Went out this morning and ran my first magic mile. For those unfamiliar with the Galloway method, it's a run-walk-method and the magic mile is an indicator used to determine your current pacing capabilities. I knew that since I hadn't run in over a year (less for a few sprints at races), this first one would be slower than I would like. That's okay though, because I know I'll only improve as I go along.
I headed down to the local track to do the magic mile. I debated doing it in the neighborhood, but I'm already pretty bored with it, so I knew a change of venue would be welcoming. After warming up with some walking and some run-walk-run intervals at 1:1, I did the magic mile. The track itself was actually a half mile long which isn't traditional, as most running tracks are 400 meters. I was a bit disappointed in that because I thought doing four laps would be easier, but in the end that's not really the case, it's the same distance, so it doesn't really matter (well, less for preference I suppose). I did the first 1/2 mile in 6:30 which was pretty good and ended up finishing with a time of 12:58. Basically, I did the mile in 13 minutes. I really pushed myself and only took about 4 short walk breaks, so I'm pretty proud of myself for that.
Once you get your magic mile time, you are able to calculate where your pacing is going to be. I went to Jeff Galloway's website and put in my time of 12:58. Here's what I got:
5k Pace - 13:31 (41:54)
10k Pace - 14:55 (1:32:27)
Half Marathon Pace - 15:34 (3:23:50)
Marathon Pace - 16:51 (7:21:39)
Since I was walking between 14:30 and 15:30ish per mile, I know that half marathon time is pretty high most likely for me. I did Space Coast in 3:28:50 so even if I do my next half marathon using a 1:2 ratio (run one minute, walk two), I should finish better than that 3:23:50 Jeff's calculations are stating that I will. Speaking of my next half marathon, I signed up yesterday for it! I'll be doing the Orange Blossom Half on March 4th!
Anyway, I'm glad I got this first magic mile out of the way, as it was pretty tough and I know my next one will be better once I'm running for some time. I'll be doing a holiday 5k this coming Saturday, so I look forward to seeing what I can do using the run-walk-run intervals. I'm going to try to do it in 40 minutes or less. I should easily PR though, as all my previous 5ks are walking.
