Need a little bit of advice...

[CameronM95]

After searching the forums for advice with no luck, I have decided to make an account to ask a few questions which hopefully you can help me with!

I have applied to join the army (SCOTS DG for those interested) and I have already passed my interview and attended one of the Royal Armored Corps insight courses down in Bovington, during the course we covered the basic fitness requirements, my sit ups and push ups were good enough (52 push ups & 44 sit ups), however when it came to the 1.5 mile, I was pathetic, clocked in at just over 15 minutes which I was extremely annoyed with, of course I failed the requirements to go to selection so they placed me on a PDA in Inverness recently, however i'm going through a bit of financial trouble at the moment and I couldn't attend due to travel costs, I explained to my recruiter on the phone about it, he did understand however if I cancel again why application will be stopped. This puts me in a bit of a crap situation as I have no way to afford the journey and they cannot fund travel to PDA's, I have also been running much more, I got my time down to 12 minutes 30 (it isn't great but it's passable) but as of recently my running time has went up again to roughly 13 minutes 30 due to pain shooting up my legs.

To sum up my question, how am I to attend a PDA with no income and how should I deal with the pain in my legs which has started over the past 3 weeks of my running? I really do want to join as soon as I can but it seems that my goal is getting harder as I go.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Cable_Ties]

Are you thrashing yourself or following a sound training plan?

 

[deltadog2]

Make some money and do some phys. The Army is a brilliant way out of your current situation, but you're going to have to apply a bit of get go.

 

[CameronM95]

I have definitely been running more than I used to but I wouldn't say I've been thrashing myself, I try go for a 2.5 mile run at least once every two days, it's never been a good pace but just as I was getting better it's gotten worse.

 

[slick]

The pain in your legs are probably shin splints, a lot of people suffer from it unfortunately and sometimes it will always be there to a certain degree, you just have to run through it. Do a search for `shin splints`on this forum, there is plenty of advice. It could be down to not used to running, doing too much too soon, running on a hard surface, or just crappy footwear. Good running shoes and insoles sometimes help but you`ll have to lay off the running for a while until the pain dies down a bit.
Try running on grass, it`s less shocking to the legs.
As for your times then it could be down to something as simple as motivation, try running with someone else. It could also be cardiovascular, the oxygen just isn`t supplying your muscles well enough. In the meantime try cycling or swimming to build up your endurance, both are less stressful on your legs.
Your financial situation is down to you, the army aren`t going to hold your hand all the time. Get a Saturday job, find a bit of casual work, a few hours here and there.

 

[Rydo]

Can't help you with the money problem but as far as run training;

-1 interval workout: 400m repeats, start with 4x400m and then build up to 6-8 as you get better, rest for the same amount of time the 400m took. So you run 400m in 90seconds, then rest for 90seconds then do it again for however many intervals. If you can't track distance a football pitch is usually about 100m long so 4 lengths.

-1 longer, easier run. just go for an easy 3 mile run. If that's too much start at 2, then next week 2.25, then 2.5, 2.75 and then 3. You don't need to run any further than that if you're just training for a 1.5 Miler

-1.5M test run once a week. try to do it on a course harder than your selection (glencourse?) if you can

That's exactly the training I did for a 9:10 run at selection and I'm by no means anything special, infact I absolutely hate running. You don't need much more than this for a 1.5 mile run, especially if running causes you niggly injuries. Run on a football pitch too or an offroad trail is even better.

That's just for selection remember, if you get past that you'll need to step it up again!