Hello from Bassett, Virginia

Hello, my name is Jon Turner, I am 17 years old and haven't been in any past competitions or marathons for running. To me speed isn't nearly as important as endurance. I am not part of any teams other than JROTC in highschool. Before highschool, and JROTC, I had never run a mile in my life, pretty sad huh? Well, when I first started JROTC in highschool, I couldn't complete a mile run on the track without stopping. Now 3 years later of off and on running in JROTC and PE in highschool has gotten me into way better shape than I use to be. Even though I never run during summers, I am going to start doing so to aspire to be a better more enthusiastic runner. Here is about how my miles have improved.

In JROTC, we have a thing called the Cadet Challenge, where at the beginning and end of each semester, we compete in many events, the main of which being the 1 mile run. Here is the beginning and end times I have gotten since I started. We have two semesters a year as many of you know, meaning 4 cadet challenges per year, yet, I am only posting the beginning of year and end of the year times.

Freshman Year
Beginning - Couldn't complete mile
End - About 12 minutes

Sophomore Year
Beginning - About 10-12 Minutes
End - About 8 minutes

Junior Year (This year, of which I improved my mile time 55 seconds within 4 months)
Beginning - 7:39
End - 6:44 (Ran Today)

If any of you have suggestions to get my mile time down to below a 6:00 this summer and next year, please feel free, please include anything along the lines of, best time to run, what increments of running, how often, inclined or flat, and anything else that could help me.

Thank You,

Jon Turner