Answered By Mick Grant & John Molvar

Question

I'm a 7th grade (12 year old) girl. At the moment, my best mile time is 6:20. I'd like to improve my time. In the perfect world, I would like to be under 6 minutes... please help! Also, what would be a good time for my age? Thank you.

Answer

You are doing fine and it is important that you always enjoy the journey of gradual improvement. A good time for your age is gradual improvement. Don't worry about chasing times someone else makes up as "important." You should gradually work on slowly increasing your mileage, so you have a solid aerobic endurance base. I like my athletes to improve their 400m and 800m time before moving up to the mile. If you improve your strength by building an aerobic base, and you improve your speed in the 400 and 800, I think you are well positioned to transition to the mile. For mile pacing, you need to learn how to run even pace splits. For example, if you want to run 6:00 for the mile, you can practice how to run 1/4 mile pace 90 seconds. Have Fun