In seriously hot weather, the prospect of doing a two-hour long run can be thoroughly unappealing. Switch the focus to speed, however, and the warm weather can be an advantage.
‘When it’s warmer outside, it’s easier to do speedwork than it is to do longer tempos and steady runs,’ says Hayden Cox, founder of Railroad Athletics and a USATF-certified coach.
USATF-certified running coach Lisa Gausney agrees. ‘The pace is fast, but you just have to push yourself for one to five minutes as hard as you can, then you can take a rest break. It’s much easier to do sprints in hotter weather than a tempo run, long run or even short recovery run.
‘Track workouts allow you to push the pace but are also short enough that you can give your body a break and let the heart rate go down before starting the next rep.’
All of which points to one classic distance: the mile. Whatever your age and ability level, training to run your best mile is both a great challenge in itself and a launchpad to faster speeds across the distances.
‘Training for a mile is an excellent challenge for runners of any level, because it requires you to sharpen speed, power and mental toughness in a relatively short, focused build-up,’ says RW’s resident running coach Tom Craggs.
Now, it’s certainly true that mile running favours the younger athlete. But that’s not to say that you can’t still run a seriously impressive time in your 60s. Here are the benchmark times that you should be hitting….
For women in their 60s
Dr Stephanie Estima is a female physiologist and an expert in exercise goals for women of all ages. In an online essay entitled Fitness Performance Targets For Women By Age, she shared the following one-mile time targets for women in their 60s based on fitness level:
Top 20%
Top 10%
Top 5%
Top 1%
Top 0.01%
8:15
8:00
7:45
7:30
7:15
For men in their 60s
Unfortunately, Dr Estima didn’t create an equivalent table for men. However, we have a solution. Below are the times that men in their 60s should be hitting, according to research from Running Level.
Age
Novice
Intermediate
Advanced
Excellent
60
9:37
8:09
7:06
6:20
65
10:02
8:31
7:25
6:37
70
10:32
8:57
7:47
6:57
How to run your best mile
Here’s the adapted six-week plan that I followed en route to running a sub-5-minute mile. Feel free to tweak the schedule to your own needs – see it as a guide rather than something that you have to follow to the letter.
WEEK 1
Saturday
2-mile jogTrack: 6 x 300m (@ target mile pace), with 2-minute standing recoveries between sets2-mile jog
Sunday
Monday
Easy 5 miles. Finish with 4 x 15-second strides, with 45-second recoveriesIsometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugs
Tuesday
3 x 6-minute efforts (@ approx. half marathon pace), with 2-minute recoveries + 2 x 2-minute efforts (@ approx. 5K pace)
Wednesday
Easy 5 milesStrength session: back squats, calf raises, lunges, box jumps, chin-ups, bench press
Thursday
2-mile jogHills: 6 x 1-minute uphill, with jog-down recoveries2-mile jog
Friday
Easy 5 milesIsometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugsWEEK 2
Saturday
2-mile jogTrack: 8 x 400m (@ target mile pace), with 2-minute recoveries2-mile jog
Sunday
Monday
Easy 5 miles. Finish with 4 x 15-second strides, with 45-second recoveriesIsometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugs
Tuesday
1-mile jog3 x 8 minutes (@ approx, half marathon pace), with 2-minute recoveries + 2 x 2 minutes (@ approx, 5K pace) with 2-minute recoveries1-mile jog
Wednesday
Easy 5 milesStrength session: back squats, calf raises, lunges, box jumps, chin-ups, bench press
Thursday
2-mile jogHills: (3 x 1-minute uphill) x 3, with 2-minute rests between sets2-mile jog
Friday
Easy 5 milesIsometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugsWEEK 3
Saturday
2-mile jogTrack: 3 x 1200m progressing in pace within each rep (first 400m @ approx. 5K pace; second 400m @ slightly slower than mile pace; third 400m @ slightly faster than mile pace), with 6-minute recoveries between sets2-mile jog
Sunday
Monday
Easy 5 miles. Finish with 6 x 12-second strides, with 45-second recoveries.Isometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugs
Tuesday
1-mile jog4 x 6-minute efforts (@approx, half marathon pace), with 90-second recoveries + 2 x 90-second efforts (@ approx. 5K pace), with 90secs recoveries1-mile jog
Wednesday
Easy 5 milesStrength session: back squats, calf raises, lunges, box jumps, chin-ups, bench press
Thursday
2-mile jogHills: (6 x 30 seconds uphill, with 90-second jog-down recoveries, into 6-minute tempo run @ approx 6 min/mile pace + 2-minute rest) x 22-mile jog
Friday
Easy 5 milesIsometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugsWEEK 4
Saturday
2-mile jogTrack: (3 x 500m @ mile pace or slightly quicker) x 2, starting every 3 minutes. Take an extra 3-minute rest between the 2 sets2-mile jog
Sunday
Monday
Easy 5 miles. Finish with 10 x 10-second strides, starting every 30 seconds.Isometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugs
Tuesday
2-mile jogTrack (200m jog + 200m run (@ slightly faster than mile pace), with 2-minute static recovery) x 82-mile jog
Wednesday
Easy 5 milesStrength session: back squats, calf raises, lunges, box jumps, chin-ups, bench press
Thursday
Friday
WEEK 5
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Easy 5 miles. Finish with 8 x 10-second strides, with 45-second recoveriesIsometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugs
Tuesday
2-mile jogTrack: 1 x 400m (30-second recovery) + 1 x 900m (60-second recovery) + 1 x 300m, all performed at target mile pace2-mile jog
Wednesday
Easy 5 milesStrength session: back squats, calf raises, lunges, box jumps, chin-ups, bench press
Thursday
Easy 5 milesIsometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugs
Friday
2-mile jogTrack: (5 x 200m) x 2 @ mile pace + same recoveries (rest for same time that it took you to complete one rep). 5-minute recoveries between sets2-mile jogWEEK 6 – race week
Saturday
Sunday
Monday
Easy 5 miles. Finish with 8 x 10-second strides, with 45-second recoveriesIsometric hamstring exercises, plus dead bugs
Tuesday
2-mile jog4 x 400m (@ mile pace) with 1-minute recoveries2-mile jog
Wednesday
Thursday
Easy 3 miles, with 8 x 10-second strides
Friday
Saturday
Become a Runner’s World Club member from just £1 for three months. Choose a Gold, Silver or Bronze membership that’s right for your training, motivation and reading experience.