On average how long does it take to run a mile

People who wish to reduce their average mile time can try several techniques to improve their running economy. Running economy is the amount of energy that a person requires to run at a particular pace.

People who include endurance, interval, resistance, and plyometric training in their workout schedules may improve their average mile times. Researchers believe that endurance training causes physiological responses that help people adapt to running more quickly. Coaches often prescribe high intensity interval training and hill workouts as additional methods of improving average mile times.

Many elite athletes also choose to train in cities at high altitudes, such as Boulder, CO. High altitude training improves oxygen delivery to the muscles and helps them use oxygen more efficiently. Both elite and amateur runners use caffeine to help improve their performance. Coffee contains caffeine, but this stimulant is also in sports drinks, gels, jelly beans, and other carbohydrate-rich products that are quick for the body to absorb.

A study in the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance evaluated the effects of drinking coffee before a 1-mile race. The team of researchers separated 13 male athletes into three treatment groups. One group received 3 milligrams mg of caffeinated coffee per kilogram kg of body weight , while the second group received an equivalent amount of decaffeinated coffee, and the last group drank a placebo solution. The researchers noted that the runners who drank caffeinated coffee 60 minutes before the race ran 1.

However, these results are not consistent across studies. Another group of researchers asked some participants to drink 5. All participants then completed an meter race, which is almost equivalent to half a mile. It is important to note that in both of these studies, the participants were well-trained runners, so it is unclear whether caffeine may affect the speed of untrained runners.

Learn more about the possible benefits of drinking coffee here. Dietary nitrates, which occur naturally in lettuce, spinach, arugula, cress, celery, and beetroot, may play a role in exercise performance and tolerance. When people eat nitrates, the body converts them into nitrites. The further conversion of these substances into nitric oxide takes place in conditions of low oxygen, which can occur when exercise causes the muscles to become oxygen-deprived.

Nitric oxide has many positive effects on the body that may enhance exercise performance and tolerance. As the authors of a review article note, several studies have shown that dietary nitrates can improve exercise tolerance and lower the quantity of oxygen that the body needs during exercise. Researchers found that fit adults performed better on a 5-kilometer treadmill run when they ate grams g of baked beetroot, compared with those who ate a placebo.

The runners ate the beetroot, which provides more than mg of nitrates, 75 minutes before the run. If it is incredibly windy, for example, the wind will cause resistance that slows you down. The temperature can impact you physically, making it more challenging to run.

Other weather-related issues can also affect your ability to train or to move along at a good pace. It can also increase injury risks in some situations, such as icy conditions that could lead to slips and falls. If you are on flat terrain, you will have a much easier time running than if you are on terrain that is uneven or has hills and turns. The adjustments you have to make in your running speed suffer quite a bit when you are working against the terrain to move forward.

The final step you should take when preparing to run a mile and get the best time possible is to learn more about how to run faster.

The one thing to keep in mind above everything else is that you gradually need to build up your time. You might feel faint or get sick if you are not taking in enough oxygen to keep your body moving. Your breathing can serve as a pacesetter in the beginning. If you are breathing easily, then pick up the speed a little.

In fact, you may not be able to run most of the mile. You will naturally build endurance this way and eventually be able to run the whole mile. Once you can do that, you can start focusing on the time. Whether you use a fitness app or gadget or just write it down in a notebook, make sure you track when you run, how far you ran, and the time of your run every time you go out.

You need to ensure that you stay safe and healthy if you ever want to reach your goals. So, always take safety seriously every time you go for a run. Some general tips include making sure you stay hydrated. Carry a water bottle with you or run a route that gives you access to places to get water. Let someone know when you are going out on a run and when you expect to be back. Stay in contact with them, too. Wear sunscreen whenever you run outside, regardless of how sunny it is outside or the time of year.

Lastly, make sure to always warm your muscles up before taking off. You want to get the blood flowing to prevent injuries. Other safety tips are to protect you from possible dangers when you run. These include following traffic laws and paying attention when out. Never wear headphones when you run on or near a roadway. Before you think about trying to improve it, you also have to factor in variables that will impact your time. Although it might seem surprising, the weather will impact how fast you can run.

The ideal temperature for running is between 50 and 55 degrees, with no wind and no rain. Because your body heats up to about degrees hotter than the weather outside, this puts you at a comfortable 65 to 75 degrees after you get going. Anything warmer or colder than this temperature range will slow you down. Something else that can impact your time is how many turns and hills you have in your route.

If you run a mile with numerous turns, it will slow you down because you have to take the turns slower. If you run a lot of hills in a mile, your mile time could slow down pretty substantially. But in , Mike Boit ran what is still the fastest known mile by a human — We all know what track and cross-country runners look like: lean and mean.

It always needs to be said, though, that weight loss needs to stay within reason. There is being athletically trim, and then there is being unhealthily fixated on losing weight.

Too much weight loss can substantially hurt your running, not to mention health in general. Another thing that can unfortunately impact your mile time is recovering from an injury. It might take you some time to build back up to the mile time you had before if you take some time off due to an injury or something else in your life. Then we can push ourselves to reach them — and you might be thinking about how you can run a faster mile.

Then you can start thinking about ways that you can slowly improve and do a little more each workout so that you get stronger. New runners, and runners with paces in the range are, believe it or not, the most able to make huge improvements in time. The best thing you can do is run regularly. This will help your body get used to running.