An Unlikely Mile Run

This week we got to soccer practice a little early. There is a trail that runs around the soccer fields and winds around a park. Allison was going to run it while I was running soccer practice, but she wanted to know how long the lap was before she ran it. I said I’d run it for her and track it with Runkeeper so that she would know how far it is. I pulled out my iPhone and loaded up Runkeeper, my favorite app for tracking running, biking, etc. It does gps tracking and tells you how far, how fast, elevation, etc. All of the data is synced to your account on runkeeper.com and is stored there permanently. If anyone has a runkeeper account, send me a street team request. You can view all of my activities here.

So…back to my story. I figured I would just run it real quick for her so she could plan how many laps she would do. I had my soccer cleats on in preparation for soccer practice and took off around the trail in them.

Since I had cleats on, I ran on the grass right next to the gravel trail. Running in cleats is not really the most comfortable thing, let me tell you. It even made me miss my old run down running shoes (which, btw need to be replaced badly). Check out the lining on them that is getting worn down…

As I rounded the last bend and looked towards the place where I started I looked down at my phone and it was almost a mile with my time around 7:30. I didn’t even realize I was running that fast. I guess I was nervous about being late to my own team’s soccer practice so I kept a good pace. I finished the mile in less than 8 minutes, clocking in at 7:50:

I guess all of that interval running I did during Body For Life has really paid off and helped condition my heart. Last week I didn’t do any interval running, but ran 2 miles Mon, Wed & Fri early in the morning with my son before school. I could tell a difference with him at his soccer game on Saturday. He was much better conditioned and did not get tired in the 2nd half like he usually does. He also scored his first goal of the season – woohoo!

As for me, I totally could have done the mile faster. I wasn’t even trying for a fast mile – plus, I was in soccer cleats! I now know a good place outside to time myself in a mile. At some point in the near future I’m going to do a real for real timed mile test. I’ll be interested to see how fast I can do it when I’m actually trying to get a good time. I’ll keep you updated once I do it. Thanks for reading!