I would define being in shape as having a decent amount of cardiorespiratory endurance. In terms of distance-time, I would categorize decent-good shape as ~3:00 800m (1/2 mile), ~6:30 Mile, ~14:30 2 Miles, ~24:00 3 Miles. These are all levels of cardiorespiratory fitness anyone can attain, provided they aren't overweight. If you can do these, I would say you are in pretty good shape. Definitely not good for an endurance athlete, but for basketball, general health ect. Working on getting to this level of fitness will not have any negative impact on vertical/ power output, in fact it could help condition the tendons for more explosive work.
Three miles in 30 minutes in pretty terrible because if you have any kind of running economy a ten minute mile shouldn't be hard. But I think the 6 minute mile or 6:30 standard is terrible (this is coming from someone who has run miles in 4 something, btw).
When I was in college the basketball team would come to the indoor facility for there fall conditioning. Coach Romar had some silly conditioning coach that had got it in his head that every division 1 basketball player should be able to run a six minute mile. Once a week he would make the basketball players run a timed mile and those who didn't get under 6 minutes would have to repeat the next week. Needless to say, the player who struggled the most with this happened to be the starting point guard (who is the nba now, btw), and each week just barely missed the cut. I am pretty sure he got 6:0X but never quite made it. He had pretty terrible speed maintenance, insisted on wearing baggy shorts, and got mentally rattled when he was the only one running left. He also complained that his back would tighten up.
Point is, the thing was a colossal waste of time and pretty unrelated to anything an athlete needs to do. While a 6minute mile SHOULD be attainable personal variation might make this harder for some without having any bearing on the general "shape" someone is in.
If you have to make standards for general conditioning that apply to sports make them at least on the order of time that is somewhat realistic. Running 3 miles in 24 minutes is not going to turn you into a slow twitch machine but busting your butt to reach the standard is a waste of time as well.
A better standard to hold yourself to if you insist on continuous running is that most men should be able to run 400m in around a minute or around your age if you are older.
Even better standards which translate to sports are involve repeats. 3 200m sprints with 2 minutes rest between each.
Most men should be able to keep them all under 30.
If you can keep them all under 27 you have great endurance and lactic capacity.
Under 25 and you are both fast and very fit.
In 24,23,22 are you are world class (this was michael johnsons workout).
