We get this question every week “Coach, how do I improve my mile run time?”.
You may be trying to get better for the next local 5k run or trying out for Special Forces.
These tips will help you if you apply each one with discipline.
Tips to Improve Your Mile Run Time #1
Go out and run a mile on a flat track and record your time. This is your mile baseline time. If you don’t have a flat track then run on the street without hills. Need a great way to record your time? We suggest the Timex Ironman Triathlon Watch.
Tips to Improve Your Mile Run Time #2
Set your goal. Are you trying out for military Special Forces or competing in a local 5k run? Write down your goal and set a time to complete and of course – lower your time.
Check out Inov-8 Bare-XF 210 Running Shoes @ Amazon.com
Tips to Improve Your Mile Run Time #3
Lay out your week with a schedule and run with appropriate rest. Create a habit of running every week but allowing for down time to recharge your body. Fresh legs can help you run faster and with more intensity – which translates to lower times.
Tip #4
Go pick out a new pair of kicks. New shoes translate to lower times. Mentally you feel excited with new shoes and physically you can feel the extra spring in your step.
We like the book 80/20 Running: Run Stronger and Race Faster By Training Slower
Running is like any sport in that you want to train with discipline and a few good tips can set you on the path towards success.
Check out the Nike Free Run+ 2 Running Shoes @ Amazon.com
Tip #5
Stretch on your off days. A good session of yoga will also help to lengthen the muscles, increase restorative blood flow and relax your mind.
Tips to Improve Your Mile Run Time – #6
Get a running buddy to challenge you – push you. A workout partner helps push the pace. Intensity will boost your workouts, your performance and make it fun.
You can’t go wrong with the Nike Free 5.0 running shoe
This is a good all around running shoe and a good value for the dollar.
Check out the Inov-8 F-Lite 235 Functional Fitness Shoe @ Amazon.com
Tip #7
Get plenty of sleep to rest your body and mind. Treat your rest day like a workout day and allow your body to recover.Check out this article on sleep and rest for athletes
Tip #8
Use CrossFit workouts to build your cardio, legs and core. Try rowing, box jumps, air squats, jumping air squats and Air Dyne bike workouts to supplement your running workouts.
Tips to Improve Your Mile Run Time #9
Improve your speed with sprint training. Spend an hour at the track and establish your 50 meter, 100, 200, and 400 meter sprint times. Use sprint workouts once a week to build power and speed.
Check out Nuun Electrolyte Tablets
One of the guys at our gym does endurance running and swears by Nuun tablets.
Check out the CFF 3 – N – 1 Wood Plyo Box @ Amazon.com
Tip #10
One of the most important things you can do is mentally envision yourself reaching your goal. You will become what you think. See yourself on that APFT test reaching your run time goal. Mental preparation is key to success.
Check out more info on the Schwinn Air Dyne Exercise Bike
Tips to Improve Your Mile Run Time #11
Keep a training log for running. Note type of workout (long slow endurance, sprints, etc) terrain (track, street, trail, etc.) and conditions (heat, wind, snow, etc.).
Check out this article on how to set up a Training log and keep it updated
Tip #12
Be patient with yourself. You will have good days and bad days. Improving your mile run time does not happen overnight. Run with intensity, add in CrossFit, get good rest and the lower times will follow.
How To Run Faster
Check out the CrossFit Garage Gym gear to help you improve your Running
Tips to Improve Your Mile Run Time #13
More miles does not make you faster. Depending on your past conditioning – do not try to run too much per week too quickly. Pace yourself and make small increases each week. Too much running too quickly can lead to shin splints.
How to build endurance for running
Concept2 Model E Indoor Rowing Machine
Tip #14
Sign up and enter a race. Running in a competition is a great way to boost your training as you will have a goal and will also run harder in the pack against your rivals. There is nothing like competition to help you get better.
How to build stamina for running
Tip #15
Pose running. Work on improving your form by studying and performing the Pose method. Land on the ball of your foot – not your heel and you will improve your efficiency.
Questions from the athletes at our gym.
Question: How do I improve my 2 mile run time? Are there different workouts? Try the workouts above for the 1 mile and then run the 2 mile and you will more than likely see a drop in your time.
Question: What are supplements to decrease your 1.5 mile time? We only recommend a few supplements such as fish oil
Question: Can a new pair of shoes reduce my time on the mile run? Yes; especially if your using a lighter shoe and running on a track.
Question: Can I improve my run time in one week? Depends. You could lose 5 lbs in 7 days if you eat really clean and do cardio workouts burning calories. Get a new pair of shoes that are lighter. If you ran on the street for your mile run and then ran on the track. There are many factors but you could best your mile run time in one week.
Question: what 5 different factors can contribute to increase in a mile run time? New running shoes, losing a few pounds, properly hydrated, being warmed up, running technique (pose running) and mindset.
