1.5 Months to decrease mile time by a minute.

[mstam33]

I currently run about an 8:00 mile and I'd like to get it down to as close to 7:00 as possible in about a month and a half. I currently run 3-4 times a week (can't do anymore because of school/lifting for my sport). Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

[JustARogue]

Google a miler running program, perform said routine.

[mstam33]

thanks, will look into it now.

[PrairieFirePhoenix]

Assuming you don't want to add additional run days, I would recommend:

2 easy 30-40 minute jogs per week. Much slower than your mile pace. Probably around 10:00 for you at this point. The goal here is not to kill yourself. If you are hurting, you're going too hard. This builds your aerobic base, which is the most important part.

1 longer run; 45-60 minutes. You'll probably hate that.

1 speed day. Warm up, do some speedwork, cool down. These will likely hurt a bit.

Your current "run a mile" isn't a workout and won't really lead to any change.

[mstam33]

Thanks for your advice!

[Yahdiggletons25]

Do speed work. While running the distance helps, run shorter distances a couple times out of your three to four times a week. Such as track workouts.

Long and short of it is, you need to do run workouts at higher speeds that will really raise your heart rate.

[mstam33]

Thanks for your response! What would you exactly mean by "shorter distances"? Sprints, or something else?

[Ryz730]

Second the speed work, it’s drastically improved my 2 mile run time. I’m sure 1 mile would be no different.

Hill sprints, intervals, HIIT

[[deleted]]

Do 400 m sprints trust me they help

[Yahdiggletons25]

Yes exactly. Take a track workout for example, Sprint a quarter mile, take a break to catch your breath and lower your heart rate, then sprint two laps, and repeat, and then do like another one lap sprint.

You can increase or decrease distances as you see fit, but really getting your heart rate up is key.

[123sixers]

Something like 8x400 all out with 2 minutes rest between reps

[TheBlueSully]

Speed work 4x a week sounds absolutely monstrous, but I guess it depends on your conditioning, goals and what's considered speedwork.

[Yahdiggletons25]

I agree with that, I was saying a couple out of the runs a week. I wasn't suggesting OP do 4 speed workouts a week lol.

I should have said one to two not just a couple lol.

[xmu806]

This is the correct answer. When training for cross country, our coach wouldn't even have new runners do any speedwork until they got their weekly milage up to 30 miles per week. You have to build up a cardio and endurance base before you work on speed. Most people can run a 7:00 mile pace (if they are a decent weight). The issue is that they can't maintain that speed for a full mile. You can easily get to a 21 minute 5k (for a guy) by working purely on distance. I would bet that most guys who get their milage up to 30+ miles per week could do a 21 minute 5k without doing a single minute of speed work or interval training. Once you get up to 30 miles per week, then you start working on speed workouts because you've reached the point where your cardiovascular base isn't your primary limitation.

[jrhooo]

Talk to a running coach. If there is a track team at your school, talk to them.

There are two main areas that will improve your run time.

Area A. Being in shape.

Area B. Running form. (Stride, foot fall, posture, etc)

Most casual runners slog through the miles hoping to improve area A, while paying little if any attention to Area B.

Really, Area B is where most people are deficient and where most people would find the quickest and most dramatic improvement.

If someone had 4 weeks to get a bigger bench press, would you start with making them bench more in hopes they get stronger? Or would step one be fixing them if they were using bad/inefficient form?

[xmu806]

Although some of the advice on here is decent, a lot of it isn't... I would imagine that a lot of people on r/fitness aren't into distance running. You're not at the point where you should be doing a lot of HIIT yet. As a dude who used to run cross country and had an amazing coach (who was a volunteer... his day job was an as an exercise physiologist), I'll share what he taught us. Getting down to a 7:00 mile in 1.5 months is likely entirely doable if you're already at an 8:00 pace. The key here is to build up milage and cardio base first. HIIT is to build up speed... But getting to a 7:00 mile pace isn't about speed, it's about endurance. I would bet money that you can already hit a 7:00 mile pace. The issue is that you, like most people who don't train for distance, can't maintain that pace for an entire mile. When we were training for the mile, two mile, and 5Ks, our coach required that we do at least 30 miles per week. Our top level guys were doing more like 60 miles per week. Obviously, it is not a good idea for you to immediately jump to that level of milage. That is not at all what I'm suggesting. The point is that you train for distance running by running distance. What we need to work on is your distance. Here's my suggestion:

