Last week, I promised an update on my 2026 running goal: racing the mile this summer at a Seattle-area all-comers meet.
The goal isn’t just to train for a mile. It’s to find out how fast I can run one at age 58.
I’ve shared before how running 4:39 at age 37 (just three seconds slower than my high school PR) made me realize I’d wasted my athletic prime. Since then, I’ve committed to always finding out what I’m capable of.
Most of my adult running has been marathons and 50-mile ultras. Switching to the mile seems simple. “It’s just one mile, run faster!” But it’s not that simple.
Marathons require slow, steady turnover for hours. Many marathoners develop a “marathon shuffle.” The energy is entirely aerobic, in which you always have oxygen to turn your body’s fuel into energy.
The mile demands near-sprint pace with much higher cadence. It’s at the anaerobic threshold, with the last 200-400 meters fully anaerobic, which is when you’re not getting enough oxygen in to produce energy, you’re creating more blood lactate than your body can dispose of. That’s what leads to that heavy, leaden feeling in your body.
Transitioning without injury (I have a history of torn muscles going anaerobic) requires carefully stepping into that sort of pace.
Since my target race is July, I’ve mapped training in stages to increase leg speed and find the barrier between fast and injured.
I run year-round, at least four days weekly unless I’m sick or hurt. So, I had a solid base when I set this goal. Phase one: wake up my legs to a faster cadence without getting hurt.
Anyone I’ve coached has heard my Secret to Becoming a Faster Runner: “If you want to run faster, you have to run faster.” It’s as truthful as it is simplistic. The trick is doing it in doses that build speed capacity without injury.
I started with 200-meter repeats at a pace faster than my target mile pace. Since I don’t know what that is yet, I looked at my history. I’m not running 4:30s again. Probably not sub-5:00 either. But I can run 1/8th mile at that pace.
So I’m running 200m repeats at 40 seconds each. Useful for fitness, not injury-producing.
Last week’s workout: 10x200m with 200m full recovery jogs. My splits, in the images on this page, ranged from 43 down to 37.5. I was happy my last was fastest but wanted more consistency.
This morning’s workout showed improvement: 40.3, 38.7, 39.6, 38.7, 39.2, 37.6, 40.3, 38.0, 38.6, 38.7. I had blustery conditions at the track, but was still much more consistent. And I hit sub-38 without undue effort.
Am I feeling “awake” to speed yet? Not yet. But I’m on track. No injuries. Consistent intervals. Getting accustomed to higher cadence than I’ve run in twenty years.
What does this mean for my mile time? I don’t know yet. I’m only running 200m intervals.
My next phase starts in three weeks: sustaining speed for longer. Arguably the most important phase because it requires learning to be uncomfortable longer.
That’s what I’ve always told my track athletes: Get comfortable being uncomfortable.
This is what Challenge actually looks like in practice. Not dramatic transformation or crushing yourself in every workout like the gym bros on the socials. Just showing up consistently at the edge of your current ability, pushing slightly beyond it, and trusting the process to compound over time.
Whether it’s running faster or having difficult conversations or examining your own stories, the work is the same: Find the boundary between growth and breaking, then spend time there deliberately. That’s where adaptation happens.
I’ll report back on how those workouts go. I suspect they’ll be very informative.
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