I can remember the day very clearly, even though it was over a decade ago. I was in gym class, and we had just run a mile. I had a goal of seven minutes, and I had finally achieved it. I was thrilled, to say the least, and I was excited to continue to improve.

Later that year, I ended up injuring my knee and I was never the same runner after that. I gave up on the sport pretty much thereafter, even though I was fully recovered within a year or so.

After a twelve year hiatus, I decided to give it another go. There was no good reason not to run anymore, and I've been trying to lose some weight. Anyway, seven minutes happened pretty easily for me. I guess I'm stronger now, and I wanted to try for six minutes from there.

This was much harder than I thought it would be. I tried relentlessly to beat the six minute mark but I couldn't pull through. It was just too tiring and I'd run out of wind before I could finish.

I was determined to figure out a way to make it happen and I'm happy to say that I did. This is all because of something I did that it wouldn't have been possible without.

I decided to gradually work my way toward six miles, but I wanted it to feel easy in comparison to something else I was doing. I went with shorter runs at a faster pace to get to the level I needed to be at, running half miles in 150 seconds. This was a five minute mile pace, and running at a six minute pace was easy once I tried it out.

You'll need to be prepared to sweat, and be prepared to pant. The half mile was probably harder than the full mile at six was for me. Still, I accomplished my goal and it felt absolutely great.

Am I ready to stop at this point? Absolutely not, I'm shooting to shave another minute off of my time.