What's Your 4-Minute Barrier?
They said it couldn't be done.
The "Experts" of the day said that the heart would explode if it were to happen.
A man would collapse & die on the spot, the human body couldn't take it.
The task of covering the Mile in less than 4 minutes was considered at one point to be impossible, as impossible as landing a man on the moon.
(Sometimes Experts can be so silly...)
One man defied all that: Sir Roger Bannister. He's the first runner to break 4 minutes in the mile, at 3:59.4 seconds on May 6th, 1954. His story is really inspiring if you've never heard of him before, or don't know his full story. A good synopsis of his life can be found here on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bannister
The one thing I have taken from Bannister's story is how he was really a pioneer in how effective Interval Training was for his success in accomplishing this task. I have watched the ESPN TV movie, 4-Minute Mile, which is about Bannister's efforts he took at running the first sub 4-minute mile. A staple of his training was using interval training, since he didn't have much time for his running workouts: he was in Medical School at this time. Just think about that: a future doctor was not only studying & going to school for an arduous career, but also training to be the fastest Miler on the planet, and to do what no one thought was really possible!
So, what I ask of you is "What is Your 4-Minute Barrier?" What is the one thing that people have told you that you couldn't have done, or discouraged you from trying, and you really, really want to accomplish it? Or is it something you think can't be done, but know you can really do it if you focus on that task?
My personal barrier is getting under 5 minutes in the Mile this year. In previous years of coaching track & cross-country, my own running was done with my own teams, and I at best clocked a 5:20 in a practice workout of repeat miles. I feel I can get back to that level of speed and go a bit faster, breaking 5 minutes in the mile. I haven't had anyone tell me I can't do it, I just have seen it as a level of fitness where I thought I could never reach. Until now, because back then, I was mostly focused on covering 3.1 miles (a 5K) in a certain time. Now, I want to shorten that even further to just 1 mile of pure, hard, intense, spirited racing.
Post what your "4 Minute Barriers" are in the comments below. Let's work with each other on helping all of us break these barriers in 2009!
Run Strong, Run Fast...
Run So As To Win!
Coach Rick Karboviak
http://1MileNation.com
The Countdown Begins to a Faster Mile at:
http://asapworkouts.com/321.pdf
The "Experts" of the day said that the heart would explode if it were to happen.
A man would collapse & die on the spot, the human body couldn't take it.
The task of covering the Mile in less than 4 minutes was considered at one point to be impossible, as impossible as landing a man on the moon.
(Sometimes Experts can be so silly...)
One man defied all that: Sir Roger Bannister. He's the first runner to break 4 minutes in the mile, at 3:59.4 seconds on May 6th, 1954. His story is really inspiring if you've never heard of him before, or don't know his full story. A good synopsis of his life can be found here on Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bannister
The one thing I have taken from Bannister's story is how he was really a pioneer in how effective Interval Training was for his success in accomplishing this task. I have watched the ESPN TV movie, 4-Minute Mile, which is about Bannister's efforts he took at running the first sub 4-minute mile. A staple of his training was using interval training, since he didn't have much time for his running workouts: he was in Medical School at this time. Just think about that: a future doctor was not only studying & going to school for an arduous career, but also training to be the fastest Miler on the planet, and to do what no one thought was really possible!
So, what I ask of you is "What is Your 4-Minute Barrier?" What is the one thing that people have told you that you couldn't have done, or discouraged you from trying, and you really, really want to accomplish it? Or is it something you think can't be done, but know you can really do it if you focus on that task?
My personal barrier is getting under 5 minutes in the Mile this year. In previous years of coaching track & cross-country, my own running was done with my own teams, and I at best clocked a 5:20 in a practice workout of repeat miles. I feel I can get back to that level of speed and go a bit faster, breaking 5 minutes in the mile. I haven't had anyone tell me I can't do it, I just have seen it as a level of fitness where I thought I could never reach. Until now, because back then, I was mostly focused on covering 3.1 miles (a 5K) in a certain time. Now, I want to shorten that even further to just 1 mile of pure, hard, intense, spirited racing.
Post what your "4 Minute Barriers" are in the comments below. Let's work with each other on helping all of us break these barriers in 2009!
Run Strong, Run Fast...
Run So As To Win!
Coach Rick Karboviak
http://1MileNation.com
The Countdown Begins to a Faster Mile at:
http://asapworkouts.com/321.pdf
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