As long as you can run 1.5miles in about 10minutes you'll pass the PJFT and then you won't need to worry about the treadmill. Maybe you were just having a bad week when you were struggling before.
Mate iv had the same kind of thing, as a part time smoker i can tell you that not smoking will make a difference, but itll take some time for you to notice that. im not a doctor of course but you may have had some kind of bug which caused your lungs to hurt and for your performance to be impaired. 6.5 miles in 50 minutes is not bad at all, like the sign in the gym at ctc says, 'it will come'. stick with it
Yeah it is really wierd, I think monday got my head around running because after a rest day on tuesday came in today and was running 5 mins at speed 13 without having to stop.
I think its down to the pyschological problem of telling myself to stop and I cant do it.
I found that if i take deeper longer breaths and dont breath asmuch I can keep myself from losing breath.
Anyway im going to work my way up. tomorow go for speed 16 for 5 mins, then onto 13 for 10, then speed 16 for 10. which should have my PJFT ready to run in the next couple weeks im guessing.
Could go on forever about all the little bollocks which can affect & help/hurt running, but since you can just search my name and 'running' on the forums, there's no point in repeating myself.
Two things I will say though:
Not everyone is the same. Thus ignore anyone saying that your progress or time is good/bad/ugly because it is better/worse/prettier than theirs.
Get off effing treadmills. If you can find a decent park, go there, and start running on real land (even roads are bad, particularly concrete slab pavements). This will:
a) lessen the strain on your legs and lessen the chance of overuse injury, b) be more interesting / enjoyable and keep you more engaged.
c) be tougher & more varied (especially with winter coming up, also try running over rough terrain like woods or unkept grassland) and prepare you better for the 3-miler and assault courses. Running anything approaching cross-country style terrain is twice as difficult as road/treadmill running, as you cannot switch off, it is hard to maintain a rhythm as you have to avoid rough ground or obstacles, and it tends to be colder, muddier, more slippery and more hilly than roads. Of course, if rough terrain is twice as difficult to train on, then you will find easier terrain twice as easy on tests.
d) be more Viking - namely, if you are used to sprinting round fields barefoot over acorn shells (painful) and nettles (irritating) in winter while it's raining, then you will have a serious edge over the bloke who has been running on safe treadmills in a nice warm gym while watching the bigscreen TV.
Remember though, be careful and wear the right shoes / kit, as a foot in a rabbit-hole, slipping up, or misjumping a log can mess you up real fast.
Sarastro wrote:Remember though, be careful and wear the right shoes / kit, as a foot in a rabbit-hole, slipping up, or misjumping a log can mess you up real fast.
Yep, treadmills may be boring but you're not likely to turn your ankle tripping in a rabbit hole. To be honest I don't know why people are so down on treadmills, they are a tool and if used effectively produce good results. Yes it's wrong to think that whatever speed you're ploughing along at on the tready will convert to the road but world class marathon runners have trained almost exclusively on treadmills and are elite athletes who probably know a thing or three about what is and isn't effective. In my opinion, running is like anything and variety is the key to success.
I think the mistake some people make is that they set the exact speed they need to run the 3 miler and just about hang on for long enough on the treadmill to run "3 miles" and then think that that means they can do the 3miler. Obviously that's just setting yourself up to fail. If you can run four miles on a treadmill at a modest 150-160(example) heartrate at 8.5mph then with effort you will find the actual 3miler very do-able. And all without pesky rabbit holes.
we were told on PRMC to stay WELL CLEAR of treadmills, when you run on them they actually aid your running, meaning your hamstrings do less work, this means the hamstrings will be weak and running on roads will be a shock come PRMC!
Also little things like being aware of your surroundings and being able to run in all weather. I realy really advise running in the outdoors!!!
You have fresh air outdoors as well. A nice time to get by yourself and think about life, the RM and things like that.
Apparently some treadmills can be set to randomly incline and increase the speed a little to simulate cross country (someone told me) but it sounds a bit weird.
