Usain Bolt Sub 5?

He could do it. He used to do the 400m so he has some endurance talent. His super fast speed will make a 75 second 400 feel like nothing, of course at the end it might be hard for him, but I think he could do it. Michael Johnson also personally said that Usain Bolt can beat his 400m world record, so a 75 would really feel like nothing to him

thedub wrote:

My friend thinks Bolt could easily drop a sub 5 mile. I think it would be impossible for him, unless he specifically trained for it. Does he get the sub 5 or no?

Laughable

Absolutely not

It's been discussed before. What hasn't been done is someone just straight out ask him. He's on twitter. Who's going to ask him his mile time? Why not?

Why laughable?

I don't think it takes much to run a sub 5. I know some lean non-track athletes that joined track and broke 5 in no time. I think he would easily do it.

I think we can all agree that he can run a 4x.xx 400m, so even if he has TERRIBLE progression of endurance, he will still go something like 1:59 800m and 4:50 mile. Which as you can see is a pretty bad drop off in endurance that I think we can give Usain credit for being able to do. We know that he has an extremely high lactate threshold, which is just as important in the mile as endurance.

Usain Bolt could break 5 easily, its not fast.

And MJ is wrong, Bolt probably would not break his WR in the 400. Bolt has never closed a 400 strongly and effortlessly even when he was a junior.

He might have broken 44 if he had trained for 400, but him having the WR at 400 is a joke.

I think Bolt could run a sub-5 mile easily. But just curious for comparison, have any world-class sprinters run a mile while in their prime? Carl Lewis? Leroy Burrell? Anyone?

He could go something like 55, 65, 85, 85. That seems reasonable. 2:00 800 wouldn't be that fast for him as he is a 45.XX 400 guy if I am correct. And then closing at 5:50 pace isn't unreasonable at all. Or he could honestly try and run 75, 75, 75 and then kick as that 1st 600-800 would be a jog for him.

IMO 400m runners require the tallest or second tallest athletes. don't say that michael johnson is only 6'1 or whatever in your argument. he has run 19.19, michael got kind of close. if he trained his endurance, i think it'd be possible.

Bolt could easily run sub 5, you guys are crazy.

Bro I was a 10.3/10.4 100. 46 400 is that considered World Class?? Anyway, When I was slower than that probably 10.5/10.6 I trained for a month and ran 4:28.

So I would say under 5 is easy.

I think he could, but am not totally sure.

I don't think we should take endurance training for granted - a mile isn't 50/50 aerobic, anaerobic, it's mostly aerobic. I ran 4:40 after a few months of training when I was 14 and by that metric, would think Bolt could clearly break 5.

However, I knew some solid 800 runners who were terrible at the mile because they didn't do anything but intervals, which is what I suspect Bolt does (strength, sprints, etc).

My hunch is yes, but I don't think it's certain. The 200 is a whole different beast. If he trained for it, then absolutely, no problem... but if he had to run a mile race the week after Rio, it's not certain to me.

Why would he want to jog at half the speed he can sprint? That's for losers that post on here and make believe distance running actually means something. Well, it does mean something. It means you're too slow to do anything else. That, Bolt isn't.

coach d wrote:

Why would he want to jog at half the speed he can sprint? That's for losers that post on here and make believe distance running actually means something. Well, it does mean something. It means you're too slow to do anything else. That, Bolt isn't.

You've clearly never run 10 miles at 5 min flat pace and finished and felt fine the rest of the day. Until you do it then you can call it jogging.

Who cares???

I promise you he could.

Just like olympictruth I was a sprinter (albeit slower at 10.9, 21.5). For fun I raced a soccer playing buddy in a mile. We both broke 5 (barley)

unless Bolt has far crappier endurance than me I think he is good. 5 is pretty pedestrian.

Can he run the equivalent 17:18?

therealrunner wrote:

I promise you he could.

Just like olympictruth I was a sprinter (albeit slower at 10.9, 21.5). For fun I raced a soccer playing buddy in a mile. We both broke 5 (barley)

unless Bolt has far crappier endurance than me I think he is good. 5 is pretty pedestrian.

Yes he has crappier endurance than you. Because he is much, much, much faster. You are not even worth mentioning as a comparison.

Been discussed here before but the correct answer is Bolt may break 5 but it would be barely, like a decathlete. They struggle with the 1500m and lots can run 45/46 and train for the 1500m at least a bit.

I think some of you here are under the impression that a sub 5 minute mile is hard. Bolt could probably run under 5. I think he could even have a shot at 4:30. Don't forget that while he's an incredible sprinter, he's also a very good overall athlete. I've known high schoolers who come off the football field running in the vicinity of 5 minutes for a mile, why would Bolt be any less gifted than them?

I think he runs sub 5 in a race, 4:30 on a month of training. If we're talking about a time trial that might be a different story.