When was your last sub 6 mile????????

Yesterday during a normal run I ran a 5:58 mile

39, male. I had a 4x1-mile workout in January, 6:03/5:38/6:02/5:30. Back and forth, had some hills, so miles 1 and 3 had were net elev gain, 2 and 4 net loss. I hadn't run a sub-18 5K in many years... Mostly I run slow tech trail miles in the hills, so usually more like 8-13 minute miles.

P.S. I still haven't run sub-18 5K on account of DNS.

a mile hasn't taken me 6 minutes yet b!tches

I wish we could re-race my state championship from 1994...I think I have a chance!

DoItOften wrote: LR Comments are funny. The young folks act like their running prowess is a given and it will last forever. The people running on HS and college teams are usually wild outliers from the general population, even if they are "nothing special" like I was and am.

I agree. My last sub-six mile came back when I was a callow 70. It was almost exactly six years ago on May 15, 2010, at what was called a "Terror Trail Race", a four miler in Oswego, IL, that began with a half mile straight on a dirt road and then entered a tangle of flat trails. I took the "terror" hype seriously and sprinted out the first mile in the lead at around 5:50, assuming that the actual trails would be too terrible to manage at reasonable speed. I could hardly believe the sub six time, but I completed the race in 27:38, ending 7th overall, by far my best race in the last six years. Haven't come close to a 6 minute mile pace since, but recently ran 15K at age 76 averaging 8:41. You can keep going if you keep going.

Four years ago. I got older and after 30 years of competitive running, all those little injuries finally took their toll. Hobby jogger now. It was a fun ride while it lasted.

Truthfully? My last sub-6:00 was probably in 2009, at age 30, in a track session of 3 X mile at 5:45-50.

Missed a few years of running due to plantar fascitis after that, and after physical therapy and reconfigured goals/standards, I'm fairly pleased to run 35 MPW. Most of my running is around 7:00-30 miles, with intervals about once a week. I have probably had the fitness for a sub-6:00 for at least two years (maybe a 5:40 mile with a focused effort), as I regularly run workouts like 4 X 800 in 2:55 and 3 X mile in 6:20.

This thread should absolutely be a warning to younger runners! At my peak (15:40 5K) I was running 60 MPW, almost all of it at 6:00-30 pace! A 10 mile tempo in 57-59 min was common, and now this is a HARD pace.

Sunday during a 20 miler, but I had the wind to my back, so there's that.

ggilder wrote:

I agree. My last sub-six mile came back when I was a callow 70. It was almost exactly six years ago on May 15, 2010, at what was called a "Terror Trail Race", a four miler in Oswego, IL, that began with a half mile straight on a dirt road and then entered a tangle of flat trails. I took the "terror" hype seriously and sprinted out the first mile in the lead at around 5:50, assuming that the actual trails would be too terrible to manage at reasonable speed. I could hardly believe the sub six time, but I completed the race in 27:38, ending 7th overall, by far my best race in the last six years. Haven't come close to a 6 minute mile pace since, but recently ran 15K at age 76 averaging 8:41. You can keep going if you keep going.

This is legitimately rad. How competitive were you in your younger days.

Does running on a treadmill count? I ran 5:00 in an Orange Theory class two weeks ago. I thought that was okay for an almost 39 year old. So glad I did it but I'll never try that again.

My last cross, which was at the end of october. Opening mile was 5:07. So coming up on 6 months. I haven't run more than 50 miles in that time. Normal life is....well, normal.

blargh wrote:

My last cross race, which was at the end of october. Opening mile was 5:07. So coming up on 6 months. I haven't run more than 50 miles in that time. Normal life is....well, normal.

and my last sub 5 was two years ago in a road mile, 4:39. I only ran it once in my only college track season and ran 5:01 (which was appalling to me). 2 years of college has gone by really really fast. And i think i just stopped having a passion for running. I guess it was most fun when all my best friends did it and our high school team was great. Running alone doesn't really do it for me, and I don't really miss it that much. Occasionally doing strides on the track after a couple miles at the gym gets the nostalgia going.

today

Yesterday. Ran 5:15 mile downhill. sub 5:00 mile, however? Never...

DoItOften wrote:

Age slows you down, so does a job, family, etc. But talent never goes away.

Over 40, full family, with a difficult job. Not a big deal. I know many plus 50 runners that easily run sub 6:00 miles in 5ks. Not talented either. Sub 5:00 is where the difficulty lies and requires talent with age.

Many 50plus guys? dropping sub 6 in 5ks? Show me the results from a local 5k?

Just saying "many" sounds a bit hyped. I am sure in a few big cities with huge track clubs it could exist, but very few 50 year old guys who weren't college elite runners can run sub-19 in a 5k.

I certainly believe there are many 50+ guys running that fast, but it isn't common to see a pack of them. I haven't seen a 5k lately with more than 1-2 guys total running that fast in the results. It is very doable I agree, but few guys who do it can stay healthy or have stayed running.

Maybe in Portland or Boulder? Or any city with a population of a small country.

I have 2 friends 50 plus who were silly fast in their youth.

-1 of them was a 4:10 guy in college and the other ran I believe 2:15ish marathon sort of a guess not easy to track down results from 25 years ago.

The marathoner has run his whole life and I bet can't run a 21 minute 5k. He is lean and fit but injuries have slowed him to a crawl.

The other (4:10 guy) could run maybe around 16-17 minutes in a 5k inbetween injuries which seem to come like the plague. He certainly can run sub-5 in 1 mile, but will/would be crippled for 2-3 months shortly after either from the effort or from training shortly after.

From my experience I bet most of my high school cross team from the early 1990s there are only a few guys left 20 years later than can run under 19 and even more unlikely under 18.

We get older and slower mainly from lifestyle and injury. Alcohol, weight gain, and just inconsistent training. I think the vo2 system and engine can handle the workload easily, but we to torture and trash the chassis until it breaks or until it's so covered in fat that we can't get the momentum back.

Weight graded, I kick ass , well under 6 handicapped that way.

couple days ago in my mile repeats

Older not faster wrote:

Many 50plus guys? dropping sub 6 in 5ks? Show me the results from a local 5k?

Just saying "many" sounds a bit hyped. I am sure in a few big cities with huge track clubs it could exist, but very few 50 year old guys who weren't college elite runners can run sub-19 in a 5k.

I can only think of 2 or 3 I run against regularly in my city (pop 1.x M). We just had the national 5k champs (total pop 5M) and that had 14 M50s running 18.38 or faster but most are from the east coast - the race was held in Edinburgh so maybe not all the Glasgow guys could be bothered to travel for it.

I checked some of the recent Glasgow parkrun 5ks and struggled to spot anyone doing it.

True about Portland. Bowerman 5k has several 50+ sub 6:00 runners competing.