increasing running speed

debrag12

I'm joining the army reserves and need a run time of 14min for 1.5 mile. I can only do it in 16-17 min.

How do I improve my run times?

MeanderingMammal

I used to work in Army Recruiting, and looking at your profile the trade you want to go into is a nationally recruited capability. That means that you're going to have to be pretty self motivated to get fit enough to go in, and to stay fit enough once you are in.

You've got several things to think about with the assessment centre, the 2.4km run, the load carry, the powerbag lift and the team tasks that you'll do.

As far as the 2.4km run is concerned I'd normally recommend running longer, so getting up to 5K. That'll naturally give you more capacity to run faster for the shorter distance, but it'll also prepare you for TSC1 and TSC2 where most of the phys will be longer duration than the fitness test itself.

As far as the other aspects are concerned, get hold of the 100% Army Fit app, that'll guide you through some bodyweight training that'll help your upper body strength as well.

mbaker566

I can't give you any army run suggestions but I can say to run faster it is generally recommended to run farther (maybe with hills)

lporter229

+1 for running further. Also, don't try to run as fast as you can every time out. Do mostly slow, steady runs then maybe once per week test yourself with a faster "tempo" run or some intervals. I am not sure about your running background or how far you currently run. Normally, I would suggest saving tempo runs and intervals for after you have built a solid aerobic base, but if your main focus is just to get a faster short run, they may be beneficial in this situation. But either way, working on building that base will help regardless.

bebeisfit

I think intervals will help. Be sure to do a proper warm up before any run, even if it's a slow job for 5 minutes., if you start out too fast, you end up burning out.

I'm also a fan of hills. But you have to mix it up. How long do you have til the time trials? Everyone is different, but I also found that if you mix in some strength and core work, running is easier.

BrianSharpe

Run consistently and run more (surprisingly most of your runs should be at a fairly slow / conversational pace just to build on your aerobic base), that alone will result in some speed gain. I'd also second the advice to x-train (strength / core) for overall fitness and injury resistance.

If you can get to the point where you're running 5km in 30 min or so (slightly faster than 10 min miles) running a 9;30 mile over half the distance becomes very doable...