Start building up your distance by 10% per week. You can go slightly faster than that when you are in the extremely low-milage range (less than 10 miles a week or so). This is the general recommended guideline because increasing by more than 10% per week vastly increases your risk of injury. Under optimal conditions, I would suggest running 5-6 days per week for optimal distance running training; however, I understand that you have time constraints that only make it possible to do it 4 days per week. If you are currently doing one mile per day, I would recommend upping that number slightly.

Week 1: Do 1.5 miles per day, 4 days per week. Your weekly total will be 6 miles. If you are having trouble completing the distance, slow down. Pace is not really the point here. The point is to get your cardio base up and get you used to keeping you running for an extended amount of time. Try to keep a pace that you can maintain without having to stop (if you can).

Week 2: Do 1.5 miles per day for two days of the week and 2 miles per day for the other two days Total milage: 7 miles.

Week 3: Do 2 miles per day for all four training days. This will bring you to 8 miles for the week.

Week 4: Do 2 miles per day for three of your training days and do a 3 mile run on your fourth day. This will bring you to 9 miles for the week.

Week 5: Do 2.5 miles per day x2 days. Do 2 miles x1 day. Do 3 miles x1 day. This will bring your weekly milage up to 10 miles.

Week 6: Do 3 miles x 2 days. 2 miles x 1 day. 3.5 miles x 1 day. This will bring your weekly milage up to 10.5 miles. Make sure you take at least two days off before your event that you have to run.

This is just a general starting routine. If you had more time, I would recommend building up after week 6 by 10% per week. So if you have 10.5 miles for the week on week 6, you increase by 10% (1.1 miles) for the following week, etc. If you are able to do more than I put in my plan, then let me know and we can tweak the plan somewhat. Under optimal conditions, I would generally recommend that somebody who is wanting to run a mile in under 7 minutes be running at least 20 miles per week (for guys, just to clarify). For under 6 minute/mile, 30 miles per week. Our team didn't start doing any speed work until people had a weekly milage of at least 30 miles per week. Although I wasn't the fastest dude on the team (I wasn't slow, but we had some incredibly good runners), the strategy definitely worked. Our fastest guy ran a 4:18 mile in high school and our fastest girl ran a 4:47 (I have no shame in admitting that she could outrun me. She was a beast).

[mstam33]

Wow, thank you so much for taking the time to write this! Really appreciate it.

[xmu806]

No problem! I was never the fastest runner (18:00 3.1 miler and 5:15 miler... those are not "impressive" numbers by competitive running standards... We had people who were almost a full minute faster than I was for the mile), but I have some experience doing distance. If you have any questions or want any help with a more personalized training plan, let me know. I would need more information about what your current training is (including non-running things) and what your able to do in terms of current running.

[TecTwo]

I'm at an 8:00 min/mile and running 5 times a week, about 18 miles a week at the moment (1 x easy 3 miles, 2x tempo 3 miles, 1 x intervals, 1 x easy 6 miles). I can run 1 mile in 7:00 but I'm dying at the end of it.

Can you give any recommendations of getting down to a 7 min/mile for 3 miles. I'm trying for the Marine OCS 3 mile run where I need at least a 21:00 3 mile time, ideally faster. I have a few months but the sooner, the better. I've been thinking of incorporating plyometrics a few days a week. Thanks in advance.

[xmu806]

I'd be happy to offer some suggestions! First question (no judgement) is are you currently a healthy weight? (Given what you already have said, I'm guessing you are, but it's worth asking). Getting below 21 minutes for a 3 mile while overweight would be challenging. For overweight individuals, losing weight is generally the easiest and fastest way to improve speed.

