What’s up BBM crew, first time posting but big fan of the content y’all put out. I know strength training is your guys speciality, but was curious to know if there are any cardio recommendations you might have for improving my 1.5 mile run time. Currently, I’m at a 17:51 mile & a half but need to get that down to under a 12:18 within the next few months. If you’re wondering why I’m training for this, it’s because I’m trying to leave the NYPD for a better job in law enforcement lol any advice you guys have will be greatly appreciated!
FYI, I lift Monday, Wednesday, & Friday & have been doing cardio (1.5 mile run & intervals) on Tuesday, Thursday, & Sunday.
Thanks for the post and your service- it is truly appreciated.
I would program more running for someone trying to improve their running. I think I would split it up like this if I had 3 days to do conditioning and where I would start:
Day 1: Aerobic Intervals: 3 minute run @ RPE 8, rest 2 minutes. Repeat 3x
Day 2: Aerobic Tempo Work: Run 10 min @ 12min 1.5 mile pace. Rest 5 min. Repeat 1x
Day 3: Longer Run: Run 30 min @ RPE 6-7
I should’ve asked these questions the other day but just thought of them now lol I sware, no more running questions after this.
In terms of incorporating additional cardio, do you think it would be wise to perform some short hiit sessions after the days that I lift? Ex: 30 seconds on, 1 minute off x 8-12 on a stationary bike. Or would this be too much along with what you prescribed earlier?
Lastly, could you clarify a bit on the “Day 2” from your post above? Not sure if I’m suppose to haul ass for 10 minutes on these, but a 12 min 1.5 mile pace at the moment is almost impossible for me.
Yea, I’d like you to touch the 12 min 1.5 mile pace and hold it for as long as possible, then slow down as needed to complete the 10 minutes. Rest 5 min, then do it again.
I agree with luckyman. Basically you are asking somebody to run 1.25 miles in 10 miles 8 (minute per mile pace) when the person is currently running 18 minutes for 1.5 miles. It takes about 5 minutes to walk .25 miles at 3mph so if they could run 1.25 miles in 10 minutes and then just walk a lap in 5 minutes and they will have already reduced their time by 3 minutes.
I used to be a regular runner and have run 3 hours for a marathon which involved a lot of training. Endurance training is a lot like strength training in that you usually benefit from going submaximal even if its RPE 9. Going RPE 10 is hard on the body and you asking them to do two hard bouts of RPE 10 in that workout. I’d turn that second workout into another aerobic interval workout or another long slow aerobic workout. That workout would make a lot of sense if their starting point was 2 miles in 18 minutes (9 mins per mile) because running at 8 minutes per mile for 10 minutes would be a hard tempo.
I agree that the pace is aggressive, but that’s by design. When he falls off the pace it’ll be fine, and the susbequent development may be more helpful at building the 1.5 mi run than another type of run. A slower initial pace may work too if desiring completion at the stated pace, sure. That said, I’m not worried about him failing the first few times due to the nature and context.
Alternatively, another aerobic interval would be a good option too, but I’m not asking anyone to run a certain distance in a certain time. Rather, it’s a tempo run based on pace.
Finally, no one in this thread knows anything about Crye, so it’s difficult to say what the appropriate first tempo should be, but . Regarding your last example, that would be true in some people but not in others depending on the individual (it’s like comparing 1RMs to 5RMs in a way).
Do 1 VO2 max work: Jordan basically scheduled that for you in his workout 1. The consensus in the running community is you want to run your VO2max workout at the slowest pace you can run at when running at 100% of your heart rate. For most people that is the appoxmiate pace you can hold for 15 minutes. For example I might be able to run a 5:00 mile but the slowest I can run at and be 100% of my heartrate is 5:45 min mile. The extra speed is coming from anaerobic processes. Once I hit 5:45 I have tapped out my aerobic capacity. This gives you teh best VO2max with the least amount of fatigue. You are not training your heart any harder by running 5 instead of 5:45 (though you are training your anaerobic processes harder, but if you want to train those, use 200 meter and 400 runs) and you accumulate less fatigue that way.
Do 1 easy aerobic run. That is the the third workout Jordan scheduled for you–30 minutes easy aerobic. I try to keep my heartrate in the 135 to 140 range when doing these types of workouts.
