Running a 4 Minute Mile
Background
I really began running the mile when I was in the 7th grade and continued to run the distance competitively until I was a freshman in college. Middle school running was more about socializing than running and I really didn’t get into the sport, training wise, until I was a sophomore in high school.
By the end of that first year I had run a 4:22 mile, quite an improvement over my middle school times where I think I remember running a few in the 5:30’s. This pretty unexpected as I was just running track to fill in some time between basketball and summer football training. It would keep my speed and endurance up was my thought. With that time I placed 8th at the state championships and was looking forward to the following season where I felt, with a little more focus, I could do fairly decent maybe even content for the title.
I ended up qualifying in the 1600 and the 800 for state that year and had two OK races. Times were overall slow in the 1600 and I placed 6th with a 4:25, and bombed the 800. Senior year was another OK year, I didn’t really improve my times, except by 1 second at 4:21. I was hoping to run in the teens but you can’t have everything.
I then ran my freshman year in college for the University of Wisconsin - Stevens Point in both Cross Country and Track. This was my first official year of XC so it was quite a shock to my system to have to run 50+ miles every week. I enjoyed and had some decent 8K times. (I tried running XC and playing football my senior year in high school but didn’t fair too well. Waking up the morning after getting banged around (I played quarterback) didn’t fair for the best times.) Track and Field that year was a great experience. It began in December and last until May, this meant for the first time I was running year round!
My times improved in the 800 and the 1500 (no more 1600) and my best 1500 corresponded to 4:19ish 1600. I was improving.
The next year I worked into my XC season and that went about the same, I was able to increase my mileage and feel better for the time I was running. I decided to transfer schools to the University of Michigan for personal reasons and was going to try and walk on to the Cross Country and Track teams. I discussed with the coach and was to come out in the fall for practice.
I ended up getting diagnosed with testicular cancer that summer, underwent two surgeries and chemo therapy and never really went back to running. Not because I couldn’t, I just never did.
That pretty much brings me to the present day where I am slowly but surely getting back into running and enjoying the miles that I am putting in. I recently read The Perfect Mile and got a little more passion going in me again to go for a goal I always had which was running four minute. I mean, what competitive miler out there doesn’t want to break four minutes in the mile?