1.5 miles in 9 minutes

Waestrel

I had a similar thread to this in the fitness forum, but i was told to repost here.

basically, a fitness test i may be taking in the next 6 months will require me to run 1.5 miles in under 10 and a half minutes. So i have set myself a goal of 9 minutes to be safe. Im told its not impossible to achieve, any ideas on training regimes i could employ to reach this goal. My current time for 1.5 miles is 10 minutes 27 seconds, so lots of room for improvement.

Cheers

village runner

Waestrel wrote: »

I had a similar thread to this in the fitness forum, but i was told to repost here.

basically, a fitness test i may be taking in the next 6 months will require me to run 1.5 miles in under 10 and a half minutes. So i have set myself a goal of 9 minutes to be safe. Im told its not impossible to achieve, any ideas on training regimes i could employ to reach this goal. My time for 1.5 miles is 10 minutes 27 seconds, so lots of room for improvement.

Cheers

What would you do 1.5 miles in now ?
What milage are you running ? Male female background ??

Waestrel

Sorry for lack of info, male 26. I am not doing any real running training at the moment, some "jogging" a few times a week for 3 - 5 km would be about all.

Krusty_Clown

You're talking about shifting up from 7 min/mile pace to 6 min/mile pace for 1.5 miles, which is very achievable in 6 months, particularly if you're not really doing any running at the moment, and can complete it in 10:27.

I would suggest doing some back to back training programs, which will basically increase your mileage and provide you with some speed-work sessions 9and potentially teach you about correct pacing). Not as ideal as following a prescribed middle-distance program, but it will certainly get you heading in the right direction (unless someone wants to chime up with some middle distance training advice). Have a look at HalHigdon's 5k or 10k programs. If you complete these successfully, consider looking at some more advanced programs for the same distances. Run the distance very couple of weeks to monitor your progress.

menoscemo

Waestrel wrote: »

Sorry for lack of info, male 26. I am not doing any real running training at the moment, some "jogging" a few times a week for 3 - 5 km would be about all.

Sorry for getting you to move this over here, but basically it is very simple. You are hardly running at the moment. Up your weekly mileage and your times will come down dramatically.

iceage

Get your finger out. start running.

BeepBeep67

Agree with most of what is being said, you will need a base, so get out running more often at a nice relaxed pace, you are already running 3-5k a few times a week, try and run 5k 3 times per and at the weekend do another longer run which you will increase by 0.5 to 1k every 3 weeks before taking an easy week. So let's say next week you run 3 x 5k, plus 1 x 6k. Don't worry about running too fast at this stage, but seeing as you can run 10:27 for 1.5 miles, you could make one of your mid week runs a little faster, like 2k jog, 1k faster, 2k jog, overtime increase this mid week run also by increasing the faster component (not eye balls out - just increase from you normal 'easy' pace).
After 8 weeks you could add in some specific speed work, which would involve running at or faster than your 6min per mile target pace, but broken down into smaller distances (5 x 600, 8 x 400, 12 x 200 - or even a mixture of these) and initially take an equi-time recovery as you become fitter you can add more reps or shorten the recovery.
Good luck with the training and let us know how you get on - but like the others say at the moment you'll get your biggest improvement from more miles, but increase gradually and take a recovery week every 4, where you step back by 25% of your weekly mileage.