If you are new to running and are thinking about adopting this activity as a form of exercise or a new hobby, you probably are wondering how to begin and how to track your progress.

One good approach to monitor how you are doing and whether you are improving is to track your mile rates. Although there is no answer to the questions what a good mile rate is and what the average mile rate is, tracking the time it takes you to run a mile and watching it improve is a great way to track your progress and stay motivated.

Even though there isn’t an exact answer to what the average or good time for running a mile is, there are some popular answers which most runners and experts will give.

How fast can the average person run a mile

According to a study performed by the Southwestern Medical School, the following mile rates and fitness levels were defined: a man in his 50’s who runs a mile for 8 or less minutes is considered to be at “high” fitness level, a man who runs it in 9 or less minutes is considered in “moderate” fitness level, and those who run a mile for 10 or more minutes are defined as having a “low” fitness level.

For women, under the same conditions, the high fitness level woman in her 50’s runs the mile for 9 or less minutes, those who run it for 10.30 minutes are with a moderate fitness level and those who take more than 12 minutes are at low fitness level.

According to running experts, a 10 minute rate is suitable for beginners. Of course, depending on your fitness level, age, gender, the weather and running conditions, this initial 10 minute rate may be a bit too much for you, so you can start at 12 or more until you get into better form and start improving your results. If you have any feet conditions, make sure you address them accordingly. For example if you have high arches, get flexible cushioned footwear; if you have flat feet, get motion control sneakers.

To start tracking your progress you need to record your benchmark mile. Do that by running committedly and yet not racing, because it will not be an accurate benchmark mile. Be careful not to be tempted to race the benchmark mile, especially if you are beginner because you may injure yourself!

As you become better and your time per mile rate improves you should be able to endure more miles and a faster pace, but you should still keep a track of your progress, because motivation is needed at all fitness levels!

How many steps in a mile running

If you are wondering how many steps it takes to run a mile, then you can use a fitness tracker or pedometer to track them. On average, about 1,672 steps are made during a 10 minute run by a man, and about 1,709 steps are taken by a woman for a 10 minute run. As the tempo increases, the number of steps decreases. On average, a man will make 1,064 steps during a 6 minute mile run, and a woman will make 1,213 steps for a mile run of 6 minutes.

Don’t worry too much if you don’t have perfectly arched feet, don’t forget there are many athletes with flat feet, who earned Olympic gold!