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Hi,
I've been running for nearly 3 years, and have progressed from a 39 min Parkrun to just under 24 min last year. My PB for a mile is 7:25. I've done 3 marathons and last month, ironman triathlon.
So next year I have a choice - do another ironman and improve my time. I know I can do that 
. ... or
... try to qualify for an army PTI course. This means improving my mile and a half run from 11:15 to sub 10:30 - I don't know if I can do that, and I'm no spring chicken 
I'm not a beginner anymore, so I know that progress inevitably slows down after a while, but has anyone made this sort of gain within this time span and was not an absolute beginner?
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It takes 10 years to reach your peak no matter when you start. so a 10% improvement should be easy for the PTI target if you focus on that rather than just general training and hoping to improve.
Go for it. I imagine that being a PTI is probably one of the more rewarding jobs in the forces as you are generally working with motivated individuals.
It's a bit of a tricky question really.
i started running 8 months ago after quitting smoking. Was struggling to run 2/3 miles, now I'm down to a 32 5 mile time. Still improving all the time
Its based on how much you want to train. Improvement only comes if you put the effort in
I'm not afraid of hard work, its just that I need to make a decision fairly quickly as ironman events sell out so fast for the following year, and if I forgo this then I'd want to be pretty confident I've got a decent chance of succeeding.
I'm no spring chicken either, but I was able to drop my mile time from 6 mins to 4:49 in two and a half years. After one and a half years it was 5:02 (so the bigger gains do arrive earlier).
It just takes some hard speed work and probably some weight cutting (which should occur after a diet of increased running over the weeks and months regardless).
That's really encouraging to read - have lost 3 pounds this summer, and I get that losing the weight is a critical factor to speed gains ... Am beginning to think that this may just be possible ...
I once read that for every pound lost you are faster by two seconds every mile.....for as long as fitness is identical. Obviously that doesn't mean diet and neglect hydration for a week before a race, because your fitness and ability to perform will be compromised. But you get the idea. Long weekend runs at easy pace really help drop the weight.
So just imagine the benefits of losing a stone (14 pounds) as well as gaining fitness due to a decent running programme. That's worth at least 30 seconds per mile.....45 secs towards your 1.5 mile army requirement!
Hitting 40 next year - no idea what season chicken that is?! Started running ~4 years ago but only ran 3 months of each year until the last 12 months (Great North Run training then 9 months of lazyness!). 32 min 5K down to 21:45 over this time.
My 1 mile time came down from ~10:00 to 7:30 in 2 years of sporadic training (at about 90Kg give or take 3), and down to 6:13 in the last 6 months (84Kg/5'11") with more focussed marathon training. Hopefully drop it some more at the end of the year after the marathons with some more focussed speedwork to get ready for a 5K in April.
McMillan says off a 24 min 5K you've a 6:54 1 mile and 10:48 1.5 mile in you right now. Sounds like you just need to do some focussed training and it should be a breeze.
Just to add - warming up properly knocked a fair bit off my PBs, maybe 30 sec over 5K - I used to not bother but usually do 2-3 miles easy jogging and a few strides just before most races (5/10K). Prior to warming up I'd go out for about a mile but then suffer and slow down and only just "get in the zone" in the last mile of a 5K. The shorter the run the more important I've found a good warmup is.
Hitting more than 40 in less than a month!
Daeve - that's a great improvement in 6 months! That proves that JN is right about the link between weight loss and speed.
My best Parkrun is 23:55 so McMillan's prediction is encouraging ... I have to stop comparing myself to other ladies in my running club, because it is too limiting - assuming I'd never be as fast as so and so is not helpful, so I'm going to try and think, "imagine how it'd feel to beat so and so ..."
Any suggestions for speed sessions - 1/2 mile reps, 3 and 4 min intervals, I guess?
I believe a lot of my speed (as a relative beginner) has come from hill work as most routes near me are pretty hilly - even a 6/7 mile run has a good 1200 feet of ascent.
I'm doing hill work at the moment, because I'm running Snowdonia mara in Oct. Its not as hilly as that, though!