Best way to reduce 1.5mile time!

Bobie8

Bobie8

Bobie8

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Hi folks

In need of some semi urgent advice. What would be the best way to get my 1.5 mile time down from 12mins to 10-10.5 mins? I have 5 days with day 6 being "race day".

Im not overweight and there is no reason I shouldnt be able to run at the required speeds other than 18 months of relative inactivity.

Any thoughts
 
Sprints I would have thought. Some HIIT training to get you used to running at an elevated heart rate, but leaving it til the last 5 days doesn't bode well!
 
Short sprints to get used to running at speed.

If you've been inactive for 18 months then you can expect this to kill you :p
 
Personally I run a 1.5mile every Monday to track progress and then every other day I run, I do 3miles at a pace I can sustain the entire duration and its definitely helped. I'm at 12:44.. last week it was 13:12, I think I knock about 30seconds off every week and I generally run 3-4 times a week (not including the 1.5mile run).

I've read sprinting up a steep hill and jogging down, repeatedly is one of the better things to do to improve your time. For me though its still building the stamina!
 
The base vs box argument.

There are two main approaches to training I find used by triathletes and runners training for a specific target. The first is that you exercise a great deal at a steady pace and this raises your base level of fitness allowing you to run quicker over shorter periods when you need to (as well as training you to run longer distances). The second is that you climb in the pain box and close the lid; high intensity over shorter distances.

Although the box appeals because it seems like you get results with less time invested and is probably more fun I've found results to be much better with the latter. I'd recommend you do one long run a week at a comfortable pace, aiming for 10km and longer when you can. Then add a medium length run (say up to 10km) but with some pyramided sprints (2min sprint with 2min recover, 1m30 sprint with 1m30 recover, etc) and then run your 1.5 miles once a week.

Adding hills and difficult terrain will also help.
 
Bobie8 said:
Hi folks

In need of some semi urgent advice. What would be the best way to get my 1.5 mile time down from 12mins to 10-10.5 mins? I have 5 days with day 6 being "race day".

Im not overweight and there is no reason I shouldnt be able to run at the required speeds other than 18 months of relative inactivity.

Any thoughts
Click to expand...

There aint no way, any legal way anyhow :)
 
firstborn said:
There aint no way, any legal way anyhow :)
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What he said ^^^^

If you are running in a group then you may find your time will come down a bit. Some people (like me) find it easier to run in a group. Could be a subconscious thing or just as simple as being less "bored".


Other than that, aint going to happen.
 
Little more info, when I said 18 months of relative inactivity that is in comparison to when I was at uni where I boxed and trained 4 times a week minimum.
Just now I do the odd run but Im no where near as fit as I was When I started timing my runs last week I started at 15 min's and I've dropped it to 12 since.
 
Robbie G said:
Take a short cut and hope no-one notices.
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do what the dude did in the marathon he got onto the bus and then got off 2 miles from the finish and came first.

But seriously you wont be able to reduce your time in 5 days.

I currently run 1.5 miles between 9 mins-10 mins though probably can go quicker if i went **** up.

What kind of race is it?

I ask as i know of very few 1.5 mile races most are 5k or 10k.

But here a few suggestions.
1:
1.5 mile is possible to sprint a lot of it, so with this in mind WARM UP PROPERLY before race, a good 10-15 mins of warmup then settle down with some Dynamic stretchs like leg swings, hurdle legs ect.

Doing this will prepare your body for intense exercise and loosen the muscles well before race, this is VITAL for any fast runs.

2:
Suggest you test this before race day on a test run.
Take a TEA SPOON (not table spoon!) of sodium bicarbonate to 250ml of water and mix take this 1 hour before the race....the taste is foul as hell, but its been proven to decrease the Latic Acid you get in the muscles .

But test this before the race as some people find it gives them the *****...:eek::D

3:Good night sleep before race and eat healthy fruit and veg ect.

other than that no real training aids can help, unless ofc you have a problem ie tired legs~?

hope this helps i got a cross country race on sunday this week, im ******** myself about it too, so dont feel alone;)
 
Do a couple of max effort 400m repeats every day until the the day before. From then, rest until the event. At this point running distances won't help much, and will just increase your chance of injury if you've been inactive for a while.

Slightly OT, it's interesting to see that some people can apparently sprint for 2 mins or "a lot of" 1.5 miles... Is that you, bionic man? :p
 
thought i'd post here instead of creating a new thread. what are the "rules" on the 8 minute mile landmark? I mean, if I run the first mile in 8 mins of my 3 mile run, does that mean i've done it? or do you have to keep consistently running 8 mile minutes for a 3 mile run for example?

I went for a run last night for the first time in over a year. I'm 6ft and 11st dead, pretty unfit, not trying to lose weight, just trying to get a bit fitter.

from endomondo:

Sport - Running
Start Time - Nov 15, 2011 5:31 PM
Distance - 1.03 miles
Duration - 9m:20s
Avg Speed -9:06 min/mi
Max Speed - 6:36 min/mi
Calories - 119 kcal
Altitude - 472 ft / 530 ft
Elevation - 34 ft ↑ / 0 ft ↓

so that's an 8 min 59 sec mile and that was with a good 30 second walk at about 6 mins in, fairly confident I can get it down to 8 mins but ONLY for the first mile. I need more stamina!
 
ok, but how many miles is the benchmark?

what if my duration is 1 mile? does that count?
 
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What benchmark is this? If you're just after your quickest 1 mile run as a personal best, then just any old mile will do. If you're on about an army enrollment test, it'll be the average of the entire distance.
 
i don't know what benchmark, i thought the 8 minute mile was a pretty well known target?

so what is the distance for the army run for example?
 
loltim said:
i don't know what benchmark, i thought the 8 minute mile was a pretty well known target?
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It may be well known but it's not one I've heard of specifically. It sounds like the sort of thing you would determine for yourself, if you want to run 8 minute mile pace then it's up to you whether it just counts for a specific mile or for all of them.

loltim said:
so what is the distance for the army run for example?
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1.5m/2.4km is the standard run for the army (which might be what Bobie8 is aiming for) and the varying times for different roles are also on the website.
 
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