Can you run 1.5 miles in 15 minutes? I need advice

[davester]

Well, last year I ran our lab's annual 1.9 mile very hilly footrace in 18 minutes, so yes, I can still run 1.5 miles in 15 minutes at my ripe old age. I don't run much these days (except on the soccer field) due to knee issues, but I stay in shape by riding my bike about 100 miles a week.

I will definitely echo the advice of those above...get good shoes then build up slowly, otherwise you will get injured and then need to recover, rinse, repeat.

[michaelb]

I don't like to run and don't run and so don't have any specific insight into the running part.

But 15 minutes of anything is long enough to be hard, without being actually long, so this is the type of event where you would go very hard, at the very limit of your ability, and then collapse. You would likely hit your peak HR during this event.

My guess is that you would want to approach this from both sides of the equation:

Run your 1/4 miles at race pace. x8, with say 30 secs to 1 min rest in between. You want to develop the race specific adaptions to actually run that fast. Maybe one a week, call these "hard intervals".

Then on our other days, run slower than race pace, so 3 minute laps or even 4 minute laps (I am thinking race pace is 2.5 min laps?), and push that out to farther distances. So before race day, I would like to see you running 3-5 miles at a much slower pace without stopping to give you the foundation to go fast on race day.

[freeradical]

That used to be the Air Force fitness test. I could do that once a year cold, with no training, despite being a smoker back then. Of course I was young...

[JoeH]

20-25 years ago I could walk that distance in about 22-23 minutes, occasionally a bit quicker. So it should be able to be run in the 15 minutes after working up to it.

Personally I was never good at running. But I could walk longer and faster than most people I knew.

[abevilac]

What Michael said about hard intervals. You can't suddenly run that distance that fast but you can start by doing interval training once a week. It's really important to run as fast as you can for a set distance and then recover by walking or slow jog then do it again. Best to do it on a track. I start off by walking briskly once around, then move to jog once around, then run full out for half the track, walk or jog the second half, then full out again and so on. If you time yourself you might find you can go faster each time. When you get to the point where your fast run is slower than the previous one, then it's time to stop for the day. Finish up with a slow jog/walk. The first time you do it you may only do 2 fast runs but you should be able to build up speed and distance over time. I'm still about a 9 min. miler myself.

[cbelt3]

I would do such a run if:
1- I was being chased by something scary but not terribly fast.
2- The run ended up at a trauma center suitable for fat old men recovering from running for their lives.

[Speedy]

billb has the best advice on increasing muscle and endurance for your specific goal.

Running a specific distance as opposed to walking the same distance burns a similar amount of calories except that running is a better conditioner. Your average high school track miler would experience the aches you are (plus shin splints) on their way to a slightly-sub 5:00 mile, albeit they race 1600 meters.

Walking uses different muscles, or at least muscles in a different way, than running. After you have been walking fast for a month for 1.5 miles, begin to jog like billb describes although you may find 200 meters to be a more achievable interval at first.

I live next to a country road with a small transmission line where we fast walk nearly half a mile to warm up, then we jog starting at every other pole, then walking at every other pole, the rest of the way for a total of nearly 2.9 miles. At first, about five years ago, we would jog between two poles on the way out and then jog between the same two poles on the way back. We gradually added more jogging, say two pole intervals on the way out and another two on the way back. Then we went to walking between three consecutive poles, then jogging between the next two poles the entire distance, now we are finally jogging every other pole. We always warm up fast walking a half mile. My wife is slow at jogging but if I go out alone I can fast walk that first half mile, then jog the rest of the distance in a bit over 30 minutes total time. I'm 67, 5' 9" and am lugging 200 pounds around at an elevation of 1000 feet. You are younger and aren't carrying that kind of weight but you are at a noticeably higher elevation. Adjust accordingly.

Your goal is achievable in six months but you may want to increase your training distance in a few months so that you walk 1.5 miles and jog 1.5 miles in intervals, one lap walking, one lap jogging for a total of 3 miles. Then have as your next goal jogging two consecutive laps, resuming one jog lap, one walk lap at the same time dropping one walk lap off the end so you are going one lap less than three miles. Continue this until you are able to add a second two consecutive lap interval and dropping a second walking lap, totaling 2.5 miles. Continue this type of exercise and distance change until you reach your goal of 1.5 miles in 15 minutes. Don't forget to stretch and walk a warmup lap or two to get your heart and respiratory rate up before you go 1.5 miles.

Interval training is the best type for what you want to achieve. Getting a training partner also helps keep you disciplined so if you can find a chubby neighbor whose wife will push him to join you is a good plan. Getting your wife to join you might be a better plan but you need to have the same goal. My wife supplies my needed discipline but she really isn't a runner. (I started running competitively in 7th grade cross country and track. I stopped competing at 32 when my knees forced me to retire. I was never anything but a mediocre runner, churning out a mile in 4:41 in high school and about 10 seconds faster in college.)

If your muscles get sore, then you are doing things right. You are tearing them down and they respond by building more muscle. We train every day that the weather permits but never more than six days a week to let our muscles rebuild. Don't run in the rain, it isn't worth it. Nor in the heat.

[bobinmurphy]

freeradical wrote:
That used to be the Air Force fitness test. I could do that once a year cold, with no training, despite being a smoker back then. Of course I was young...

Didn't know that and I know hiking and running aren't the same thing, but I can out hike my hiking companion who is 20 years younger then me AND in the USAF Reserve. In the desert or in the mountains with or without a pack. Guess I'm not in that bad a shape after all. LOL

[Filliam H. Muffman]

I agree with including intervals in your training. Be careful about running plans, I think most increase the distance too fast. I always have knee problems if I'm not walking at least 3 miles, 3x per week for six weeks before I try to go faster than 9 minutes per mile.

Couch to 5k implies people under 50 should be able to run 3.1 miles in 9 weeks. Couch to 5K, by Running for Beginners There is even an app (C25K). Running 1.5 miles in 15 minutes should be easy to do in 18 weeks if you don't have any injuries.

[michaelb]

Doing laps "on" and "off" for 6 laps or 8 laps is a good suggestion and maybe a good start. If all you wanted to do was to run 1.5 miles that is probably all you need to do; but you also want to hit a hard target in terms of time. So how hard this and how difficult this will be really does depend on how close to your race pace you are now and far in your overall level of performance that race pace is. Getting to run 1.5 continuously will be good no matter what, even if that takes 20 min. So the harder training suggestions are really related to getting that time down if you need to do that, not just completing the distance.

But whatever you do in terms of intervals, I think there is definite benefit and reasons to also do "long slow distance" too. so building yourself up to 2 miles, then 3 miles, then 4 or maybe 5; that is ok if it includes walking to start. These runs should be way slower than your race pace and can help you recover and build conditioning. [But for many of us, there is no slow running; it always hurts just more or less]