Recruits arriving at basic training are often surprised to learn that the running they did to prepare was the wrong kind. Long, steady miles build endurance, but the physical test measures how fast a body recovers between hard efforts. Interval work, in which short sprints alternate with brief recovery, trains that ability directly. This is not a small distinction. Every year a number of recruits who ran regularly before enlisting still struggle, and they struggle not from a lack of effort but from months spent training a system the test does not measure.
According to the passage, interval training consists of
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Correct answer to question 9 (Paragraph Comprehension): short sprints alternating with brief recovery
Method
The third sentence defines it in place: interval work is short sprints alternating with brief recovery. Long steady miles are named as the contrasting method the recruits were already doing.
Updated: November 2026
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