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. <\/p>\n
\u2018When it\u2019s warmer outside, it\u2019s easier to do speedwork than it is to do longer tempos and steady runs,\u2019 says Hayden Cox<\/a>, founder of Railroad Athletics<\/a> and a USATF-certified coach. <\/p>\n USATF-certified running coach Lisa Gausney<\/a> agrees. \u2018The 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\u2019s much easier to do sprints in hotter weather than a tempo run<\/a>, long run<\/a> or even short recovery run<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u2018Track 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.\u2019<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n \u2018Training for a mile is an excellent challenge for runners of any level, because it requires you to sharpen speed<\/a>, power and mental toughness in a relatively short, focused build-up,\u2019 says RW\u2019s resident running coach Tom Craggs.<\/p>\n Now, it\u2019s certainly true that mile running favours the younger athlete. But that\u2019s not to say that you can\u2019t still run a seriously impressive time in your 60s. Here are the benchmark times that you should be hitting\u2026.<\/p>\n For women in their 60s<\/p>\n 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<\/a>, she shared the following one-mile time targets for women in their 60s based on fitness level:<\/p>\n Top 20%<\/p>\n Top 10%<\/p>\n Top 5%<\/p>\n Top 1%<\/p>\n Top 0.01%<\/p>\n 8:15<\/p>\n 8:00<\/p>\n 7:45<\/p>\n 7:30<\/p>\n 7:15<\/p>\n For men in their 60s<\/p>\n Unfortunately, Dr Estima didn\u2019t 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<\/a>. <\/p>\n Age<\/p>\n Novice<\/p>\n Intermediate<\/p>\n Advanced<\/p>\n Excellent<\/p>\n 60<\/p>\n 9:37<\/p>\n 8:09<\/p>\n 7:06<\/p>\n 6:20<\/p>\n 65<\/p>\n 10:02<\/p>\n 8:31<\/p>\n 7:25<\/p>\n 6:37<\/p>\n 70<\/p>\n 10:32<\/p>\n 8:57<\/p>\n 7:47<\/p>\n 6:57<\/p>\n How to run your best mile<\/p>\n