Need to Improve Running for My Army Test

So in about 2 months I will be in basic training for the army. Right now I can run 1 mile in 13 minutes and have never been good at running. Actually, I'm horrible.

I need to be able to run the 2 mile run part of the test in 18 minutes.

I have been really trying – even quit smoking a while back hoping that will help. It is like my lungs get tired before my muscles even start feeling anything.

It is very difficult to run the whole mile which is very frustrating so I started doing interval training which hasn't helped and I tried running on a treadmill at an incline which with a treadmill I can run for the whole mile and sometimes more but outside my lungs start burning and I get very light headed.

Is there any advice to improve in these last two months? Thank you for your time.

– Cherise F., Springfield, USA

Answer by Dom:
Hi Cherise, yes — there are definitely things I can help you with, and I want to start with something important you may have missed. Quitting smoking is the single biggest thing you have done for your running performance. Your lungs are already recovering, and over the next eight weeks that recovery will accelerate. The lung burning and lightheadedness you feel outside almost certainly isn't a medical issue — it's a pacing problem. You're running too fast. I'll explain why the treadmill feels easier and what to do about it. Two months is not a large amount of time, but it is enough. Let's get to work.

1. Building endurance through run/walk — and fixing the outdoor pacing problem
2. Cross-training to build fitness without extra running stress
3. Month two: speed work and goal-pace practice

Building Endurance: Run/Walk Your Way to 2 Miles

Here is why the treadmill feels easier: the belt does some of the work for you, and it forces a steady, consistent pace. Outside, without that mechanical consistency, most beginner runners go out too hard in the first few minutes and burn themselves out. The lungs burning, the lightheadedness — these are signs you've gone out at sprint pace, not race pace. Slow down significantly and you'll find the outside suddenly becomes manageable.

Your goal for 18 minutes over 2 miles is a 9:00/mile pace — that's 5:36 per kilometre. When you're running your easy training runs, you should be going much slower than that. Maybe 12:00–13:00 per mile. I know that feels embarrassingly slow. It isn't. It's building the aerobic engine that will let you run 9:00 miles on test day.

Run four times a week. Start with a run/walk structure: 6 × 4 minutes of running, alternating with 2 minutes of walking. That gives you 24 minutes of running in a 36-minute session. Keep the running genuinely easy. Week by week, extend the running intervals. By the end of week four, aim to run 30–40 minutes continuously without stopping — even if the pace is slow. Check out the Beginner Running section for run/walk programs that structure this progression.

And Cherise — quitting smoking is working. Your cardiovascular system is improving every week. Give it time to show up in your running. By week eight you will feel the difference.

Cross-Training to Build Fitness Without Extra Stress

In addition to running four times a week, use one or two non-running days for cross-training. Rowing, cycling, or swimming — any aerobic exercise that elevates your heart rate for 30–45 minutes without pounding your legs. Cross-training is not a substitute for running, but it's a great complement to it. It lets you build cardiovascular fitness without the accumulative joint stress of running every single day, which at this stage of your training carries a real injury risk.

The key thing about cross-training is that it works different muscle groups while resting your legs from running impact. Pounding the pavement four times a week is plenty at the beginning. The extra aerobic work from cross-training fills the gap without the injury risk of running five or six days a week.

Don't do cross-training on your running days — keep them as full rest or very light movement. Your body needs genuine recovery time, especially in the early weeks when everything is new.

Month Two: Speed Work and Goal-Pace Practice

Keep the run/walk and cross-training approach going through month one. The single goal of that first month is to build up to 30–45 minutes of continuous running so that covering 2 miles is no longer the obstacle — the time is.

In the second month, replace two of your easy runs each week with harder sessions. One should be an interval session: 4 × 0.5 miles at 4 minutes 30 seconds each, with 2 minutes of easy jogging between. That's 9:00-mile pace — your exact goal. You're training your body to know what that effort feels like. Build from there: try 5 repetitions in week six, then 6 in week seven.

The second harder session should be a goal-pace run: 1.5–2 miles at exactly 9:00-per-mile pace. This teaches your body and your brain to sustain that effort over a longer stretch. In week seven, do a full 2-mile time trial — run it all out, note your time, and use it to calibrate your final week of preparation.

On test day, go out at 9:00-per-mile pace and hold it. Even pace — 9:00 for mile one, 9:00 for mile two — will beat going out at 8:00 and dying to 10:00 in the second mile. Keep your form together when you're tired: shorten your stride slightly, stay upright, keep your arms driving. You can do this, Cherise — I hope you make it.

Best of luck.
Kind regards,
Dom

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