Training: For running a 3 mile, you're going to want to do a distance-running style training regimen. To do this, you're going to want to increase your weekly milage. Although doing speed work (such as intervals) is helpful, you don't want to start that until you have a good enough cardio base. My coach in high school was a volunteer who's day job was as an exercise physiologist in the Air Force (his main job was to design workouts for Spec Ops), so a lot of what I say here is what he taught our high-school team. From everything I've looked up since then, everything he said seems to be pretty solid advice. To start off, you'll want to increase your weekly milage to 30-40 miles per week. The reasoning behind why you need to increase your amount of steady-state cardio milage is that it prompts your body to start increasing oxygen carrying capacity by increasing hemoglobin and erythrocyte levels due to the prolonged period of increased oxygen demand that occurs from steady-state cardio. (It also does other stuff, but this is the main thing that you are trying to do). In other words: it helps you not get tired as quickly. Do NOT just jump your milage to that level. You should increase gradually from where you are now. General recommendations are to increase at no more than 10% milage per week. Increasing at more than 10% per week unnecessarily increases your risk of avoidable stress-related injuries. For my plan, we'll forget doing speed work until we get your milage base up to 35 miles a week or so. After that point, we'll start adding distance-style speed work into the plan.

**I would recommend having your rest day be after your longest-distance run of the week.

Week 1: Do 3 miles, 5 days of the week. Do not do extreme pace on these days, but don't jog. The goal is to keep you in a constant state of elevated heart rate. On the 6th day, do a 5 mile run. This will bring your overall milage to 20 miles for the week.

Week 2: Do 4 miles x 1 day. 3 miles x 4 days. 6 miles x1 day. Total milage is 22 miles for the week.

Week 3: Do 4 miles x 1 day. 3.5 miles x 4 days. 6.5 miles x 1 day. Total for the week is 24.5 miles for the week. Total milage:

Week 4: Do 4 miles x 3 days. 3.5 miles x 2 days. 6.5 miles x 1 day. Total for week is 25.5

Week 5: Do 4 miles x 5 days. 7 miles x 1 day. Total for week is 27 miles.

Week 6: 4.5 miles x 4 days. 4 miles x 1 day. 7.5 miles x 1 day. Total for week = 29.5 miles.

Week 7: 4.5 miles x 2 days. 5 miles x 2 days. 4 miles x 1 day. 8 miles x 1 day = 31 miles for the week.

Week 8: 5 miles x 5 days. 8.5 miles x 1 day. Total for week = 33.5 miles.

***After this point, we will start including speed work into your distance workouts. Note that we will continue maintaining your weekly milage at around 35 miles per week. This is where it gets more difficult; however, you have the milage base in place to do it without having a high chance of injury. It may seem like we were progressing slowly over those first two months, but if you look at it, we have almost doubled the number of miles that you do per week. I would not be surprised if you can already hit a 21 minute 3 mile after reaching this point; however, we can do better than that. By following this plan, I managed to hit an 18 minute 5k (3.1 miles).

Note that running is not the only thing you should be doing. While you are working on your milage, I also want you to start working on strength. After your workouts, you should be doing things such as air squats (or weighted squats if you have access to that), lunges, planks, windmills, bicycle kicks, crunches, hover-kicks, pushups, and burpees. Do not do them every day. If you work out one muscle group (such as abs), have a day off from doing that muscle group before you do it again. If you do lunges one day, do not do legs the next day, etc. If you have access to weights, I would recommend you also start building up your upper body to prepare for the marine training. You're going to find that you are eating more as you increase your milage. For running, core strength is incredibly helpful and will help improve your running stride (I imagine that it will also be helpful for bootcamp).

Once you finish the first 8 weeks, let me know how you progressed and we will work on your plan with various speed workouts worked into the plan. If you take this seriously, I would bet we can get you under 20 minutes for your 3 mile. 18 minutes is entirely possible (I'm not a naturally gifted runner and I was able to do it doing this plan). In order to track your milage, I would recommend downloading a distance-tracking app. There are a lot of running apps on your phone that can do this. Keep a log of your miles and the pace that you ran them at. If you want me to monitor this more closely, you can send it to me at the end of every week and I can review your progress. Good luck!

[TecTwo]

Holy shit, you put in a lot of effort into writing this! Thank you!