Question: Hey there I’m aron I’m drafting to the Israeli army in march and I have some tryouts for special forces coming up and it’s gonna be a lot of sprinting and I want to work on my explosiveness and acceleration do you have any good workout for that thanks in advance.
Answer: Aron; print out this page and do all of the workouts. Watch all of the videos. Within one month you will see a big difference in your sprints and acceleration.
Question: Coach McLeod;
I have really been enjoying cycling (both mountain bike and road) as a good different way to work on endurance. How would you correlate to distance running? I was thinking about inc cycling to try to help with wear on knees, but was not sure how to convert distances from 1 to the other or if this was possible.
Hope you have a great day!
Andrew
Answer: Good question Andrew. You usually hear that four miles of cycling equals one mile of running. But that is not too exact as you have to account for wind resistance as you go faster on the bike. You also get to coast on a bike on flat land or downhill.
About the Author:
Brad McLeod knows first hand about mental toughness after being kicked out of a top tier Spec Ops training unit. He failed out of BUD/S the first time after failing a math test (made it through Hell Week and Dive Pool Comp). He came back a year later and graduated and served as an operator on the Navy SEAL Teams.
Today he is one of the most sought after mental conditioning coaches in the world today having recently returned from Ireland, Southern California, Pennsylvania and parts unknown in north Florida. SEALgrinderPT audios and Ebooks have been downloaded in 20 different countries around the globe.
Check out SEALgrinderPT Coaching to help you step up and take hold of your dreams and realize your goals.
Related Articles:
Top 10 CrossFit Equipment for a Garage Gym
Check out this article on 5k Running Tips
Check out this article on Trail Running Tips
Check out this article Special Forces workout
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When I started to train with Coach McLeod, he sent me this article and I have used the information religiously to where my mile run time is down to 7:43 from over 9 minutes when we started and it continues to drop. Print this article if you can, read it and study it. It works.
Currently training for the USAF Pararescue PAST, had a 1.5mile run time of 13:44min. My goal is to meet and exceed the minimum PAST 1.5mi time of 9:47.
These are all solid tips from Coach McLeod, will definitely see improvements in my running time and my running time after the 500m swim in the PJ PAST. Improvements to follow. Hooyah!
Hills, hills, and hills. I take time every week to dedicate to hills. I need to run more consistently but inserting thoselong hill runs keeps me improving significantly without taking as many days to dedicate to it. Though I should.
Good tips Tyler. Thanks for posting.
Brad awesome article. These are all tremendous tips. I would also add in the addition of resisted speed running. As you pointed out with using strength training to enhance performance this can also be done with the addition of a weighted vest, bungees, etc.
For distance runners this would obviously be better to implement during days of doing interval work. I like to throw in weighted vests on days I do intervals to enhance my work capacity and to further raise that lactic acid threshold. It has no doubt sped up the process of enhancing my performance. Thanks again for sharing.
Excellent article.
I am in a reconnaissance unit wich requires speed and endurance for run, ruck, swimming with gear this and the hill running helps as well as a switch up of intense treadmill and battle ropes I’ve found to work as well.
Thanks RJ for that info!
email me brad “at” sealgrinderpt “dot” com and I will send you a free motivational audio.
I recently sent this email to Brad,
“I recently joined my NROTC unit’s endurance team, running isn’t my strongest trait but I am not the slowest. However I want to be in the top 4 to start for the team. We run around 5 miles a day for three days a week.”
He recommended this article and I have been following the tips it has been giving me. I have already seen improvement.
Hey Coach! Got some awesome news. I’ve been running 2 miles a day every night after work. My goal is 10 a day before I take my PST. I’ve discovered how incredible the mind and minds outlook truly is over the past 2 nights.
Monday night I clocked in at about 13:48 I believe. On Tuesday night I said “ok, on the hardest parts, smile and picture a Trident directly in front of you but it moves away as fast as you move” and clocked in at 13:21! Last night, I said “Ok, now with last nights tweaks, always physically keep your head up and forward” and clocked in at 13:08!
Hope all is well and we can talk on the phone soon.
Ryan Greer
1 mile 7,05 min
Great article, I have had a busy month of may, I completed my first half marathon and the murph challenge. I had a time of 2:51 for my half and 1:07 for the challenge w/o vest. I enjoyed your primer audio and am starting to work on improving both those times for next year and hopefully shed at least another 20 lbs. What would be a good set of audios to purchase next to get going.
Thanks for the motivation
Hey. I am having issues with running. I have been told it is my breathing, which makes sense because I haven’t been able to run a mile in less than 9:25 w/o panting like a dog in a Georgia summer. (I am 19yo; 140lbs; 6’1″; approx. 7% body fat) I don’t have time to try b.s. since I am enlisting in a month.
