If the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us anything, it’s to make the most of what we can control in order to feel better about the things we can’t. One thing within your control is your training program.

Join Washington DC-based Northeast Track Club for a tailored 8-week training program to get you to your best-ever mile. 

Each week will guide you through a combination of training styles to keep things interesting, and gradually build up your strength, speed and endurance to work towards smashing your mile goals.

Northeast Track Club’s experienced coaches, Mona, Ryan, Vonks and Carl will take you through the program. New sections of the program will be released every two weeks, including video coaching to keep you motivated and give you the support you need to reach your mile PR.

Let’s do this.

“Through it. Not to it.”

The Northeast Track Club motto encourages you to finish every workout with as much energy as you started with. 

“It’s the idea that what you get out of something reflects what you have put into it. If you only ever run to the line, that’s as far as you’ll ever go,” says Carl (one of the club’s founding members). “We encourage our runners to go beyond the line. Beyond the mile. Beyond the track. This is the mentality we want them to help us spread into their broader community, friendships, jobs and daily mentality.” 

Get to know the NETC.

The Better Your Mile training program

Weeks 1-2

Ready to get started? Here’s performance coach and Northeast Track Club’s #HYPEWMN, Mona to kick things off. She’ll talk you through finding your baseline, and introduce some easy and long runs. You’ll also start to explore interval training and fartleks – which not only build your physical endurance, but your mental stamina too. 

Psst: If any of these terms are a mystery to you, check out the glossary below to clear things up.

You’re in for a great 8 weeks! To make things easy, you can also download the full training plan here.      

Weeks 3-4

How are you getting on? Ready to step it up? Here’s Ryan to talk you through the next two weeks. You’ll be carrying on with your easy and long runs and interval workouts, as well as introducing some new challenges. You can look forward to some hill sprints to build your speed and stamina, and tempo runs to help you get comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Weeks 5-6

Can you feel yourself inching closer to that goal pace? As you start to feel more comfortable, it’s the perfect time to start thinking about your running form. Here’s Vonks from Northeast Track Club to run through how to work on your stride to improve your mechanics and benefit your overall mechanics.

Weeks 7-8

You’re so close! Here’s the Northeast Track Club to give you some final motivation. During these last two weeks, you’ll be honing in on your goal pace, along with some speed work and a stair workout for good measure. They'll also walk you through how to taper your training so your muscles are primed and ready for your best ever mile. 

We’d love to know how you’re getting on with the Better Your Mile challenge. Share the ups, the downs, the improvements you’re noticing, or any top tips for how to stick with it on your social channels. Just tag @on_running  #onrunning  #runonclouds  #betteryourmile

Glossary of training terms:

Fartlek: Fartleks work on speed and strength by alternating distances and paces during a continuous run. An example of a fartlek workout structure could be one minute running easy (40-50%) followed by one minute running hard (75-85%), repeated a certain amount of times or for a set number of minutes.

Tempo: Tempo is a hard but controlled pace (70-80%) that can be run as long intervals or a steady run of 1-10 miles. The purpose of a Tempo Run is to build mental and physical endurance and to become comfortable with being uncomfortable.

Hills: Hill workouts develop speed and form. It takes extra effort to run uphill so you do not need to run as fast as you would on a flat section (think 70-80% effort, not speed). While running uphill, remain in control of your breathing. Don't lean too far forward. A light lean with the chin leading the chest is enough. Uphills are a great way to develop speed and strength with minimal pounding on the legs.

Interval pace: Intervals are “hard” but not all-out running by any means (80-90%). Usually at a pace that you could maintain for about 10-15 minutes in a serious race.

Mile pace: The pace you would run if you were to run just one mile on that day (90-100% ).

Faster than mile pace: Our training intervals are almost always shorter than one mile. Boost your speed here and run these faster than your mile pace (90-100%), but again, not an all-out sprint.

Goal pace: Maybe this is not your mile pace today, but the goal mile pace you plan to run (i.e. If you are currently closer to an 8-minute mile and your goal is to run a 7:30 mile, your goal pace intervals would be at 7:30 pace). This will be run at our mile pace effort of ~90%.

Easy run: This should feel easy and you should be able to hold a conversation comfortably (40-60%).

Long run: Focus on time on your feet. Aside from the longer distance, this is much like the "easy run" and you should be able to hold a conversation comfortably (30-40%).