Physical Fitness

Alright so, the deal is I need help with some physical fitness requirement. Now youre probably asking why am I going to Crackberry first out of all places? Reason, I have faith in this community and if all else fails I can copy and paste this some place else if I need to hehe.

So I have to meet this 1.5 mile (2400 meters) requirement of 13.15-13.36 minutes in a week and a half. I have not ran in little over a month due to ill weather but the weather has been good as of late and I may just find a gym to go to for a short while. Prior to stopping I used to run, run, run, starting at a 12 minute mile and ending at around 8.30 minute mile (1600 meters) and it would stay at that regardless of how hard I try or how tired I may be at the end.

All in all, I need to shave a few seconds per lap (400 meters) as well as increase my endurance and stamina to last two more laps and stay within the allotted time. Any words of advice other than good luck and this is a bad place to start? :)

Originally Posted by CL8Baller

Alright so, the deal is I need help with some physical fitness requirement. Now youre probably asking why am I going to Crackberry first out of all places? Reason, I have faith in this community and if all else fails I can copy and paste this some place else if I need to hehe.

So I have to meet this 1.5 mile (2400 meters) requirement of 13.15-13.36 minutes in a week and a half. I have not ran in little over a month due to ill weather but the weather has been good as of late and I may just find a gym to go to for a short while. Prior to stopping I used to run, run, run, starting at a 12 minute mile and ending at around 8.30 minute mile (1600 meters) and it would stay at that regardless of how hard I try or how tired I may be at the end.

All in all, I need to shave a few seconds per lap (400 meters) as well as increase my endurance and stamina to last two more laps and stay within the allotted time. Any words of advice other than good luck and this is a bad place to start? :)

to work on Speed do Fartlek training
Q+A: How do I do fartlek? - General - Runner's World

For endurance, you need to add the miles, Push your self to do 2 miles,
Really the training for such a short run is going to be more about Speed work, as you get your speed work going you will find your endurance for those last 2 laps will already be there.

Problem is you only really have 10-12 days to get yourself up, you should also look at your diet, on the day of the event for that extra energy at the end of the race

Originally Posted by deRusett

to work on Speed do Fartlek training
Q+A: How do I do fartlek? - General - Runner's World

For endurance, you need to add the miles, Push your self to do 2 miles,
Really the training for such a short run is going to be more about Speed work, as you get your speed work going you will find your endurance for those last 2 laps will already be there.

Problem is you only really have 10-12 days to get yourself up, you should also look at your diet, on the day of the event for that extra energy at the end of the race

Yeah I figured with the time frame I have it would be tough.

So I read more into the fartleks, I like the sound of it and will start implementing it either today after a timed run to see where I am or tomorrow morning. Its a little ironic because I used to be a 400 meter sprinter and timed miles were actually going through "a place that apparently cannot be named" and back for me, now its not so bad. But another ironic thing is I cant sprint to save my life any more, I have that first big jump and my speed just plummets almost immediately.

I agree 10-12 days isn't that long to train. However, you should be able to reach that goal easily. If you are having trouble convincing yourself you can go faster (as you stated "regardless of how hard I try or how tired I may be at the end.") you might try running on a treadmill. This will force you to go the speed you want/need. Also don't just run the mile or mile and a half, run at least 3-5 miles a day. You aren't really doing yourself any good with just a mile unless you're running 5 to 10 of them at a sprint each time while letting your heart rate drop back down in between.

Thanks middbrew.

I have another (and maybe my last) question. Im a heavy coffee drinker about 3 cups a day, 1.5 average size mugs in the morning and another in the afternoon, in the X amount of time I have, should I reduce that?

Definitely reduce your coffee consumption. at least don't have that much before your run. The extra caffeine will over task your heart and you won't get that good of a workout. I too like a lot of coffee, but wait until I"m done with the run.

If you need a little extra energy have a protein bar or even a chocolate bar.

Originally Posted by middbrew

I agree 10-12 days isn't that long to train. However, you should be able to reach that goal easily. If you are having trouble convincing yourself you can go faster (as you stated "regardless of how hard I try or how tired I may be at the end.") you might try running on a treadmill. This will force you to go the speed you want/need. Also don't just run the mile or mile and a half, run at least 3-5 miles a day. You aren't really doing yourself any good with just a mile unless you're running 5 to 10 of them at a sprint each time while letting your heart rate drop back down in between.

I'm sorry, but thread mill running during "on season" can only help long term endurance, it wont help improve speed work unless you have a really long treadmill and you are working on stride lengthening,
Mind you after 1500m some say Stride lengthening no longer is a goal, as shorter faster strides of distance running can result in better performance.. but that's an entirely different topic.

Treadmill running trains your cardio, it does not support muscle training for the actual run, you need no explosiveness in your stride to run on a treadmill, and thus you don't increase your propulsion with foot to pavement,
if you had a 4-6 month time frame Cardio work outs on the treadmill could be suggest because you can have better control of baseline, and result. but that is all.

Originally Posted by CL8Baller

Thanks middbrew.

I have another (and maybe my last) question. Im a heavy coffee drinker about 3 cups a day, 1.5 average size mugs in the morning and another in the afternoon, in the X amount of time I have, should I reduce that?

This is a debated subject, Coffee is a diuretic, so you need to consume more other liquids if you are going to drink coffee. I don't consider 3 cups a day heavy at all, as by 10am on a work day I've already surpassed your 3 cups.
Caffeine has been studied and more recent studies indicate it can enhance athletic performance.
The Caffeinated Runner | Active.com

with the reduced time frame the shock to your system from removing coffee from your diet completely would be counter productive, I removed coffee from my diet in June, and I was irritable for the first week, it felt good when I accomplished my goal, and now I drink less, but it was hard.

Thanks for the correction.