Could anyone run a 5 minute mile?

Your school is most likely much faster than average. Our D1 high school had about 1800 people when I was there and only 4 people broke 5 the year I graduated. Two of them were really athletic guys that had done so in 8th grade!Our cross team wasn't that great, but we still made the state meet in our average sized state.I looked at the state meet results and aside from the winning team, every other team (27 total) had one or more guys run 17+ for the 5K. 17 is roughly equivalent to a 5 minute mile, so for "fast" schools, its normal to have only 5 or so people break 5. Of course, these teams are much faster than the average team; most teams are much worse than this.

Really anyone?

C'mon girls

This guy says everyone can run a five minute mile.

We must not be doing it right.

Frank Shorter never broke 4 minutes for the mile. But you're telling me 480,000 other males could with the "right" training.

Dude, you're delusional.

Id say given 3-4 months of training.. 6:30-7:30

No way. Even if society was different and every able bodied person lived an active and vigorous life a large percentage of people would never break 5 minutes. They simply aren't made to go that fast and could never be trained to go that fast. As it is, most people are so out of shape that they could never come close to their potential.

IDK if anyone mentioned this but the Presidential Physical Fitness Award requires 85 percentile and tops out at a 6:06 mile for 17 year old boys. If 6:06 is 85 percentile, then sub-5:00 is going to be 99 percentile.

Also the percentiles used for the Presidential PFA are based on 1985 figures, and the situation has gotten even worse since then:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/presidential-fitness-test-now-awarded-to-any-kid-w,26857/

(joke)

Anyone could run sub 5 if they cared and trained appropriately since they were say 40 or younger. Also, they may not initially start out with a good body type for running but they develop through hard work into a successful runner. For example, I stumbled upon a blog post once about a guy who never ran before or did any sports. After college he was in his early 20s, probablly about 5 ft 8-10, and 300ish pounds. One day he decided he wanted to lose weight, so went to the gym everyday and started using the treadmill. At first he could only jog 2 minutes at 10-12 min mile pace, but he kept working, quit drinking, and stayed motivated. A little over a year later he was down to 160 pounds and could regularly run 4-6 miles at 800 pace. He trained for a marathon off a suggestion of his dad, then quit runnning for a few months because he got lazy, trained for the same marathon the next year and did less training and felt less fit but beat his time by almost 20 minutes. Then he took training seriously and regularly trained twice a day and a year or 2(can't remember), later he ran that same marathon race in 2:46. Not too bad for a guy that used to weigh 300 pounds, now he weighs like 130 I think and has gotten his marathon down to 2:42. So, that's just an example, with enough work and dedication anyone can become a very good runner no matter their body type when they start or if they're untalented.

Easy...

...ANY male raised from a young age, that trained hard for years and years with the best coaching, strength training, nutrition and all the other glamours of the running world that athletes like the pros get could break 4:30 in the mile and run a sub 16 min 5k. Even without these luxuries it is still possible if years of training and dedication to a healthy diet are maintained.

The only reason people don't think everyone has the "talent" is because our society allows many people to be overweight and lazy so the thought of running a mile is so nonexistent that people would hardly consider training, except for a few of us lucky runners.

NotAustin18 wrote:

Anyone could run sub 5 if they cared and trained appropriately since they were say 40 or younger. Also, they may not initially start out with a good body type for running but they develop through hard work into a successful runner. For example, I stumbled upon a blog post once about a guy who never ran before or did any sports. After college he was in his early 20s, probablly about 5 ft 8-10, and 300ish pounds.

You aren't talking about body type - you are talking about weight. If Ryan Hall got his weight up over 300 pounds and then lost it he would still have the same natural talent the whole time, but he would have more or less weight to lug around and more weight would slow him down.

I'm talking about people who are very tall, big boned, barrel chested, big hipped, with awkward lumbering gaits from the way their hips are placed, and so on. You aren't recognizing the diversity in physical types out there regardless of obesity, and you are underestimating how hard a 5 minute mile is for people who aren't built to run fast. Just go someplace busy and watch the people - the range of physical types is amazing.

This is directed words insane. You honestly don't think that some people are more adept at doing certain activities (whether certain sports or subjects) than others? I have friends that broke 5 minutes in 8th grade while only running 3 months a year. Then I had a teammate that ran a 6:30 MILE as a HS senior because he was not blessed with a body meant for running nor a good motor. He had run track and cross for years....I know guys that within one year of running and only doing 40mpw and a little bit of quality, they get 15:30 for the 5K. Others have been running for years and get to 20. If somebody reaches a certain time with much less mileage, quality, and in half the time, shouldn't we call him more "talented"? I really hope that you are a troll and not being serious.

insane wrote:

I suggested that 1-2% may be a more reasonable assessment for a 4 minute mile, not a 5 minute mile (keyword 'maybe' to ensure the proper context from which we're working).

With that said, 1% more than encompasses outliers, and I would certainly say sub 4 would be an outlier, wouldn't you?

So 480,000 healthy men optimally trained from childhood with a program that culminates in sub 4 peak condition? Is that really that far-fetched?

