Jas1029 said:
Any advice for getting your run down to the fastest speed? I am going for the 8:30 but am stuck at around 9:30-40, and I run daily 40-45 min, and take the run test every three days or so.
Also if anyone has advice for getting pushups and situps up as well, I have about two months to go at the most to get ready and here are my current stats:
SU: 90
PU: 67
run: ~9:40
Running for 40-45 minutes isn't going to do it. It's a great way to loose weight and kind of gradually get into better shape, but it won't make you a faster runner.
The only way to make yourself a faster runner is to push yourself, and this can be done in a few ways.
One of the most effective ways to do it by yourself is to do "fartlich" runs. You need not run for 45 minutes, more like 20 minues with this type of run. You jog a few hundred feet at a relatively slow pace, and then SPRINT a few hundred more feet. You should be sprinting at least 200-400 feet, and then recover over the next 200-400 feet at a slow pace, slow enough that it allows you to recover and do the sprint again. Repeat this for the entire run, but watch yourself because obviously if you exert yourself too much on the sprint, you might not be able to recover fully before the next one, so you have to do it smart, do distances and paces that allow you to recover. If you "push" yourself real hard during one of the sprints and you start feeling like you were not able to recover on your "recovery" jog, then do a little longer recovery, it's better than stopping or hurting yourself by doing the same thing. It will definitely make you a faster runner.
Another way (that works good with the above too) is to run with at least one partner, that way you can push yourselves. I know from running, biking, and a bunch of other excersises that it is EXTREMELY hard to push yourself when it is just you, even when you *think* you are pushing yourself, it is simply difficult to bring out your peak performance (which will make you better). When you run with someone else, it becomes natural for one runner to push out in front and try and make the other try harder, you can do it for a while if you are above the level of the other runner, but just having someone else there makes a HUGE difference.
The other way is to TRAIN FOR THE EXCERSISE YOU'LL BE DOING! Some of the best ways to train for a PT test is to train to those specific excersises and condition your body to them. For pushups I do (resisted with weight on my back) pushups. For crunches I do (resisted by straddling a weight with my arms) crunches. When I do these I am not "taking my time" and "pacing" myself, I'm doing as many as I can at once to get my muscles to fail and build up stronger the next time, and I do them in sets, or if I am on a "monitoring" day I do them just like the test. The more of these that I can do, the better, because except for the weight, they are exactly the same thing I'd be doing on a PT test. It does me no good to do a pushup, wait a few seconds, and do another, then wait a few seconds, and do another. That is not the excersise, the excersise is being able to do as many pushups as possible in 2 minutes. Resistance in weights during the two excersises (pushups/situps) allows me to improve the scores.
I know that you said you are doing the 1.5 every few days to monitor yourself, but I simply feel that you may be wasting your time with the 45 minute runs, just because it is very hard psychologically to push yourself to become faster when you are running by yourself. You can run for 45 minutes and improve yourself, but not without pushing yourself. I can't stress enough how hard it is to do this on your own, that's why there's such a big market for personal trainers and coaches out there in the sports world.
Variety is also key, I said that training for the excersise is important, and it is, but you can vary it a bit as well. Run the 1.5 on some days, to monitor your progress, then run a 3+ mile "fartlich" run, then perhaps do something else with a buddy. I'm a prior Army NCO and I routinely gave PT to my platoon and battery. There are no magical shortcuts, but there's also a ton of other stuff out there that will just waste your time as far as the PT test.
Lastly, the score you are going for is pretty damn fast, first mile around 5:30, and second one at around a 6 minute pace. I've seen guys train for a long time and never get down much below 6 minutes, when you start getting guys down into the 5s you start to seperate the "natural" runners from the guys that may never get down quite that fast. I know some people may disagree here, but I just don't feel everyone is capable of 5:30 mile paces, I led the "fast" running groups in morning PT and it was simply amazing how fast we pushed ourselves and ran, but it wasn't something that ever seemed to change. We had a number of "fast" runners, and we had the "medium" and "slow" groups as well. I NEVER saw anyone move up to my fast group unfortunatly, and we'd run at ~6 minute mile paces, sometimes faster. The whole point of having groups was to have people eventually "move up", but it never seemed to work that way. Physiology comes into play, and while i was only within about 15 seconds of maxing my 2-mile run time, there were guys from the maint. section that smoked like crazy and ran blazingly fast, for no apparent reason. I am not saying it is impossible, nor am I saying you shouldn't strive for it, but I've known a lot of people that have put in a lot of work running, and never approached 5:30 as a mile time, 6 minutes maybe, but it's quite a pace to get down that far, and again, SPRINTING and PUSHING yourself is what's going to make the difference and get you closer. 40 minute runs when you are looking for peak performance over a few minutes is not going to get you much closer to your goal IMO. Again, don't cut out 40-45 minute runs from your regimen, but include sprints, fartlichs, running with a buddy, training to the excersise, etc. Hope this helps and provides some insight.