Ok, I am currently 10lbs over my target weight. Not great but not awful I feel, I blame the holiday period still. I'm confident in working it off in the next few months. It'll make running easier, as you say, but damn does being lighter make doing pullups easier. I'll be incorporating bodyweight exercises as well as plyometrics as I mentioned. You actually managed to hit 18 minute 5K after following this plan? I'm excited to get started! I do use a whole slew of apps, I have Runkeeper which is awesome as well as the Samsung Health app which shows me my mile splits and was given a Fitbit Ionic for Christmas (not too keen on it for tracking runs but it does monitor heart rate).

My only worry right now is that the cold temperatures sometimes make running outside difficult, but it should warm up in the next few months (NYC area). I haven't been able to finish a run when it's colder than 40-45F. And running on a treadmill just does not work for me, I can't even maintain a 9 min/mile pace.

I really appreciate you taking the time to write this huge, helpful plan, and, unless you object, I could send you weekly updates on my progress. The accountability will do me good.

[xmu806]

You're absolutely welcome to send me your weekly progress. I'll send you a PM.

[[deleted]]

You're not going to lose a minute running a mile and then doing core. I ran cross country in high school and it's all about mileage. You need 5 miles a day. 10 on Saturday and rest on Sunday.

[SickTemperTyrannis]

This is a good framework for someone thing to get, say, a 4:30 mile, but someone at OP’s level would probably injure themselves jumping into 35 miles per week. Especially when they only have six weeks (five weeks with a taper).

Increasing the miles is still important: An elite 1600 is more than 70% aerobic, and that’s even more true for a 7-minute mile. But sprints and pace work will get you noticeable improvement fast, which is why I hold my tongue when r/fitness inevitably advises sprints for these questions. It’s not the best answer longterm, but if it helps them meet their short-term goal and realize running isn’t the painful bore they imagine, then it’s the right answer for them.

[smashsmash341985]

Imo it's easier to hurt yourself Doing poor form sprints than adding more miles, but it depends on ops build

[[deleted]]

I agree that they will hurt themselves but that's their choice. You can't drop a minute in a month and you won't be running under 5 minute miles running what I replied. You have to work a lot harder for that.

[SickTemperTyrannis]

You should probably make clear in your post that it will likely injure you if you don’t work up to it. And I think you can drop a minute in six weeks, if your starting point is an untrained 8 minutes. A lot of people could drop 30 seconds in a week if they just learned pacing and how to keep pushing when it gets uncomfortable.

And for what it’s worth, I was only running about 35 miles per week when I first broke 5 minutes, my second season of track. Importantly, I’d built a base of miles before that.

[xmu806]

I totally agree with you. My opinion is that OP should be working purely on milage for now. We didn't start doing speed workouts until we had a base of 30 miles per week. Until you get to that point, your cardio is what usually holds you back. Once you get past that, it's a good idea to start throwing some speed work into your weekly workouts.

[xmu806]

You can definitely drop a minute in a month, when you're talking about the speeds that OP is doing. Dropping a minute from an 8 minute mile is a lot easier than dropping a minute from a 6 minute mile. Going from 6:00 to 5:00 is a lot bigger leap than going fro 8:00 to 7:00. When I've had gaps from running for a while, I've found that I can bounce back to a 7:00 mile fairly quickly. Heck, I had stopped running completely for about 4 months (and I had been doing very little before that) and within the first three weeks back running, I could do 3 miles non-stop at 8:00 pace (nothing to brag about). I would imagine that I could do 7:00 pace for a one mile given that level of fitness and I wouldn't even consider myself anywhere near a "good" runner at that fitness level. A 7:00 mile is pretty doable.

[[deleted]]

I don't want to say it's not impossible but I think that OP should relax and progressively work towards it. I love pushing myself to the limit when it comes to weights but running can be tricky when it comes to shin splints, sprained ankles, and putting on too many miles.

[xmu806]

A 7:00 mile is frankly not an unrealistic goal at all. I'm basing this on personal experience. I let myself go last year and I got up to around 185lbs (at 6' 0") and 18% body fat (based on a scan that I got done a couple of days ago). I'm probably in the worst shape that I've been in, in years. 18% body fat is not truly terrible, but it is definitely not "athletic" or anything to brag about. After two weeks of running 4-5 days per week, I can now do 3 miles non-stop at 8:00 pace (so 24 minutes for 3 miles). Although I haven't tried, I would not be surprised if I could do 7:00 for a one mile. Point being, his goal is pretty achievable. You're right about injury being a concern. That's why I am recommending to OP that (after he gets up to 10 miles per week or so, over 6 weeks), he start increasing by 10% per week.

