Advice for speeding up 1.5 mile run time?

[hornedfrogs07]

Anybody? My friend in the Air Force e-mailed me a coupla days ago asking if I knew of any way to speed up his 1.5mile run time for a PT test or something. Any ideas?

 

[apex]

run faster

 

[apex]

if that doesnt work then im all out of ideas... sorry

 

[Dark_Marine_]

Ya just gotta run alot. When i was in cross country i was very slow ( and very outta shape). I ran a race and i ran 3 miles in 34 mins. By the end of the season, i had my 3 mile time down to 24 mins. That was 4 months of long distance running every day, and adding a few sprints at the end of your work out.

 

[Footballstar74]

I been to a speed school for 2 summers now. Believe it or not but if ur running long distance the best thing to do to get the best time is run with a good form. Tell him when he runs never to lean forward and to be very relaxed. That saves up a lot of energy. As far as training goes tell him to speed up a little everyday he runs the 1.5 mile for practice and he's pace will increase hope that helps

 

[kube]

a friend of mine in the marine corps used to run with a backpack, and in the backpack was one sand bag. he never went anywhere without his backpack and his run time improved drastically come PFT time. also his pullups went up bigtime.

 

[Cymric_Knight]

a friend of mine in the marine corps used to run with a backpack, and in the backpack was one sand bag. he never went anywhere without his backpack and his run time improved drastically come PFT time. also his pullups went up bigtime.

Good idea! I know that in the 5K runs that some of the firefighters run with full bunker gear and or a weighted vest.

 

[Flash_Gordon]

Faster runners also need upper body strenght for arm pumping action to keep the legs moving. But If your buddy is running on a track have him run the straights normally and then sprint the corners or vise versa at full speed. He's got to do some wind sprints for decent distances along with distance road work and keep working on his upper body strenght to be faster.

 

[frozenfoodman]

I also used to do the backpack thing when I was in the Marines. I also varied up my running.
Monday I would sprint short distances up to a total of 2 miles.
Wednesday I would run with a pack for 4 miles at a moderate pace.
Friday I would run the 3 mile PFT course as fast as possible.

My routine worked awesome. I cut nearly 4 minutes off my time in the period of about a year.

 

[hornedfrogs07]

I been to a speed school for 2 summers now. Believe it or not but if ur running long distance the best thing to do to get the best time is run with a good form. Tell him when he runs never to lean forward and to be very relaxed. That saves up a lot of energy. As far as training goes tell him to speed up a little everyday he runs the 1.5 mile for practice and he's pace will increase hope that helps

Running without leaning forward is impossible for this guy. We used to run cross country together in high school, and he ran leaned forward the entire time. When we ran, both of us posted up 18:30-19:00 times for the 3.1 mile course, and both of us could run 5:45 minute miles (he was actually a little faster) at 175lbs, so that's why I really don't understand why he needs to speed up his time, as I know he's gotten faster than that (down to about 170, almost no bodyfat after basic).

I'm going to have to tell him about that sandbag idea though, that's a good one.

 

[Eze]

PRACTICE!!!

If you want to be a better running, practice running.

 

[kube]

personally wind sprints followed by walking lunges are my all time favorite but i think the sandbag is more effective. also, i agree one hundred percent that variety is key to progress if youre running.

 

[BronzedGoddess]

I don't know how it is in the Air Force but when I was in the army we ran PT in ability groups. Tell him to run with the group with the faster runners. Nothing more motivating than a group of pissed off soldiers mad at you because you're slowing them down.

 

[Trevdog]

I've had to do 1.5 mile tests pretty recently. I can't offer much insight other than keep running. There really isn't another magical way to improve the time except to keep pushing and stay consistent.

For me it helped to take advil beforehand because I get a lot of pain from running.

Also, I tried cytomax (by cytosport) and liked it alot. It is supposed to improve your body's ability to utilize oxygen by 11%. I don't know if that is true, but even if it was merely the placebo effect, it worked.

 

[dude]

How long does he have before the run? What is his current program?