How to prepare for a 1 mile race? (Read 1327 times)

Um, your supposed to do the mile first, all out. The next day you run the half, all out race pace, and then you do a few push ups, right before you cross the finish line.

Um, your supposed to do the mile first, all out. The next day you run the half, all out race pace, and then you do a few push ups, right before you cross the finish line.

I ended up going the psychological comfort route before my race. Two days before I did 4x400m around mile pace (77-80s each) with 200m recovery and then 4x200m a little faster than mile pace with 200m recovery. I think it was helpful to get a little more comfortable with the turnover. I ended up racing a 5:08. Now I want to race another mile, but my fall calendar is full of longer races already. For race day warmup I did an easy mile, some strides, and some butt kicks, skips, lunges, etc.

According to our calculator, with 18:27-5k performance, you should be able to run a mile in 5:20 so you had exceed it by quite a bit.  Congratulations!!  

That said, however, there are a few suggestions I could offer:

Suppose this mile WAS your target race, I would suggest something a lot less in volume to prepare.  You had run a fast (at your target pace) run of total of a mile (and some more) only 2 days before the race.  In other words, it's almost like you ran 2 races that week (which a lot of well-trained elite middle distance runners do).  Usually, 2 days before is not a good one; it usually takes 48-hours to recover particularly from a fast workout, not the day after.  So ideally, it would have been better if you did the above mentioned workout 3 days before with 2 easy jog days before your race.  The week of the race, it would have been better if you did something more on the line of 3-4 X 200m FAST; perhaps a race or time trial (run quite hard) of 800m (600-1200m) about 7-10 days before.  

Looking at some of the responses, I can't help but think that most people don't quite understand the difference between workouts that WORK YOU to race vs. workouts that GET YOU READY for a race.  It is quite common for a miler to do such workout as 15 X 400m or some sort of ladder like 3 X 400 + 3 X 800 + 5 X 200...something like that with good volume of fast runs.  But those are a kind of workout that would have had to be done weeks before.  Just as you wouldn't run 20+ miles the week of the marathon, you don't want to exert yourself with such workouts the week, or a few weeks leading up to, of the race.  In your case, however, I'd say that you didn't quite do such PREPARATORY workouts that you needed to do that somewhere, which happened to be 2 days before.  But I'd say, once again, that you probably would have done much better if you had some good structure leading to the race(s) so you wouldn't have to scramble things together a few weeks before the race.  It seems to me, your stamina is your weakness--with 18:27 level, you should be able to run the half marathon a few minutes faster and, with 5:08 mile, you should be able to run a 5k in 17:35 (and 1:20 half).  But I'd put my foot in my mouth and say that you should be able to crack 5-minutes easily if you "do it right".

Um, your supposed to do the mile first, all out. The next day you run the half, all out race pace, and then you do a few push ups, right before you cross the finish line.

Actually, I'd agree with Willamona.  A rule of thumb (of course, it's just a "rule of thumb", or I may get criticized for generalizing...) is; that it's okay to do a fast run or a race the day before a long easy aerobic run; but it's not okay to do a long run the day before your fast run or a race.  A long run tend to tighten up your muscles.  That's the kind of condition you do not want to have if you don't want to face the possibility of getting injured.  It's alright to go for a long easy aerobic run the day after the race--if anything, that'll slow you down and you'll be warmed up by the time you go a half way anyway.  

Now I'm not sure about the push-up part though...

There's the training to prepare for a 1 mile race, the warmup to prepare for a 1 mile race, which have been pretty well described here.

But to mentally prepare for a 1 mile race...to know what it's going to feel like - I think that, like any distance, just comes from experience, from actually racing them. I think that's the scary part for someone who maybe has never raced a mile...what's it going to be like? How do I do it? (not so much race strategy, but how do I know that I'm doing it right) - which is a legitimatly scary thing, as it's such a compressed race - it happens so fast - that mistakes are amplified, etc., and all of a sudden it's over and you're like - 'wait a minute, what happened? I want a do-over! I nailed those intervals 2 weeks ago!'

Intervals and such get you used to the speed, and maybe the fatigue, but, the only way to remove the mystery about what it's going to be like is to do it for reals.

I have extremely limited (but recent) experience with this distance. Whatever I write is probably romantic nonsense, so take it with a grain.

Well there is a half marathon I wanted to race that is the day before the mile race....but on the advice of many here and in my real life, I have decided to volunteer at that 1/2 instead.  

Gville, you are so right, what it will be like is the mystery!

Well there is a half marathon I wanted to race that is the day before the mile race....but on the advice of many here and in my real life, I have decided to volunteer at that 1/2 instead.  

 

Thank goodness, I'm getting very, very tired....I'm old, ya know.