2 mile run improvement

Tupac · Post by **Tupac** » June 22nd, 2007, 5:16 pm

For the DEPS who are still having trouble hitting the 1330 or better range on their run, try this. It has helped me improve tremendously my 2 mile run time in the past 2 months.

When you get to a point where you are able to fartlek ( interval run ) for 2 miles, try doing a 1 to 1 interval for time. Run fast for a period, then run at a medium pace, then back to fast etc. for the whole 2 miles. Starting out, run 2 minutes at a 7:30 min mile, then run a 6 minute mile pace for one minute. Repeat until 2 miles are up.

After 2 or 3 runs at this level, move your times up. Start at a 7:30 minute mile pace for 1 and a half minutes. After the minute and a half is up, speed up to a 6 minute mile pace or faster for 1 and a half minutes. Repeat this for the whole 2 miles. If you can do this, it will easily put you in the 13:30-14:00 minute 2 mile time on the APFT.
Continue to up the fast pace, and shorten the recovery pace as you improve. 13:00 minutes or faster is the goal for every Ranger.
The advantages to running like this are that you have a slower, resting pace to look forward too. Mentally you are refreshed enough to hammer it out for a minute and a half at a hard pace, then slow it down and catch your breath. Also, paying attention to the watch and your pace will take your mind off the distance, the heat and the pain. You will be more focused on just running.

Capellanus · Post by **Capellanus** » June 22nd, 2007, 7:29 pm

Good advice Ranger Timmy. These sound like 60/120s Sprint/jog respectively. I would encourage always running beyond 2 miles when trainning. Beginers should shoot for at least 3 miles. This prepares the body for a longer distance and when the APFT arrives your body will be able to breeze through the 2 mile run.

Correction, you should never breeze through the run when being tested. If one finishesh and is not exhusted then one cheated himself out of a higher score.

Tupac · Post by **Tupac** » June 23rd, 2007, 2:09 pm

you should never breeze through the run when being tested. If one finishesh and is not exhusted then one cheated himself out of a higher score.

Amen to that.

Mel · Post by **Mel** » June 28th, 2007, 7:01 pm

Ranger Timmy, that sounds like great advise. I'm going to test it out when my ankle heels. Here is a question though...Are we allowed to use watches or stopwatches during the APFT?

Rangerguru · Post by **Rangerguru** » June 28th, 2007, 9:30 pm

(OK, this is gonna require some math skills)The best way to accomplish this is to get your 2 mile run time and divide it by 8, now take that number and subtract 15% from it. for example if your 2 mile time is 14:00/8=1:45-15%=1.28 (or about 1:30) so, now find a track near you and run a quarter mile(which on most tracks is one lap) in that time and then double the time for your next quarter(3:00 in this example). Do this at least eight times in that session without cheating yourself at least once a week for a month, then retest yourself and adjust your times accordingly. To add to this, you need to alternate between slow long distance runs and fast short distance runs in order for your body to properly recover.