Sometimes I run a few miles and some times I do sprints on a track or hill. Any other ways to improve run times for LEO PT?
Some people say wind sprints help, but I don’t know exactly how they are done.
Thanks.
Wind Sprints are just adding in a short burst of higher intensity work to Steady state exercise, e.g a 15s sprint every minute.
However for improving time over (relatively) short distances I would look into 400m repeats. Assuming you are looking into a standard 1.5mile run, or ~6x400m.
Set your target time for the total run and divide by number of 400m repeats necessary. Here, for a 9 minute 1.5mile thats 9/6 = 90seconds.
Run 6x400m at at least that pace, taking as much rest as necessary to maintain speed but TIME THE REST! Reduce rest time each session until you are running the whole distance in your target time.
^Do this once or twice a week with one steady state run of slightly longer than your target distance, e.g 2-3 miles for a 1.5 mile test. The second session can be replaced with a session of shorter sprints instead.
Hope this makes some sort of sense, oh and make sure you have a decent pair of shoes to run in, comfort really helps.
I don’t know what LEO PT is, but I have to run a 2 mile for the Army’s APFT. For me, 30-60’s have always worked wonders bringing my time down. I start off with 10 per session, 2 or 3 times a week and work to 12 per session, and cut the rest time down to 45 seconds. I usually run a 12:20 or so. I’m not sure if this applies to what you’re talking about, but I hope it helps.
LEO = law enforcement. So he’ll probably be doing the POWER test, it’s a 1.5 mile run.
I would focus on hill sprints, prowler pushes, and testing out your time by running actual 1.5’s every now and then.
[quote]PB Andy wrote:
LEO = law enforcement. So he’ll probably be doing the POWER test, it’s a 1.5 mile run.
I would focus on hill sprints, prowler pushes, and testing out your time by running actual 1.5’s every now and then.[/quote]
Thanks Andy. Yeah, x2 on the hills. Forgot to mention that.
I honestly lost count of all the cadets and job applicants who flunked the 1.5 mile run because they did too much sprinting and overtrained. The key to passing the 1.5 is being able to run hard for an entire 1.5 miles and the best way to do that is have a rock solid aerobic base. If you really have to cram check out Stew Smith’s site as he as intense 6 week prep that focuses on long repeats and intervals.
I’m assuming you’re looking at a 1.5 mile run not the shorter distance ‘sprints’ like FBI’s 300m. You write “Sometimes I run a few miles and some times I do sprints on a track or hill”. OK, what’s that mean? How often? How far? How fast? What terrain? What time are you shooting for (i.e. passing patrol’s time but going for SWAT qual)? Need to know where you stand before the correct guidance can be given.
Following a program like ‘couch-to-5K’ or another 5K program on Cool Running or the ‘running man’ article on this site are nice programs but may not be appropriate given your current condition.
Prior distance runner here…
The absolute best way to increase the run time for a physical fitness test is to routinely run 2x the distance of the test, so for a 1.5 mile test, you’d improve your test score by running 3 miles during training. And I mean 3 miles hard. Very very close to your 1.5 mile pace.
For example, you don’t train for a 10k by only running 10k in practice, unless your goal is to merely stagger across the finish line before they close the race down, like most of the skinny-fat recreational runners you see doing that distance. I’m assuming you want the strongest finish time you can achieve, so routinely run 2x the distance at near your race pace.
Similarly, you won’t help your 1.5 pace (which for that short a course is likely to be assumed a very fast pace) by doing sprints and rarely running over 1.5 miles in practice.
I have done this for all test/race distances from the short 2-mile Army PT test while on active duty, to 5k, 10k, and close to that for half marathon distances (usually stopping at 18 miles during race prep). When I used to run marathons, however, I never did “double the race distance” for those… when marathon training (26.2 miles) I actually never ran over 20 miles during prep, to prevent pre-race fatigue. But the double-the-distance definitely works for short/fast races.
Now that I have switched to weightlifting, sprints are much better for conditioning; however, sprints aren’t going to do much for distances over 1 mile, IMHO. You need to maximize VO2 and condition your body for long, steady strides to have the best distance time you can achieve.