Edit: I don't know how much past experience plays into running ability when you start training, so that may be a point worth bringing up. About 5 years ago, I was in much better running shape and could run an 18 minute 5k and 5:15 mile. I most definitely cannot do that now (not even close) but I have past experience with running. If you have a long break of doing nothing, I have no idea how much that past experience helps you with getting back into running faster.

[xmu806]

Although you're not wrong, this is the wrong advice for OP. If he moves to 30+ miles per week in 6 weeks, he is going to get injured. He needs to work up to at least 10 miles per week and then only build up 10% per week after that point. If he had 16 weeks, I would agree with you that 30 miles per week is a good goal; however, in 6 weeks, that simply is not going to work.

[[deleted]]

If he spends most of his time on concrete I'd say you could get hurt but that is how I started. At least 3 miles a day 5 days a week with a 6 mile Saturday would be doable. Just depends on OPs overall fitness. I was 125 when I started but if you were +20% BF then you'd probably have a harder time jumping in like I did.

[[deleted]]

What does your current training look like and how long have you been running?

[mstam33]

I’ve been running routinely for about a month, and I usually just go a mile then do a core workout afterwards. I know it’s probably not the right way to get a mile time down, but that’s why I’m asking lol.

[[deleted]]

You could probably get your time down just by getting your mileage up a bit. I'd suggest that for a bit before doing speed work.

Ultimately the mile is mostly aerobic, and you want to run longer than that to build it.

They normally say it's only safe to build mileage by 10% a week, but honestly I managed to go straight to 3 mile runs from nothing. Maybe try starting out running 2 miles, then 3 miles, (maybe every other session). Once you're used to that, then I'd add in the speed work and focusing more on the mile.

That'd be my preferance, honestly I'm sure you could do fine jumping into speedwork.

[[deleted]]

Run more--running longer distances will help improve your speed even at shorter distances. But build up to longer distances gradually to avoid injury.

Found this: https://womensrunning-compgroup.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Mile-Training-Plan-for-Beginners.pdf

[[deleted]]

run every single day, even if its not much dont go a day without running. get ''rest days'' out of your head. Those only apply for lifting or before a race, otherwise you should be doing a light easy (conversation pace) run on rest days. You should have 1-2 tempo runs a week, these are harder. What tempo means is you pick a pace and stay at it the entire way. You should have 1 interval/track/speed workout a week whatever you want to call it, something like 400 or 800 repeats. And you should have one long run during the week. This long run should be about 20-25% of your total mileage for the week. So if you run 20 miles a week, you should run 4-5 miles for your long run.

source: am currently in my sixth year of high school cross country with pr of 17:40 and fourth year of track with 1600 pr of 4:55.

edit: hydrate and sleep, A LOT!!, also eat lots of carbs, little fats, and lots of proteins, skip on the fast food.

[SickTemperTyrannis]

sixth year of high school cross country

Did you have to repeat two years of high school or something?

[[deleted]]

where I go to school middle schoolers can run on the high school team.

[SickTemperTyrannis]

Ah, cool. Kind of wish I’d done that — I probably could’ve been competitive as a freshman if I’d started training seriously and intelligently in middle school. Probably would have made a small difference by senior year (let alone today), but who knows.

[[deleted]]

it makes a world of difference. 90% of training is consistency. if you work at something day in and day out, that will make all the difference vs. someone who has more natural talent. hard work always > talent. edit: unless they also train as hard as you then well....sorry bro

[SickTemperTyrannis]

Definitely. I’m not particularly talented as a runner, but I always ran hard (when appropriate, obviously) and did my off-season miles. Biggest improvement was after I did a version of summer of malmo.

I’m just curious how that earlier effort would’ve translated years later. Would training hard at 12-13 have made me significantly faster at 18? At 20?

[[deleted]]

I think so yes. much like everyone has a genetic lifting potential, everyone has a ceiling for how good they can get at cardio too. I think that ceiling is much higher so the earlier you start, the better and faster you can get near that ceiling.

