How to Run Your Fastest Mile

The mile is a distance steeped in history. While many runners feel comfortable tackling it, those aiming to set a PR for the mile (1.609km) know that they are taking on a true physical and psychological challenge. Howard Calvert caught up with mile runner Adam Fogg to get his tips on breaking your PR at this legendary distance.

There’s something romantic about running the mile. Generated by a mix of its history, its purity, and its ubiquity (especially among Americans and Brits), it conjures images of Roger Bannister changing what is possible for a human to achieve when he broke the 4-minute barrier.

However, the actual reality of running the mile involves deep pain and suffering. But at the finish line, there’s no feeling quite like pushing your body to its limit for four-plus minutes.

Now that track season’s in full swing, you may be thinking of attempting to set, or break, your mile PB, especially as this year marks the 70th anniversary of Bannister making history in 1954. 

To help you achieve your fastest time, we asked British middle-distance athlete Adam Fogg for his tips on boosting your training and tactics to squeeze the most out of those 1.6 lung-crunching, lactic-spilling kilometers.

“The mile is the perfect distance, as everyone can understand it,” he says. “It takes plenty of speed, but it's also very aerobic. You've got to be fit and strong to run a fast mile.”

And he knows more than most — earlier this year, he set a new PB of 3:49.62 at the Millrose Games’ Wanamaker Mile in New York.

“It’s currently a deep event, with lots of strong competitors on a global scale. It’s such an entertaining event to watch.”

We asked him for his tips on improving your mile time, whatever level you’re at. But before we let Fogg dispense his wisdom, here’s Bannister’s sage advice on pacing the mile…

RELATED: How To Break Your 5K PR, With A Little Help From Strava

“Most people go too fast at the beginning of the race. The thing they want to do is not set off too fast at the start. After the half-mile, start moving up.” 

Consistency is key, especially if you’re new to running

“You need to have a certain level of base fitness before you even attempt to run a fast mile,” says Fogg. 

“The biggest thing is being consistent. Whether you can run two, three or four days a week — get into a routine and get out running at a conversational pace. Build up to an hour, then 90 minutes, then work back down towards faster sessions to target a mile. You’ve then got the engine to build off — a solid foundation for building your mile pace.” 

RELATED: Run Your Fastest Mile... On Two Weeks Training

Add hills

“Over the past few years, I’ve taken a more strength-based approach to training, which leans into that aerobic engine,” says Fogg. He believes this has been key to incrementally improving his mile PB.

He’s achieved this by building regular hill workouts into his training, which has translated to faster speed on the track. 

Fogg recommends sessions including 12 x one-minute hill efforts, jogging back down for recovery; or three sets of 3 x 600m and 2 x 400m uphill, with a 200m recovery jog between reps and a full jog back down the hill between sets.

Push your threshold

“This is hard to specify, because people run at all sorts of different levels, but we do a lot of double threshold days, where we run 10 by 1k in the morning and then 10 by 1k in the evening as well once a week.”

This is a lot for the average athlete to take on, so it’s all about adapting it to your own time and needs. “A good threshold workout might be something like 4 by one mile at half-marathon pace, with 90sec recovery after each effort.”

RELATED: How To Run The Perfect Race

Tune-up four days before your race

Around four days before mile races, Adam does a workout to tune himself up before the race. 

“It’s usually 4 x 800m at threshold pace — 10k to half-marathon effort — with 90secs’ rest between reps, then two sets of 2 x 300 in spikes, with 45secs’ rest between reps, and 3mins between the sets.

“It’s a good session as you’re running quicker, getting the legs turning ready to run a fast mile in a few days.”

Prepare to hurt

When race day arrives, it’s time to tune up your mind. “There’s no two ways about it,” says Fogg. “You’ll be lining up at the start knowing you’re about to hurt a lot, whether it’s for four, fix, six minutes or whatever your time. You know you will be giving it your all for four laps.”

Adam’s advice is to approach it with a strong, positive mindset. “Go into it knowing you’re capable, you’ve done the training and you’re ready to run one hard mile.”

During his PB run at the Millrose Games in February, Adam says he found that with 400m to go, he’d broken away from the rest of the pack and just zoned out, focusing on the runner ahead of him. 

RELATED: 5 Tips to Help You Progress From a 25-Minute 5K to a Sub-15 Minute

“If they’re running at a pace that’s good for you, you can lock in on them on watch for any gaps opening up ahead.” Then, with 200m to go, it’s all-out sprinting.

“The thing with the mile is that, from very early on, it feels like you're running as fast as you can. It's that perfect balance of almost feeling like a sprint, but you can hang on for a few minutes.

“If you do all these things, and stay focused for the whole distance, you’ll feel happy with your result.”