Do 1 tempo. I always ran my tempos at a speed I could race at double the length of the tempo. For example I if I was doing a 3 mile tempo, I ran it a pace I could for race 6 miles at. Since I raced year round, I pretty much almost always knee my times. When I did a 6 mile tempo I used my half marathon pace. And when I did a 12 or 13 mile tempo I used my marathon pace. My advice is is to start a 16 mile 1.5 mile pace (10:45 per mile) and run that for 8 minutes. Take a 5 minute break and repeat. I would replace Jordan’s second workout with that workout. When that starts to feel to easy use a 15 minute 1.5 mile pace and when that feels too easy use a 14 minute 1.5 mile pace.
Didn’t think a running post would get so much attention on this forum lol but in all seriousness, thanks to everyone for their comments/suggestions.
For now, I’m going to follow the layout that Jordan provided & work on progessing from there. I’ll for sure keep you guys updated on how it’s going, but give me at least a few weeks to put some of the road work in.
To be clear, we disagree on some things but I don’t feel strongly enough to argue about it, as there are a number of ways to achieve the task. I don’t think that focusing on improving VO2Max is a terribly useful strategy.
There are a number of things that affect VO2Max, but yes you can change it without PEDs. That said, it’s not a terribly reliable indicator of performance improvement in and of itself.
If I had to guess what your confusion is, I would guess you are thinking about your max heartrate which cannot really be improved. If you max heartrate in 190 beats a minute there is nothing you can do that bring that up 200. That said, your heart is a muscle just like your quad or pecs are and if you train the heart to get stronger it can pump more blood each stroke. So if you through your training got your heart 15% stronger so that it could pump 15% more blood which each stroke, you’d have increased your VO2max by 15% because even though your heart can still only beat 190 beats per minutes each beat can pump 15% more blood. It is a little bit analogous to muscle fibers. No matter how hard you train you cannot grow new muscle fibers, but you can make the ones you have a lot stronger.
Lifting gives you a great analogy. Muscle size is not a terribly reliable indicator of pure strength, but we all know its still useful. Somebody can add muscle and get weaker on their 1RPM lifts if they lose neuromusclar efficiency, become less efficient in their technique, et cetera. Likewise you could improve your VO2max and run slower. But that is going to be rare. Much more common will be the case where you improve your VO2max say 9% but you only get a 3% performance increase because some other factor is limiting performance.
That said, if we were going to pick an endurance duration where VO2max would be most predictive I would think it would be the 12 to 20 minute range because you are either at max heart rate or very close to it (95%+) and the event is long enough that hydrogen ion buildup will somewhat limit the role anaerobic processes can play in energy production. Go longer than 20 mintues and you start to have the issue you have in lifting of 5RPM not predicting 1 RPM. Go shorter and anaerobic systems become critical. So given the duration of the original poster’s endurance event improving his VO2max would likely increase his performance (unless some other factor is acting as a limiting factor). But your right, an improvement of VO2max without an improvement in the other running systems may not lead to an improvement, but that is why the original poster was also advised to down a long steady state 30 minute effort and do a tempo–so they improve the other running systems too.
you’re conflating many elements of cardiac output here in your analogy
no- increasing stroke volume by 15% would not necessarily increase VO2max by 15%, despite cardiac output playing a major role in VO2max performance. The relationship is not linear.
This is a reasonable analogy, though a bit of a correction. LBM level is the most reliable morphological predictor of strength, particularly in individuals with equal training (and untrained folks). That said, yes sometimes people with less LBM are stronger on certain tasks. The relationship between LBM and strength (or power) performance is much stronger than VO2Max and endyrance performance.
I disagree, as multiple studies contradict this notion because*:* - there are multiple inputs in performance determination independent of VO2Max
VO2max plateaus in many individuals while performance increases
VO2max can regress in many individuals while performance increases
VO2max doesn’t tend to change reliably in elite athletes
Efficacy for training designed to improve VO2max is lacking
My whole point here is that invoking anything relating to VO2max seems low-yield.
While I agree that Cooper Test or similar can be used as a field test for VO2max, but the hydrogen ion part is incorrect here as well. That happens much earlier depending on intensity.