Another "Magic Mile" Test`

I decided to head to the American Tobacco Trail this morning for a change of pace and do a timed mile, known in Galloway lingo as the Magic Mile.It's a predictor of finishing times for various racing distances, as well as a way to figure out what pace someone should be training at for different race distances. Anyway, I'd put off doing this Magic Mile test on last week's training schedule because of the pulled muscle in my lower back. My back's much better after buying a heating pad Friday after work, but it's still not 100%, and I felt it this morning during that Magic Mile! (Boo hiss!)

I did warm up for a half mile, first with walking, and then with run/walk intervals of 30 seconds each. That felt pretty decent. On the timed mile, I ran as much as I could, and walked a little bit. I did have to cross over a couple of streets along the trail, but I lucked out with little-to-no car traffic. I ended up with a 17:30 minute mile, 8 seconds slower than my Magic Mile time last month. A bit disappointing, but I'm sure it would've been faster if my lower back hadn't been a little sore.

When I worked with a running coach, she used to have me do an exercise called "alternate superman" as part of my core strengthening routine, but I've gotten away from doing it! I need to start back and stick with that part of my training, because a sore back stinks (and probably could've been avoided)!

Here's an example of the alternate superman exercise I'll start doing again soon:



Back to the Magic Mile, the Jeff Galloway website suggests doing 4 Magic Miles over several weeks, then dropping the slowest and averaging the fastest three times for a more accurate snapshot of current ability. I did that and came up with a 17:32 average. According to the Magic Mile calculator on the Galloway site, I should be training at a 23:48 min/mile pace for a half marathon, which makes my 21:05 min/mile average pace this past Saturday look pretty good. It also predicts I'd finish a half marathon in 4:35:37 in a hard effort under ideal conditions. Considering that my last half marathon (back in March) was 4:50:06 (chip), I'd certainly take a 15 minute improvement!! Still, I'm not where I want to be, which is definitely a sub-4:00 half marathon finish (and that's just for starters!).

Another Magic Mile Test

George and I returned to the American Tobacco Trail this evening, this time to do a Magic Mile. I was concerned about doing a Magic Mile at the end of a warm day, but the sky was full of big, billowy, gray clouds, with a gentle breeze but no rain. I was pretty pleased with my Magic Mile time, a 22-second improvement over my last Magic Mile in late May!

Warm-up walk: 0.23 mi, 4:59 min
Warm-up run: 0.27 mi, 5:11 min
Magic Mile: 1 mi, 17:22 min
Cool-down walk: 0.40 mi, 9:00 min

I think I spotted a red fox running away from the trail, but I missed the black snake that a couple of people on the trail mentioned to me. :)

Magic Mile #2

I did my second Magic Mile of the Raleigh Galloway season this morning. I decided to head for the American Tobacco Trail, but got there later than I'd planned. The temperature outside was warming up already, but I decided to go ahead and get it done.

Walked 0.52 mi in 12:01 min to warm up
Ran 1 mile in 17:44
Walked 0.63 in 14:10 min to cool down

My first Magic Mile on 5/14/11 was 18:00, so there's some improvement. Not a lot, but some. According to my current MM time, my training pace should be a good bit slower than the pace group I'm running with--or better yet, running behind, but not THAT far behind, and I'm closing the gap. I do feel like my Magic Miles have been a good, hard effort. My knees, in fact, are talking to me this evening, so I'll be taking an Epsom Salt bath after I finish this post!

Jeff Galloway recommends running Magic Miles every two weeks or so. Once you have four Magic Mile times, drop the slowest and average the remaining three for an indicator of various race times. I hope I can continue to see improvements over the summer, even with the rising temperatures. Since my target race for 2011 is the City of Oaks Half Marathon in November, the cooler fall temperatures will be a plus.

Speaking of the Galloway group, George has started a Facebook page for our Raleigh Galloway pace group, the Pacers! Check it out here and feel free to "like" it!

Meanwhile, I've registered for the North Carolina Blueberry Festival 5K, which is in Burgaw on June 18. I'm really excited about it, and hope that I can beat my 5K time from the Catch Me If You Can 5K back on Mother's Day!

Welcome Back, Speed Workout!

I did a speed workout this morning for the first time in AGES! It was long overdue, for sure!


I was inspired, in part, by last Saturday's Galloway group training run, a 4-miler which included a "Magic Mile." I was the last one to finish the 1-mile test, with an 18-minute mile. Now, my average pace for the 4-miler is my best in quite a while, but I'm still at the back of the pack.

On Monday, I ran/walked 1.52 miles outside for 31 minutes, pretty slow, but I was pretty tired from Saturday morning's 4-miler, followed by two fun days of Duke graduation festivities and family time (congratulations, Laura!). Yesterday's exercise was a slow walk, so I decided I'd better work on speed today.

So, I decided to head to the gym and do my speed workout on the treadmill to help me ease into it. After warming up on the stationery bike, I did four 0.25 mile repeats, at 3:47, 3:46, 3:46, and 3:45. It's a good starting point, I think. My legs were pretty spent, but not totally (which is a good thing, since I still had to go to work!). In time, I'd like to build up to Yassos, the mile repeats, and plan to do some on the track or road too.


Clipart from Clipartheaven.com