Help a Total Noob runner out please !

[sebaco2011]

Hey everyone , I have never been a long distance runner or mile runner even throughout high school and middle school I was always just a typical football sprinter with my dedication being mostly in the weight room.

Well times have changed and im going into the Air Force this coming end of November , my goal is to get the Warhawk Status which is the elite physical group for the Air Force.

In order to do this I need to improve my 1.5 mile time to 8 minutes 8 seconds or better
and my 2 mile to 13 and a half minutes or better. The pushups / pulls up / sit ups will be easy for me .

I pretty much never do cardio running wise unless its walking on the treadmill .

Is there any routines some of you long distance runners or mile runners would reccomend for me and what type of training ?? Ie: HIIT , or just general building up my endurance and running 20 miles a week and gradually increasing?

Also what type of weight lifting routine should I add / or change to my typical routine which im currently doing a 3 day a week Monday = Chest / shoulders tri / Wednesday= Back / Bis

Friday = Legs .... Saturday and Sunday are rest days ....

All help will be really appreciated and look forward to hearing from you all especially some of you damn good distance runners !

 

[KyleAP2222]

1.5 miles in 8 mins 8 seconds is alot tougher than 2 miles in 13.5 mins. If you can do that 1.5 mile time, youll definately be able to get the 2 mile one. But youll have to run a solid 5:30 mile and keep it for the other half mile, or like a 6:00 mile then sprint the other .5. But I'll tell you, you run with your arms and legs. So you could work them in the gym, but itd be better just to do hill traning and work on your stamina. and rather than just jogging, a sprint then job combo will give you much more endurance. Alot of running is in your mind to just push yourself to do more or go harder, buy everyday you should try to cut your time until you reach that goal.

 

[sebaco2011]

Yeah I totally agree, im just confused on how much cardio to do with a weight split , so far im thinking of just a 30 minute cardio session 5 days a week max . Started my old workout routine which is

Monday - Chest / triceps
Tuesday - Legs
Thursday - Shoulders and abs
Friday - Back and Biceps

Thinking 30 mins of jogging and some sprinting mixed with the jogging ... Monday/ , Thursday , Friday, Sat, and Sunday .

 

[oxymoron]

I do something like this.
I don't stick to it because i'm working a lot right now, but this schedule lets you get in some good mass for legs considering you'll get growth from hills also.
day 1 light run, upper body muscle group
day 2 hills or tempo run, upper body muscle group
day 3 upper body muscle group
day 4 long run, upper body muscle group
day 5 upper body muscle group
day 6 very light run, upper body muscle group followed by leg workout
day 7 rest

 

[Ezekiel]

1.5 miles in 8 mins 8 seconds is alot tougher than 2 miles in 13.5 mins. If you can do that 1.5 mile time, youll definately be able to get the 2 mile one. But youll have to run a solid 5:30 mile and keep it for the other half mile, or like a 6:00 mile then sprint the other .5. But I'll tell you, you run with your arms and legs. So you could work them in the gym, but itd be better just to do hill traning and work on your stamina. and rather than just jogging, a sprint then job combo will give you much more endurance. Alot of running is in your mind to just push yourself to do more or go harder, buy everyday you should try to cut your time until you reach that goal.

If you don't do a lot of cardio now can you even run that distance?

Those are fast times..I do triathlons and I thinks those times are fast..

If you have till November I would be running a min of three days a week... What is your Aerobic base like? I would do interval training w/ sprints and jogging.. Light run on off days, sprints 2-3 days a week. If you don't already have a heart monitor I would get one, and learn about heart rate training etc... Good Luck.

 

[Nativemuscle1]

I do something like this.
I don't stick to it because i'm working a lot right now, but this schedule lets you get in some good mass for legs considering you'll get growth from hills also.
day 1 light run, upper body muscle group
day 2 hills or tempo run, upper body muscle group
day 3 upper body muscle group
day 4 long run, upper body muscle group
day 5 upper body muscle group
day 6 very light run, upper body muscle group followed by leg workout
day 7 rest

When u say light run, do u mean short distance like 1/2 mile or 1.5 mile at a slower speed?

