1. Know the distance. A mile is 1609m. You’ll run 4 laps of the track (plus that extra 9m).
  2. Start with a pre-race warmup. Do a few running drills and paced sprints to get your heart rate up. Mentally go through the race in your head. Know what times you want to have at each lap.
  3. Run the first two laps at a comfortable pace. Don’t spend all of your energy on this lap.
  4. Increase the speed for Lap 3. Mentally and physically, this is the toughest lap for most people. Make a conscious effort to keep pace on this lap or else you will fall behind. Remember, your next lap is the one that counts!
  5. Kick it hard on Lap 4. This is it. You’re almost there. That’s what you need to be telling yourself at this point. You probably slowed down on your previous lap, so you need to really strut your stuff on this one and mentally push it to get to that time.