Set a new PR for the mile today: 6:45.

The following chart shows my speed progress along my favorite 1 mile route. The y-axis is pace in minutes per mile, and it’s oriented so that up means lower minutes per mile (so faster pace). The x-axis just counts runs so far, so the actual distance between points doesn’t reflect the time between runs.

You can see there isn’t much of a trend in the raw data points. Indeed, my previous best time (on this course) was a 7 minute mile one month ago. But perhaps the moving average overlaid by Strava is a better, “filtered” indication of my underlying ability.

What were things that happened differently this time (not all may matter, of course?)

• Caffeine
• Using my asthma inhaler, two pumps (more on this later)
• Waiting 45 minutes to wake up before going for a run (doing household tasks and email during that time)
• Running fast enough that my half mile time was above PR pace, so I felt motivated to set a record when running back home
• Cold weather — it was 55º and raining. My hands could barely type when coming back in.
• Sufficient sleep, but not too much (perhaps 9 hours?)
• No workout the previous day

One thing that didn’t seem to matter, this time or the last PR I set, was having breakfast. I generally find that eating a lot the night before is important for good running, but I had a fairly empty stomach in this case. Maybe the mile distance doesn’t really require that much built up energy (glycogen?).