I know a lot of recruits who are anxious about the physical fitness test, and since I‘m a marathon runner, I figure I can offer some advice to people who aren‘t very good at the 1.5 miler, or are just trying to get themselves into the ‘superior‘ bracket (below 10 minutes), or even to beat a personal record.
Most of my friends who are already in the reserves don‘t really know the subtleties of running (it‘s really an art), and I‘ve noticed that the people here who offer advice about training don‘t know them either. They just tell you to run hard, run intervals, run hard-easy days, and so on. And oftentimes, this results in a plateau in your personal record, and it seems like you can‘t improve your times after a certain point.
If you‘ve found that this is the case, this is what you should do - without getting into too much detail about VO2max, anaerobic/aerobic capacity, lactate threshold, and so on.
Run slower (and I mean SLOW) - but for longer distances. If you think that you‘re running easy/hard days, you probably aren‘t. On your ‘easy‘ days, you should be running at approximately 70% of your max heart rate, while on your hard days, you should be running at 85% of your max heart rate. You can find these by the Karvonen formula:
70% HR = (MAX HR - RESTING HR) * .7 + RESTING HR
85% HR = (MAX HR - RESTING HR) * .85 + RESTING HR
When you start out, your ‘easy‘ 70% days will be embarrassing. You will be running REALLY slowly. You may even have to walk to keep under 70%. This means that you‘ve been running too fast, and your aerobic capacity has been eroded - and that is the main reason why people always plateau. I know it may be frustrating at first, but trust me - it will pay off. With time (a month or so), your easy days will have you running at a fairly respectable clip, and your pace will increase dramatically, both at your slow pace, and your hard pace.
However, with time, as your aerobic capacity improves your hard 85% days will become **** on wheels. You‘ll be able to breathe fine due to your improved aerobic system, but your legs will cry for mercy. That‘s because now, you‘ll be testing and improving your lactate threshold and anaerobic capacity on your hard days.
Do not worry about your pace. Keep an eye on your HR. Your pace will automatically improve over time (and it will be dramatic). Trust me.
People who also tell you that you should avoid treadmills are spouting nonsense. I‘ve been training on a treadmill for a long time now, and I just did a track workout today. I slaughtered my PR by 3 minutes. It was totally unexpected. And I was running at an easy, breathable tempo, and made it into the superior bracket easily.
Running is running, whether it‘s on a treadmill or not. The main benefit of a treadmill is the ability to keep an eye on your heart rate (if you don‘t have a monitor). However, do not trust the pace numbers, or distances that it spews out at you.
So, short answer: Easy days, 70% of max, long distance. Hard days, 85% of max, half the distance of what you do on an easy day.
Anyway, I hope this helps you guys. If you want to know more about the biochemistry/technical details, or have more questions about training, just ask.
). But seriously, good luck, and don‘t worry about the BFT. As said earlier, if you are in shape, it‘s all in the mind- just DON‘T QUIT!