No way. You guys put far more stock into some mystical concept of 'talent' than you do the life-long pursuit of excellence. I think that's just a scapegoat way of approaching things.[/quote]

you're going on and on about 4 min. miles when that was just a small tangent in regards to some b.s. analysis that only 1-2% are capable of sub 5.

that's the cogent point here.

anyway, I stick to what I said because you guys just brazenly ignore it as an excuse to justify why you were never as good as you could have been if you'd done everything correctly.

I don't know why it bothers you so much. How were you supposed to know what you should have done to be a sub 4 min miler when you were six years old?

there's more to life than that.

anyway, i'm done with this thread. you guys can make excuses for yourself as much as you want. some people whinge, some people do.

Yeah, his school was an anomaly when he was there. Even so, 13 of 1000 is 1.3%. He then makes a HUGE leap to say that many baseball players, etc. could do it if they wanted to...no way...there's a reason they play the sports they do...sports needing power and bursts of speed and not endurance. Of the 4 kids in my class who could run sub 5 minutes, one was on the baseball team. He ran CC in the fall and was ok (mid 17s). The baseball coach wanted the team to race a timed mile, so they came over to the track as the track team was finishing up one day. The baseball players were all saying that the dude Keith was so fast he could beat all of us (Keith knew better though). I was wondering where they were in the fall when it was constantly announced that I won such and such a race in CC with never a mention of Keith, but whatever. My track coach then gave us distance guys an opportunity to race the baseball team...we did. 3 of us on the track team ran sub 5:00 with two of us running in the 4:30s, the baseball guy ran 4:58, and no other baseball player broke 6:30.Times that we have run often seem pedestrian, because we look at world class runners and know the difference. For the general population, even if they were to train for it, a 5 minute mile is smokin' fast and simply out of reach for them.

oldhalfmileguy wrote:

funny you should mention that

My schools basketball coach wanted his team to be in the best shape. EVERYONE had to run a sub 5 minute mile before they could be on the team. Funny to see these big guys with basketball shoes run. Most made it in the first attempt. They all made it by the third try. a 6 ft 5 fwd/center had the fastest time 4 39.

BS. Complete lie.

NotAustin18 wrote:

So, that's just an example, with enough work and dedication anyone can become a very good runner no matter their body type when they start or if they're untalented.

So anyone can be a "very good" runner. So your curve of running potential is nothing like a bell. Everyone is on the far left.

insane wrote:

anyway, i'm done with this thread. you guys can make excuses for yourself as much as you want. some people whinge, some people do.

Why aren't you in the Olympics?

random a hole wrote:

NotAustin18 wrote:

So, that's just an example, with enough work and dedication anyone can become a very good runner no matter their body type when they start or if they're untalented.

So anyone can be a "very good" runner. So your curve of running potential is nothing like a bell. Everyone is on the far left.

I think he is saying it is a bell, just the overall bell is shifted well left, and would certainly have a smaller SD than what we see now.

i.e. you might have 16:00 being the middle; and by current standards relative to the population 17:30, or even 18:30, is a very good runner.

Get Real wrote:

[quote]insane wrote:

[quote]chinocochio wrote:

So 18 americans broke 4 minutes in 2011, which was by far the most ever for a single year. If we assume that everybody trained their hardest and reached their genetic potential (and 1% could break 4, as the previous poster suggested), then 480,000 young american men could have broken 4 in 2011? Going from 18 to 480,000? Really? I doubt it. Talent is needed. Very few will be sufficiently talented. Not everybody is capable of doing sport or job A, B, C.

I was assuming that there were 160 million men in the US in 2011 since there are 320 million americans alive and that 30 percent were "young" males.

I suggested that 1-2% may be a more reasonable assessment for a 4 minute mile, not a 5 minute mile (keyword 'maybe' to ensure the proper context from which we're working).

With that said, 1% more than encompasses outliers, and I would certainly say sub 4 would be an outlier, wouldn't you?

So 480,000 healthy men optimally trained from childhood with a program that culminates in sub 4 peak condition? Is that really that far-fetched?

quote]

You may put too much stock into some "mystical concept" of optimally trained life-long pursuit of excellence.

most of us train hard and try many systems and never get better then the we were after a few months of training

long term growth is a pipe dream of the mediocare

You're right! It's complete BS. I was on the basketball team that he's referring to and no one could run a sub 5 minute mile.

oldhalfmileguy wrote:

funny you should mention that

My schools basketball coach wanted his team to be in the best shape. EVERYONE had to run a sub 5 minute mile before they could be on the team. Funny to see these big guys with basketball shoes run. Most made it in the first attempt. They all made it by the third try. a 6 ft 5 fwd/center had the fastest time 4 39.

Now, that's a COACH!

Yes,

It is very possible to run a 5 minute mile if you train, BUT you also have to have the genetics and body type. Most people forget you need some upper body strength for that too, I never realized that in high school (hence why I never broke 5 minutes back then)

I routinely used to break a 5 minute mile, but here is my exercise routine

5 miles/morning

P90X

10 miles/night

When I was 5% body fat, I broke a 4 minute mile, once (it was down hill and didn't feel to well afterwards). Unfortunately injuries set me back a while, probably never be able to do that again.

Here's what your quarter splits if you want to break a 5 min/mile