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PJFT Prep

General discussions on joining & training in the Royal Marines.
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PJFT Prep

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So about a month a go I started serious training ready for my PJFT (which is gonna be in about 2 or 3 months time). For about 4 weeks now I've been running 3 times a week (two 6 milers and a 3 miler) on the road, maintaining my karate once a week, doing circuits class at a gym once a week as well as weights etc. in the house and today I managed my 3 miles in 22 minutes 19 seconds, which I was beyond happy with! Just curious if anyone has any tips to make it easier (cos I found it quite hard to do!), should I change my training routine up a bit or is my current routine good to stick by? Cheers!
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ofens
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Re: PJFT Prep

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Try interval training, there are loads of ideas to play around with, one favourite of mine is
400m run (fast!), 1 minutes rest; repeat 10 times

You can improve your speed by on normal runs by doing speed work like this.
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Re: PJFT Prep

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Sounds good, thank you! I'll give that a go tomorrow I think!
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Re: PJFT Prep

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Let us know how you get on, with running time progress and also your PJFT when you do it 8)
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Re: PJFT Prep

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ofens wrote:Let us know how you get on, with running time progress and also your PJFT when you do it 8)
Will do mate! Today I got 3 miles on the road in 21:53 so I'm starting to feel confident!
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Re: PJFT Prep

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Got two things here for you mate:
1. NOTHING will make these runs feel easier- Even when you're a trained rank you will be hanging out on runs because if you aren't then you're not working hard enough, but you will be running a lot faster. I dread doing 1.5 mile best efforts because its honking running under 6 min/miles for that distance, but its good phys!

2. In my opinion your training wrong for the PJFT. It isn't a 3 miler, its two 1.5 mile runs. The first run at a steady pace, then the second as fast as possible obviously (aiming to get around the 9 minute mark).


Ofens is right with his interval training, you need your runs to be hard and fast, which you cant do over longer distances/times. Hill sprints, football pitch sprints, sprints sprints sprints!

Do a practice PJFT: Have a heavy warm up (yip sprints), then jog 1.5 miles (have little or no rest) then do the return best effort, and after that smash more sprints. record yourself and try and better your time. your never going to get tested for a 3 mile run time, so trust me when I say at the start its all about your cardio! Endurance will come with time.

Good luck though mate let us know how your getting on, any other quezzies fire away im on leave and bored! haha
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Re: PJFT Prep

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Thanks for the advice, since posting this I've actually changed what I'm doing, I'm now doing one 6 mile run on the roads, 2 PJFT mocks (as I've now joined a gym I also swim after them), a hill sprints session as well as circuits and karate. Do you think this is a better plan of action for me?
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Re: PJFT Prep

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Yeah that does sound better, what sort of 6 miler are you doing? (ie best effort, jog, intervals?).. Because I would suggest making that either a fartlek or interval run.

Even map out the mile points on it and jog the first mile then run the next (aiming for a 6 minute mile).. And repeat that 3 times if you know what I mean? Thats what I done before my PJFT.

Also after one of your mock PJFTS just do a sprint sesh on the treadmill as well, try putting the inline up and doing anything from 200 to 800 meter sprints, just to increase your lactic threshold and overall CV.. You'll notice a difference next mock you do. Really thrash yourself on that treadmill mate!

What sort of times are you hitting now?
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Re: PJFT Prep

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Cheers for the advice. On the road I can hit the targets, on the treadmill I can do the first mile and a half fine, the second one about 11 minutes last time I did one!
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