breaking a 7 minute mile?

Question
Hello,

I'm Evan and I'm 16. I want to run a mile in under 7 minutes, but I have extreme difficulty doing so - I tend to be short of breath and I don't know how to pace myself well enough and I don't do any sports at school. I can run it in 7:22, any idea on how I can bring it to, say 6:45 (I'm willing to train as much as necessary.)

Answer
Evan,

The best way to ensure that you are running at the ideal pace is to maintain even splits throughout the race.  If you're splits look something like this...1:30, 1:45, 1:55, 2:05...then you can run faster, no doubt.  You're goal should be to run each lap within 3 seconds of 1:45.  The first lap will feel slow, that's OK....it will get harder as you go.

As far as training, again, I would hit the track twice a week to concentrate on your 7-minute goal.  Other days can be easy running.

Workout would look something like this (after a good warmup):

4 x 400 in 1:45 with a 2-min recovery walk between repeats

This helps you get used to running at goal pace.  Over time, keep rep and time the same, but reduce your recovery time to 1 minute, then 30 seconds.  Once you can do this workout with 30 seconds recovery and hit each split in 1:45, you will be ready to run a 7-minute mile.

Good luck, Larry