I met a guy whose PR 1 mile was 6:10 but his Marathon pace was 7:05, how?

1) A person's PR at any given distance is not necessarily the same thing as "their all out pace."

2) When a person has two inconsistent PRs, as this guy does, it's likely not as much physiological incongruity as you presume. It's much more likely a case of one PR being weaker, fluffier, and far easier for him to surpass on a good day, in a competitive environment, with a week of the right physical and mental preparation than the other is.

3) People do vary in their relative speed at shorter and longer distances. We often presume that it's different "fast" people at 100 meters and one mile and it typically is. We often presume that proficiency at one mile and 26.2 miles are shared by the same people. The truth is, with respect to the marathon, it's the first distance where some runners ever beat teammates, friends, training partners, who have beaten them in every mile, 2 mile, 5K, 10K race they've ever had. Some people really are more gifted in the marathon than otherwise faster runners in races of 5-45 minutes.

Think McFly Think!

shufflin' heel striker, can't run a sub-80 400. Happens all the time.

When was that 6:10? What was his training like when he ran it.

I would be shocked if he could not go sub 6 when marathon fit.

Bifff wrote:

Think McFly Think!

Maybe he never ran a mile race. I recall some 2:49 marathoners that qualified for Boston back in the day.

They never raced under 10k because there were no 5k road races back in the early 1980's.

They would barely break 37:00 in local 10k's and run marathons at less than a minute more per mile.

Kind of like all the Japanese 29:00 10k marathon specialists that run 2:08 marathons.

I'm sure a guy who ran a 3:04-3:05 marathon would be able to run at least 5:30 mile even in the middle of training for a marathon if he tried.

He said he has never broke 6:10. I asked him like 4 days ago. But his marathon pace is consistently very good as he ran a 3:06 a few weeks ago.

His training runs all are in the ~7:00 average.

Just curious how this actually works as my PR mile is like 5:49 and i can't hold a 7:00 pace like that. It's rather odd as the energy expenditure for a 7:00 mile would be literally like 80% of his max. Seems like his HR would be hella elevated to hold a 7min for 3 hours.

Likely that he pretty much never attempts to run a mile all out. I'd bet that when he did run that 6:10 it was on a whim and he went out way too fast and died.

I've coached a couple guys who broke 3 hours for the first time. We finished one of our long workouts with a mile as fast as they could go. Both ran low 5:50 at the end of a 10 mile workout. For one it was a lifetime pr. The other guy ran in high school so it wasn't his fastest. The point is that most adult runners don't have the opportunity or maybe even interest to race a mile. My marathon pr equates to around 4:30. Well I never raced a mile when I was in my best marathon shape so my mile pr is relatively slower than my marathon.

I have run many mile races and barely broken 5:00 if at all (4:58 1600m is my PR). But my marathon PR is 2:37:XX.

What can I say, I didn't train specifically for the mile once highschool ended and I have no fast twitch muscles. I did high mileage, lots of tempo runs, and speedwork. I did the same training as everyone else, just slightly higher mileage than some.

I probably obsessed more about distance running than my natural ability warranted, but I totally loved it.

My mile PR was an honest effort by the way in PR shape, I'm just terrible at shorter distances. My shorter PRs if you're curious are:

200m: 30.X secs

400m: 65 secs

800m: 2:24 (I loathe this distance)

1600m: 4:58

3200m: 10:10

5000m: 16:2X

Half Marathon: 1:14:2X

Marathon: 2:37:XX