Two reasons for running fast

I have always wanted to run a mile under six minutes and I was able to. My quickest mile ever was recently recorded at 5:53.6.

I have wanted to reach those quick times and that has motivated me to run.

The other reason...well to better relate to athletes. It's a strange reason, but as someone who wants to work in college athletics, doing fitness gives me a small amount of insight into what an athlete does. I never competed at a high enough level to understand what it's like, so I am trying now while I am young enough to still do so. I'm no where near a student-athlete in terms of fitness for the record.

Coach Auriemma once talked about the reporters covering the women's team and talking about how none of them could run a mile. It's funny that so often sports reporters are just talking heads who have never trained.

I hate it when I listen to people talk about how "they could run faster than that, block better than that, shoot it better than that, lift more than that, hit it farther than that etc." The truth is the average person can't.

I think I am pushing myself hard in terms of fitness, yet I'm not close to hitting the times for the BIG EAST Tournament Track qualification times. I'd need to shave over 90 seconds from my mile time.

I've ran some of the tests and workouts that some women's soccer players go through and they are really difficult. They were hard for me despite the fact that I didn't do lifting or play soccer all week, like the players do, too.

Have you ever tried to run half a mile in under three minutes. Then take a break for a minute and do it again. Then run 400 meters in about 90 seconds. Take a minute break and repeat four times. See where I am going with this? This is hard fitness. Once when I was done I couldn't talk.

I have news for the average sports fan and critic. You can't do what these elite athletes do. Don't even joke about it. It's much harder than it looks. I knew that going into it, but thought I should tell others from experience now.