1.5 Mile Police Test - Time Limit 13 Min

by Mike
(Pa., USA)

Hi. I'm a 36 year old male and a normal weight for my age and height of 5'11". I do eat healthy and I am in good health.

I haven't run since last year. I have 6 weeks until I have the 1.5 mile test for a police exam.

I'd like some help please. What do I need to do achieve the test. My time limit is 13 minutes. One of the issues I'm having also is the track close to me is outdoors and it is winter time. I do have a large basement in my house so I was going to measure out a distance and work in there when the weather doesn't permit outdoor running.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!

Answer by Dom:

Hi there,
Thanks for your question about your 13 minute 1.5 mile police fitness test.

One of the things that is currently unclear is: if you were to run the 1.5 mile test today, how fast would you run it in? How big is the gap you need to bridge? That will tell us more about how big the challenge is and how aggressive you need to be in your training approach.

Picking up your running again three months ago, would have been helpful. Starting from tomorrow onwards and working hard is paramount.

I'll break it down in a number of areas:

1. Running environment
2. Running slow
3. Running fast

Running Environment

Having grown up in The Netherlands, I have had a bit of experience with cold winters and running in snow, icy wind, icy roads, icy pavements. Not always easy. Sometimes not possible. I am not fully familiar with your conditions, but it sounds like you are dealing with some harsh conditions and I take it that outside running is not always an option for you at this time of year.

The idea of running in your basement intrigues me. You'd need a massive basement! The kind of basement attached to a house owned by a man who doesn't need to work and worry about a 1.5 mile test.... :) The only benefit I can see from using your basement is that you will not be able to run very quickly, which helps with easy runs. Too many people run their easy runs too fast, so in that way the basement might be a blessing in disguise.

I would recommend though to see if there is a gym nearby that you can join for the coming six weeks to do your running on a treadmill. Or maybe buying or borrowing a treadmill is an option?

Running Slow

Have a good look through the answers I have provided on other 1.5 mile test questions. And check out the Training for the 1.5 Mile Run page on this website as well. They all sing from the same hymn sheet: running slow is the way to go!

You want to get very used to running more than the 1.5 mile distance. You do this at an easy pace. This will help you build endurance, which is key ingredient number 1 in the 1.5 mile run test.

Check out this page which explains the benefits of easy running.

Running fast

Key ingredient number 2 for the 1.5 mile run test is speed. 13 minutes is a decent clip. You will want to get used to running at that pace. And you will ideally do some running that is somewhat faster as well as some running that is a bit slower than this. With the time available some prioritisation is in order.

Have a look at the fartlek page which is a good introduction to starting to run fast. It would be smart to do a few faster workouts based on fartlek principles, then progress on to some goal pace workouts.

Get a good idea of goal pace so you don't run insanely fast at the start of your 1.5 mile run test. Ideally you conserve energy and run a reasonably even race.

All the best with the training for your 1.5 mile police test.
Dom

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