Saw this at USNavyOCS.com... The guy who posted was just picked up in the SPECWAR Boards to be a SEAL
"Hey, just carrying over the conversation from the Jan 2010 Board thread, so we can talk about preparing for the 1.5 in the PST and all the running at BUD/s. I will first mention that it's ironic to me that people are seeking out my advice on running, because on the team that I ran for in school I was decidedly mediocre! I'm sure there are more than a few people on this site who can beat my personal bests, which are:
400 meters: 52
800 meters: 2:03
1.5 miles (PST): 8:15 boots and pants, 7:35 shoes and shorts
4 miles (road): 23:08
Marathon: 3:06:32
So I'll mention some thoughts and principles, but hopefully we can turn this into a discussion that we can all benefit from.
First of all, the running bible for me is a book called Daniel's Running Formula. If you read that, you will certainly not need any of my advice. Second, it's really hard to give running advice to someone when you don't know their running background. What are their personal bests, what kind of volume are they used to doing, how much time you have to train both over the course of a week and in total before competition, and so on. Third, there are definitely differences of opinions on this topic, but I'm presenting probably the classic view. And fourth, running is something that you get better at through consistently, gradually, and progressively taxing your aerobic systems and then recovering from that work. Especially when starting out, err on the side of lower volume and intensity so that you don't get injured and lose training time! A common rule of thumb is not to increase training volume by more than 10% a week, maybe even 5% at higher weekly mileage levels.
OK, so for the 800 and above, we'll say that there are four basic paces you can train at. Easy (E) pace, where you run comfortably and can have a conversation while running. For me this is between 7 and 8 minute pace. Lactate threshold pace (LT), which is the fastest you can run without building lactic acid in your legs. In theory, if you had to, you should be able to hold this pace for an hour. For me this is a little over 6:00 pace, probably like 6:10. VO2 max pace, which is the pace were your body is carrying as much oxygen as possible to your working muscles, is even faster. For me this is like 5:10, maybe 5:15? Basically, it is the pace you could run a 2 mile in. The fastest relevant training pace is where you are running repeats (R) of between 200 and 800 meters on a track, or the equivalent effort on hills, which is my favorite way to do it.
So, thinking about the mile and a half. You to need all of these 4 training paces in some mixture, but you are going to build up in phases. Let's assume you are generally in good shape but an untrained runner. So you start by building up a base through E running. You try to get to 20 miles a week with four or five runs. You to want to keep building mileage from there, but that's a start. Next, you increase the intensity a little by throwing in some 20 minute LT runs, that kind of thing. Keep building mileage gradually, maybe a taking one week out of every four or five where you cut your mileage by about 25% and recover a little.
You are then going to want to work VO2 pace intervals into things, while keeping up some LT as maintenance. VO2 workouts will consist of four or five 3 or 4 minute runs at VO2 pace with 2 or 3 minutes recovery. Something along those lines. Also mile repeats. You will do easy runs on the days that you recover. Finally, as you get closer, you work on your running economy and speed by doing R paced work with 200s, 400s, 800s, while just doing a little LT/VO2 work as maintenance. Lots of recovery between your 200s and 400s, say, a minute's easy jogging for each 200 meters. Stew Smith's workouts are a good example of these, and his workouts are exactly the kind of thing I have in mind."