is 3 miles in 18mins a good target for a beginner's cardio?

That's a pretty aggressive pace. Many years ago, when I was in my 20's and had good knees, I use to run a lot. It took me at least 6 months from starting at 2 miles a day at about 9 minutes a mile to work up to 10 miles a pop at 6 min. a mile. I had a buddy that was a long time runner and marathon participant and his advice and training with me helped a great deal in getting me in that kind of shape.

My best advice to you is get good running shoes to start with. I tended to pronate when running and got fitted for shoes to correct that and it made a world of difference in the aches and pains department.

 

Its easy for a couch potato that doesnt ever run or know what they run 3 miles in to look up times of professional athletes and tell other people on the internet it would be a piece of cake to do

 

Still no video of Ylem sparring... :-(

 

The only cardio I liked to do regularly was jumping rope and I normally treated that in short sprint bursts anyway, just like I run.

I am 5'8'', 133 lbs now, in fairly good shape. I can do that first mile in under 6 minutes but then I am done, get leg cramps, out of breath, etc. and the thing is that even if I slow the pace, i still feel done after the six minutes. lets say I am shooting for 7:30. I still start to get this feeling of tightness at 8/10ths of a mile and more than getting tired I just don't want to be running anymore so I sprint the end and IT MAKES IT EASIER TO GO FASTER.

Sparring and my jump rope don't affect my heart rate like running does, so I tried slowing my breathing down this week. My heart rate on the mile went from 195/minute at the end of the run to about 175. Keep in mind I am 33 years old now. so I think slowing the breathing down consciously really helped my heart a lot, I was probably doing the whole mile like an anaerobic sprint (and yes, the faster I went the better I felt, going slower for longer made me feel like i was dying from the LENGTH of running more than the speed involved.) I have not felt winded since I have been doing a mile every day this week, so tomorrow I am going to try two. The speed is not a problem but the very high heart rate concerns me.

I don't think I can keep the pace for 2 miles and get under 12 minutes. But I prefer to run faster over short distances than to keep running and running and running. I don't gas in the ring, and have sparred several 15 medium to light rounds about three years ago without the heart rate and lack of breath that running causes me, because the three minutes with PUNCHING seems normal, but the constant hip and leg movement of running does not, and I seem to want that minute off every three minutes no matter what I am doing.

 

in my army unit the guys who went lieutenants had to run that distance in under 20min or smth like that but uphill with rucksack :nut

 

3 in 18? Man...

Anyone telling you to do that before they help you is finding a nice way to tell you take a hike.

 

I can't believe how many people are saying that 3 miles in 18 minutes is easy. I haven't run for a few years but I used to be quite fit when I played football, and I bet I wouldn't have been able to do it in under 20 minutes if my life depended on it.

Either a lot of people are lying, they're misjudging the distances they run, or I'm massively underestimating the general fitness levels of everyone else in the world.

 

I'm running roughly same pace as 22 minutes right now, can definitely say 18 minutes is a very good time for a serious runner and not achievable by just anyone, definitely not a beginner. Local 5k races, winners normally come in 16 minute mark. In the top races elite runners like they say earlier come in 14/15/16 minute marks depending on conditions.