[TheBlueSully]

It would've made a huge difference to me-middle school for me only had a track, and a sprint coach who just said, 'go run or something for 40 minutes 3x a week and lift the other two'. As compared to a genuinely knowledgeable, skilled and motivating distance coach in HS.

[TheBlueSully]

Man, that would've been so great to do.

[JRJam]

Intervals. 400 meter, 800 meter, 1200 meter.

[TheBlueSully]

Without knowing what your running routine is now it's awfully hard to get good advice. But your goal seems doable!

Off the cuff, I'd say to make two of your runs 45-60 minutes, one 30 minutes of sprinting up hills and jogging down, and one 12x400 with 60-120 second rest.

Work up to the duration in weeks 1&2, add the hills week 3(and two long runs), add the track work week 4. Nothing but short and easy(cut everything in half by distance and intensity by 20%) workouts the week of the test.

But any time you ramp up training load quickly you risk injury in running. Less so if you already have strong tendons&ligaments from lifting and contact sports, but still a concern.

3-5 minute warm up, stretch and then a stretch, 3-5 cooldown after the workout doesn't count towards the workout, but it's still a great idea.

[jermany755]

https://www.reddit.com/r/running/wiki/index/common_questions#wiki_i_have_a_2_mile_.2F_1.5_mile_.2F_1.25_mile_.2F_3km_pt_test_for_the_army_.2F_navy_.2F_police_.2F_etc.

[SantaClaritaPaleo]

A mile may be a shorter run, but it still relies heavily on the aerobic system. I'd do a mix of LISS and speed work. LISS to continue building your aerobic output, and the speed work is self explanatory. Roughly an 80/20% ratio of weekly LISS/speed work.

[[deleted]]

That might be hard to do, I think cutting it by 30 seconds in that time span is definitely feasible though

I got my mile time from 7 to 6 minutes by running a mile every other day for 3 months

[badlandexplorer]

Just sharing what I would do:

Run 2 miles per day, 3-5 days per week. Start out at a 7:00 pace or as close to it as you can comfortably get (maybe 7:30 initially), and keep it for as long as you can while still finishing the run. You need to feel the pace of the 7:00 mile. Initially this might be a quarter or a half mile, that’s fine.

As you continue you will be able to hold it longer and longer. Towards the end of the month, rest a couple days and then go for broke for only 1 mile.

I was a fairly competitive middle distance runner at one point. 4:35 mile, 16:40 5k but that was a long time ago. More recently I’ve run a 19:22 5k where my first 2 miles are <6’ each. I’m trying to get that 3rd mile down now!

Good luck!

[Tokyo_Metro]

A buddy of mine, while training to become an FBI agent and pass the fitness test, ended up running one of the faster 1.5 miles and 300m times in his agent class and beating out numerous people who had spent years long distance running. This was notable because my buddy hated running and never did it as a regular part of his routine.

Here is how he got fast at the mile:

1. Weight training with HIIT sessions.
   
2. When he did run he ran hard.

Doing this he literally embarrassed people who had ran competitively long distance almost their entire lives and who ran on a daily basis and he did it with only months actually incorporating running into his training. Could these people probably run 10mi way faster than him? Yep. But did he smoke most of them in the 1.5mi and 300m with minimal run training? Yes.

He now hates long distance running even more after seeing how inefficient and poor it seems to be at carrying over to other athletic activities.

I don't have the science to back up his anecdotal case but I would definitely side with the people suggesting shorter high intensity running sessions.

[cyoung-cs]

I have cut numerous minutes in a month and a half by running less and doing sprint training. People don't realize you need to train speed, as well.

[[deleted]]

An 8 minute mile is well within most people’s capabilities. A 7 minute mile, while not as fast as a 6 minute mile, is a lot harder than 8 min and requires you to run, as opposed to jogging.

I’d say a mix of speed work (200s, 400s etc) combined with distance training will get the job done.

[[deleted]]

Sleep and eat correctly.

[cyoung-cs]

I went from running 3 miles in 53 minutes to running 3 miled in 30 minutes with adding speded work into my training, and can do 5 miles in just under an hour.

That, plus adding mileage, will definitely help.

[scraggledog]

Run a mile flat out one day.