Need to Run 1.6km in 7mins

by Waqar
(Haripur, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan)

My name is Waqar and I live in Pakistan. I have applied for the Motorway Police. Their requirement is to cover 1.6km in 7 mins. I have never run before in my whole life and I want to achieve this goal.

From yesterday I have started running early in the morning and I have covered about half km in 2 or 3 mins after that I get so tired I can't take one step more.

I am physically 100% fit and my age is 23 years. Please help me and guide me with your experience. I shall be very thankful to you. Thanks.

Answer by Dominique:

Hi Wagar,
Thank you very much for your running training question. It's wonderful to be able to help people from all over the world, including Pakistan!

In the beginning, running is a bit hard. Now, I don't know how much time you have available to be able to achieve your goal of running 1.6k in 7 minutes. So that's 4:22 min / km (7 minutes per mile). It's pretty fast, but not completely crazy.

And you say, you are young and fit, so I don't see a reason you are not able to do this.

The key ingredients to be able to do this are:
1. Build your endurance
2. Add in some faster running
3. Do some time trials

Build Your Endurance

Assuming you have a bit of time, I would recommend doing a run/walk program at first.

Make sure the running is at a slow pace, i.e. don't run incredibly fast, just do an easy jog, that's hard enough in the beginning.

The great thing about a run/walk program is that it allows you to run much further at the start than just running. Simple reason is, as you have noticed, in the beginning running is hard. You run less than 1 km and you feel like you cannot continue anymore. The walk breaks allow you to take those breaks and get your breath back.

Study the beginner running programs I have on my site. Even if you do not want to use those particular programs, just see how they combine the running and the walking. See how they build up the running slowly, week by week. That's the kind of training you need to do at first.

I'd like you to get to running slowly for 30 minutes quite comfortably. More is better. The longer you are able to run, the better your endurance, the easier it is to hit your one mile goal. It will take bit of time, but it is incredibly beneficial to establish an aerobic base.

Also check out this page about easy running.

Add in Some Faster Running

When you have built up to doing about 15 min of slow running, then you could start working on doing some faster running as well, e.g. do some sessions that are like this: 10 x 30 sec fast / 30 sec slow. Maybe next time you change the length of the fast part to 45 seconds. Then to a minute, etc.

In this type of workout, the "hard" part should not be all-out, fast as you can. But it is not far away from it. It's about a 9-out-of-10 in terms of intensity.

Check out the fartlek page or the interval running page for more information and suggested workouts.

You don't have to restrict yourself to just intervals. There is a whole range of faster running available to you. Check out the running workouts page for more inspiration!

Do Some Time Trials

Getting closer to the actual test, you can also do time trials to test yourself. Let's say you do that once every two or three weeks. Your first time trial might be a 400m all out. That needs to be in 1 min 45 seconds or faster.

Next time trial, make it 800m. Needs to be in 3:30 min or faster. Or do 2 x 400m with a bit of rest in between.

Next time do 1,200m. Needs to be in 5:15 min or faster. And then after that do 1.6km, which you want to be able to do in 7 minutes.

You can also play with the format a bit more and try to run 16 x 100m at the right speed with a bit of rest in between. Next time do 8 x 200m, etc, etc. I hope you get the gist. You really want to get used to running at goal pace.

The first few times these time trials can be hard. You need to build up your fitness and your speed. Maybe the first few attempts you do not hit the right goal pace.

But I think that a young guy like you, provided you do the work, will be able to achieve that goal.

I hope that that helps you work out a little on how to go about this. Build your endurance, add some faster running and then do some time trials to really get used to the speed you need to run at. In need of more structured advice or a full program? I support lots of runners with their specific goals, particularly when they are aiming for police or army physical tests. Have a look at my running coaching service for further help.

Best of luck.
Kind regards,
Dominique