 

[stevesmi]

i hope 1.5 miles in 8 minutes was a misprint because i will be flat out honest with you. that is a very fast time and there is no way the air force requires that kind of speed unless you are some elite unit or something i don't know about. i am hoping you meant 8 minute pace for 1.5 miles???

anyway you will only build endurance by RUNNING. i know it sounds simple and it is. you need to grab some good fitting running shoes, your krill oil, and learn how to eat as a runner. this means lots of nutritious food and water. and not eating 2 hours ahead of your run so you do not get sick.

secondly i would only do HITT once a week or every 2 weeks. you can really overtrain and injure yourself with those. do a lot of long distance running.. 50-60 minute LSD (long, slow distance) keep a constant pace the whole time, you can use a track and stop watch or you can buy a GPS watch that will tell you your time.

i would run 4-5X per week. try and get in a lot of mileage but also some speed work too.

 

[sebaco2011]

Steve im talking about the Warhawk standard which is the ELITE GROUP of the Air Force in Basic Training , the time is actually 8 minutes 55 seconds for a 1.5 mile .

At the moment iv just been doing a mixture of running , some days ill do long duration to build endurance , some days iv been doing about 20 minutes of hard running , and other days HIIT , been building up to running 5 days a week . For the running shoes iv just been using regular nikes lol , dont want to get the good kind of running shoes since they give you a standard pair during basic which everyone has to wear.

And Ezekiel it doesn't take someone special to run that distance but it does take someone special to run it for that speed to achieve such a low time , im also staggering away from strength training and trying to do more circuit style / conditioning weight training with shorter durations of breaks definitely a challenge when your use to resting 2-4 minutes between seconds and switch it to 30 seconds .

Wish there was a cross fit gym around here or something though since iv heard that is EXCELLENT for conditioning , or if anyone knows a really good circuit trainining weight program that they used that would be greatly appreciated since im always looking to improve my endurance now.

 

[stevesmi]

okay that is a 6 minute pace and more realistic considering its an elite group.

you can do it but its gonna take a lot of training.. you can improve your speed very quickly running but getting down to a 6 minute mile gets harder when you have to keep that pace for an extra half mile. for example i went from a 28 minute 5K down to a 24 minute very quickly, then slowly got down to 22.. and then it was a war to get my 5K time under 21... i could do a mile in about 5:15, but going 3.1 miles my pace really slowed down to the high 6's.

i would abandon weight training and focus primarily on running ... crossfit will build your core, but it will not make you faster... i know, i know.. i will hear the blah blah blah from saying this but its the truth.. yeah if you never ran before crossfit will make you faster, but if you are trying to get to a 6 minute mile YOU HAVE to RUN if you want to get faster, thats the only way. a buddy of mine thought he would be cool and ran a 5K with me (he was one of those crossfit people).. well he kept up with me maybe for the first half mile then i looked back and he was walking. finished a full 2 minutes behind me which isn't bad but he did not have the endurance to keep up

do LSD (long slow distance) for 50 minutes and do a 12 minute sprint (NOT IN THE SAME DAY) .. alernate this strategy day to day. HITT is gonna lead to overtraining, it can end up leading to injuries, be aware of this.. and having crappy shoes you can develop major issues with your joints and ligaments/tendons in your legs.

 

[Ezekiel]

okay that is a 6 minute pace and more realistic considering its an elite group.

you can do it but its gonna take a lot of training.. you can improve your speed very quickly running but getting down to a 6 minute mile gets harder when you have to keep that pace for an extra half mile. for example i went from a 28 minute 5K down to a 24 minute very quickly, then slowly got down to 22.. and then it was a war to get my 5K time under 21... i could do a mile in about 5:15, but going 3.1 miles my pace really slowed down to the high 6's.

i would abandon weight training and focus primarily on running ... crossfit will build your core, but it will not make you faster... i know, i know.. i will hear the blah blah blah from saying this but its the truth.. yeah if you never ran before crossfit will make you faster, but if you are trying to get to a 6 minute mile YOU HAVE to RUN if you want to get faster, thats the only way. a buddy of mine thought he would be cool and ran a 5K with me (he was one of those crossfit people).. well he kept up with me maybe for the first half mile then i looked back and he was walking. finished a full 2 minutes behind me which isn't bad but he did not have the endurance to keep up

do LSD (long slow distance) for 50 minutes and do a 12 minute sprint (NOT IN THE SAME DAY) .. alernate this strategy day to day. HITT is gonna lead to overtraining, it can end up leading to injuries, be aware of this.. and having crappy shoes you can develop major issues with your joints and ligaments/tendons in your legs.

Sage advice there ^^

I run 5k in just under 19min.. and Steve is right.. To get in under 25min was work, but under 20min fells like a full time job! lol

I am a big proponent of heart rate training, aerobic bases, lactic thresholds etc, however you have to do this in NOv. right?

Good Luck to you and follow Steve's advice..