Trying to get myself fit for a Army Application (Nurse) now due to some significant Orthopaedic Injuries i have set myself 6/12 months to get fit. My Fracture and knee injury was due to a RTA and my Achillies problem was due to a bone spur in my heel, which is going to be removed next week.

So when i’m fit to resume activities i want to start running and need to be able to do 1.5 miles in 11 minutes or less. When i was 21 i could do 1.5 miles in under 10 mins with ease. Since then i started smoking and quit last year, led a lazy lifestyle bar cycling. I do not drink and I’m 5ft 11 and weigh 11 stone so im not a fatty.

So any tips and is my goal acheivable?

I am going out for my first ever proper run with the mrs tomorrow night, I’m shitting myself as the show off cow is quick and well trained. I have said 5k tops.

My tip would be to find a soft surface to run on and run little and often. If you get any pain stop immediately and dont go running again until the pain is gone. Your goal is achievable.

Couch to 5k would be a good place to start as it sounds like you’ll need to be patient with the conditioning.

I would add that I would not do any long runs. I’d be doing short runs at the pace you’d need to go at to run the distance you need to do in the time you need to do it in. Even if that’s just a couple of hundred meters at first then just keep going at that pace but for longer as you can tolerate it more.

Definitly wont be able to do long runs. I think I should be fit for my first small run by end of August. Having Surgery next week. So hopefully its only small and End of August i can start running. My aim is to get to 1.5 mile and then 2 and then 3 and then slash the 1.5 mile times.

There is a big playing field with loads of football pitches which i can use to run on when im able.

Last chance Saloon to rejoin the Army before i get to 33!

I’ve just started a ‘couch to 5k’ program, as my sister-in-law has signed me up to do a Duathlon in October. (5k run 30k bike 2.5k run)

So far so good…

Why do you want to go beyond 1.5 miles? Any patients that I have who are in a similar position to you I get them to do what I suggest above.

Dunno my main aim is to just get fit for Army Selection mainly. The Upper body stuff i won’t struggle with i.e press ups etc.

But the 1.5 run i have to be able to do in under 12 mins.

I agree – if that’s all you want to do, then training to do 5k is too far. The furthest you possibly ever need to run training for that is 2 miles.

Admittedly if the 1.5 mile time target was likely to be really hard then longer runs would help, but it doesn’t sound like it is, and if you have injury problems then running further than you have to is just taking unnecessary risk.

Given the target time is clearly getting longer, I’d recommend waiting until it’s slow enough you can just walk 😉

I halfheartedly signed up to do the Great North Run this year and my training for it has been a shambles. Little and often is the way forward, I’ve been trying to do longer runs but not been able to fit it in so I’ve been absolutely killing myself. Getting to the stage where I’m contemplating not bothering considering it’s about 6 weeks away and I’m still struggling to do much more than 4 miles at a reasonable pace.

I think it’s even longer than that 13 minutes the target time QARANC but I’d like to be between 10 and 12 minutes.

Seriously if you’ve got an Android phone give Zombies run, 5k a try. Breaks you in slowly and it’s entertaining to take your mind off things (I absolutely hate running so anything that distracts is a bonus!).