possible, but... 1. you have to keep it up beyond that first week (because even 3 or 4 days of rest will result in a decrease of fitness), so 2. don't overdo it (because if you work yourself so hard that you're too sore to move the next few days, the time you spend recuperating will undo gains in fitness) (also, if you overwork your muscles, you will be more prone to injury). 3. not sure what you mean by "a lot of running", but interval training will be better than long-distance runs. it all depends on what kind of shape you're in right now.
I also suggest swimming in addition to running. I swam on a team in the summer and then would do cross country in the fall. Swimming really helped my lungs, like no other. When running in the fall I felt a lot better and felt that I could go longer. Swimming is great for your lungs. It's also recommended for people who have asthma as it helps their lungs.
I suggest tempo style runs or fartleks over distance. I would however strongly suggest starting with a nice 2-3k warmup run, at a slightly slower then regular pace (think 9/min mile pace). This gets the blood flowing & loosens you up. Nothing strenuous, just enough to maybe break a sweat. Then I'd move on to some intervals, maybe start with 30 second sprint (sprint meaning a pace that is faster than your lactate treshold pace....legs should start to hurt, shouldn't be able to run this pace for very long) followed by a 30 second walk/light jog. Repeat this for 10-15 minutes, or as long as you can handle it. Increasing the spint time &/or decreasing the "down" time will increase the difficulty. The goal here is to build up your short term endurance, increasing your speed & reducing your recovery time. -------------------------------- Another option, and it's very simple, yet one of my absolute favorites, is to just grab a ball and dribble at your fastest pace of a set of distances (25, 30, 35, 50, 100M), then slow down for a period and repeat the sprint (increasing the sprint distance each time). Add in some change of directions from time to time. This drill gives you both increased stamina & speed, and also improves your dribbling technique. If you can build up great endurance & pace when dribbling, you'll be shocked at how well you can run off the ball. Cheers mate!
yup. intervals are the best way to build up endurance. even better if you try them with the ball. btw--what's the story with arshavin? is he going to tottenham or what? spurs need a scorer.