2 miles

Question
I am 30 years old and have recently started running again with some friends.  We meet up a few times a week to run 2 miles and I enjoy the activity, but would like to improve my time to something more respectable than 20-21 minutes.  I would be very happy with 8-minute miles and thrilled with 7-minute miles.  I have had several bad experiences with hard running in the military (namely throwing up afterwards) but that hasn't happened in about 2 years.  How can I improve my speed and get over my run-till-ya-puke-phobia?

Answer
My best bet is to aim for your 'race pace goal', or 8 minute mile pace, and run it on a track to time it precisely.  An 8 minute pace would be 30 seconds every 100m, or 2 minutes per lap.  See how long you can currently do this for, rest for the same time frame with some light walking as a recovery, then try to run at that pace again.  In due time, you'll be able to go longer on each 'time trial' at your goal of 8 minutes a mile.  This shouldn't get you to 'throw up' mode, since you'll stop once you can't obtain that goal pace.  That's the key: stopping & resting, not trying to push through something your body is limiting you from doing.  Remember, this isn't the military we're shooting for, its just an 8 minute mile pace.

I would advise doing this type of workout 1 to 2 times a week, with a few days in-between these workouts if you do it 2x/week.  You can use this as a supplement with your friendly runs.

I hope this helps you well,

Rick Karboviak
http://speeddialcoach.com