Thanks in advance
You always have time- you just have to make time. Check out the tips above. Print them out and go through them step by step and you will see improvements if you do every step.
post up your scores in the comments here and I will see them and help you be accountable. You can improve and I will help you.
I have already done most of the stuff here. The rest of which I am working on breaking my physical limits to be able to achieve. I talked to my recruiter about this. He said run three times a week. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. On Wednesday I do sprints and Monday and Friday regular mile runs.
Good to hear Luke — post up some of your upcoming run times and distances in comments and I will check in with you for accountability.
I used to compete in 1500m races a long time ago. As I had almost no time for training I did 5 x 400m sprints with a 1 minute break in between two sprints during my lunch breaks. That was almost my only training and I got my time for 1500m down to 4:07 (obviously on the track). That is more than 25 years ago and intervall training was not known back then, but the method really worked.
Thanks for the tips Franz!
I started running at the beginning of September and I run 2 k twice a week but I’ve seen little improvement it’s starting to get very frustrating any tips or workouts would be very appreciated
Check out the tips above. Do the mile run and test yourself and post your score in comments here as I will see it and hold you accountability.
Hello sir, I just completed my training after about 11 months on active orders, I joined the reserves for family reasons but my Ultimate Goal is to be a SEAL. I wanted to get my foot in the door in the military though so i joined the reserves for the time being. Im starting to build my packet for transfer to NSW as we speak. I trained with some team guys quite often and they were some positive motivators to push me while i was in VA Beach, had me in the right direction, doing all the right things and having those types of people around back home is difficult to find. Now that im back home i have sort of lost my motivation i dont have the same positive atmosphere as i did in VA Beach. I’ve trained for a long time prior to service but I’ve struggled with running lately not real sure how to fix it to where I can up my distance and my 1.5 speed for my PST as well. I done an 8 mile ruck with a 20 lb. Vest the other day and had this insane lower back pain and some slight shin and ankle pain, I was curious if you had some tips on staying motivated even though I don’t have the same positive atmosphere that I was in in VA. Beach. Also, if you have any tips on form while running since i think that’s what has been getting me on my distance runs and progressive types of speed intervals for my PST. Thanks alot sir look forward to your response.
We have several articles about getting rid of the negative — here is one:
https://sealgrinderpt.com/navy-seal-workout/get-rid-of-this-negative-people.html/
Today I ran my IST at our monthly pool function. I did 7 pull-ups, 115 crunches, but completely blew my run with an awful 1.5 miles in 13:39. The cold weather kills me when running….not sure how to get past it, or to get back into running longer. Thank you!
Brad,
Did Murph for the first time and it kicked my ass! How often should a beginner do the Murpg workout? Weekly? Every other?
a beginner should cut Murph workout in half and do once a month. Next month do 3/4. Next month full Murph without vest.
Great! Thanks. (Although it’s going to be tough on the psyche cutting the reps!)
This was pretty useful even though I’m experienced. I’m focusing on improving my mile to 4:30 or lower. I’m currently at 4:52. My track season is coming up and I’m aiming on doing good as my first year in Varsity.
Nice article. Lots of great tips. I was a running newbie (hated to run) last year and have progressed to the point where I am running half marathons now. I tried the POSE method of running and found that in longer runs, it’s largely ineffective, for me at least. For a 5k or less, yes, works fine. The best advice I ever received regarding running was to just RELAX. Relax the shoulders, arms, hips etc. Everything else has fallen into place for me when I just relax. Hip and ankle mobility has also helped my running tremendously. If you work out extensively and try to run on top of those workouts, I highly recommend recovery tights. They really do help my legs recover faster.
This is all great information. Does the same stuff apply to improving 4 mile run times? I’m trying to get to where I can hold a 6:30 pace for 4 miles, but I’m having trouble with shin pain during longer runs. Is it still better to work at shorter sprint distances to improve my 4 mile time?
we have a 5k tips article also. If you are having shin pain then take some time off from running — try swimming or rowing.
Hi Mr. McLeod,
I have a question about running. I use to run a lot when I was in 8th and 9th grade. I had to stop because I got Osgood Schlatter. Now I am a senior in high school and I’m starting to run again. I keep getting cramps at the bottom of my rib cage. I can’t get them to go away. Do you have any advice on what to do? Thank you.
Finn
This is a cramp that is occurring. Before you run make sure you hydrate properly. Stop during your run and stretch your rib cage by putting your hands over head. Grab a doorway and stretch side ways. Avoid eating a heavy meal within 2 hours of running. Work on building up your core doing plank position before you go to bed. Breath in deep to your belly starting through your nose and exhale through your mouth.
Best of luck in your upcoming running workouts.
Thank you so much Mr. McLeod!