a rainy day.)

Paulson recommends doing your trial run four to six weeks prior to “game day” to give your body enough time to build up the power and endurance you’ll need to cross the finish line faster.

Kick up your cadence