Why is it so hard for girls to run under 5 for the mile

If you are really serious, you have a lot to learn about the differences between boys and girls. I don't suggest you start by comparing mile times.

birdsandbees wrote:

If you are really serious, you have a lot to learn about the differences between boys and girls. I don't suggest you start by comparing mile times.

OK I'm just asking

Because they're afraid that if they get on the juice they'll grow a moustache.

you probably go to a small school, all of our varsity girls are sub 19 5kers... and we have girls who have gone sub 5....

girls and guys are about 40 seconds per mile different i think, so thats worth a 4:20 mile... why is it hard for guys to go sub 4:20? Thats fast...

I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that your fastest guy runs just barely under 5:00 for a mile. And just barely under 17:30 in XC. Am I right?

Not enough of the fast guys self-identify as girls.

My general rule of thumb is that for high school, a guy's time plus 40 seconds per mile is the girls' time equivalent. So a 5:40 girl ~ 5:00 guy. 4:59 girl ~ 4:19 guy.

Last year, on athletic.net, 279 girls broke 5 out of 47,376 (in the 1600). There are 69,642 guys 1600 times on there, and 279/47,376 is about 410/69,642. The 410th guy is 4:18. The 279th guy is 4:17.00

So sub 5 for girls is about sub 4:18 for dudes. How many sub 4:20 guys does your team have? How many on less than 30 mpw?

A few thoughts:First it comes down to talent. No matter how hard some girls train they aren't going to run but so fast. In saying that if anyone trains smart they can run pretty well. Which brings me to my second point which is what are they doing for training? As an aussie coach I recently had a 10th grade girl run 4:32 for 1500m (about 4:50 for 1600m). Now she probably only ran 20-25 miles a week at most. She is talented her long run during the season was 5 1/2 miles. At the moment her training group is a bunch of 14/15 year boys who are all around the same ability. If I was coaching in the states I would encourage boys and girls to train together. Yes there are slight differences but they should be doing similar workouts. The above female does similar workouts to the 11th grade boy who I coach who ran 3:56 for 1500m this weekend. I have a 13 year old girl that ran 18:08 for 5k this weekend and she runs about 20 miles a week but does swimming and cycling as well. It is not hard to get girls to run fast you just have to create the environment. We have a 20 year old female that has run 33:59 and 16:30 for 5k so everyone thinks and believes they can run fast. Why not?

Thanks this was very insightful

Our top 3 guys have prs of 4:29 1600 9:44 3200 2:04 800 15:58 5k4:30 1600 9:55 3200 2:10 800 16:09 5k4:38 1600 10:26 3200 2:05 800 16:21 5k

The reason breaking 5:00 for a girl is very difficult is because of the prerequisite skills needed to run that fast.

For my runners, sub 5:00 (boys or girls) has taken:

2:15 800m ability

10:48 3200m ability

If you're in a small school, all of the girls that could potentially run 2:15 (60-61 second 400m ability) are running sprints.

10:48 3200m ability is fairly rare, even with highly aerobic training.

Because the patriarchy.

If they run that fast, their uteri will fall out.