When I was younger and in high school, I can remember running my first seven minute mile. I felt like I was in great shape back then and while it was hard, I knew there was room for improvement. I was determined to get there though.

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.

It wasn't until more recently that I started running again, challenging myself to beat my previous best times. While the 7 minute mile was a definite achievement for me, I was determined to set a new personal best by hitting a 6 minute mile instead.

After weeks of trying for 6 minutes flat out, I was unable to do it. I was fine with seven minutes, and even with six and a half, but I would always get stopped short on the third or fourth lap in my run, simply out of energy.

Here are a few tips I'm going to give you that eventually helped me to get to where I was.

First of all, not only do you want to master the art of the 1:30 lap (you'll need to run four of these to do the six minute mile), but you'll get there a lot more easily be mastering the art of the 1:15 lap. I know that it sounds really difficult, but if you're successfully able to run two laps at this pace, then running the full mile in six minutes will be a cake walk in comparison.

Believe me, it's not much fun running two laps at such a fast pace. If you're serious about breaking that six minute mark though, you'll want to do this in order to get there.

Next goal on my list is 5:30 and I'm sure I'll be achieving it.