Running speeds of average people

The average man at that age, in their prime could probably sprint pretty well for about 20 seconds and would slow down to a dismal pace fir any other distance. Women wouldn’t even be capable of that because (and this isnt a dig towards women because there are lots faster than me) but untrained women dont seem to have the ability or form to sprint, whereas from what ive seen untrained men can seem to get away with it without ever working on it.

Average 400m (male in athletic prime): 77 - 85 seconds

Average 400m (female in athletic prime): 85 - 105 seconds

What I’m guessimg would happen here is the males would seriously sprint for 150m, slow down to a fast jog then pick back up again and sprint the last 70-80m.

The females would probably fast jog (because of their physical inability to sprint) and get progressively slower until the end.

Rez wrote:

The average man at that age, in their prime could probably sprint pretty well for about 20 seconds and would slow down to a dismal pace fir any other distance. Women wouldn’t even be capable of that because (and this isnt a dig towards women because there are lots faster than me) but untrained women dont seem to have the ability or form to sprint, whereas from what ive seen untrained men can seem to get away with it without ever working on it.

And I have a theory for this. Most sprint mechanics are built during childhood. The mean male spends his childhood playing football (practicing sprinting unknowingly) and the mean female spends her childhood playing dress up (not practicing).

Sprinting mechanics in your prime heavily depend on how actove you were as a youth.

Rez wrote:

The mean male spends his childhood playing football (practicing sprinting unknowingly) and the mean female spends her childhood playing dress up (not practicing).

And what do nice boys and girls spend their childhoods doing?

These similar-themed threads about what an average person could run for X distance are just idiotic.

An average, "relatively sedentary" man couldn't even hit anywhere close to 15mph, for any distance.

"Average people," even in the groups you specify, at least in the U.S., are so pathetically out of shape and physically inept that they can't even do anything resembling running, much less approach the speeds you posit in your original post.

Have you ever watched a group of people in an urban area "run"(and I use the word very loosely) for a bus, or try to beat a changing traffic light while crossing a street? Most of them can't even get their feet off the ground, and their version of a sprint is a shuffling waddle.

Dun2death wrote:

Relatively sedentary men:

4-6 miles: 6 mph

Expect a DNF (worse case) or a slow walk pace (best case).

Only a hall of fame hobby jogger would list running speeds in mph. Bro, do you even run ?

I doubt very much they would be the average times. Maybe with several months training, but if you asked a random young male, even 'non overweight' (which in the USA and UK is about 10% of the population) to run a 400m time trial tomorrow, he would 'sprint' (ie. run as fast as he can), the first 150m as you say, then slow rapidly until he's probably walking before he gets to the finishing line.

An 80 sec 400m is about equivalent to a 20 minute 5K, and you just need to look at local races to see that the average untrained male would be nowhere near capable of that.

90th percentile....probably close.

50th percentile...no way. The average dude is not running a 7:30 mile. Maybe 6-6.5 mph for 50th percentile, assuming 18-29yr old population. Take older than that and it plummets.

Those calculators wildly underestimate anaerobic ability whilst also wildly overestimating aerobic ability. Those calculators are DESEIGNED for highly trained distance runners and in no way apply to the average person. Those calculators predict your aerobic potential with your current speed and unless you’re involved in an endurance sport like distance running or cycling and have been practicing it for several years, you are going to me nowhere NEAR your aerobic potential relative to your speed.

An 80 sec 400m is about equivelent to a 25 - 30 minute 5k in the grand scheme of things. which I think most males could achieve at age 20. Overweight boys trying out for XC run around those times. I could run a sub a 75 400m before I could even break 24 in the 5k. Males are NATURALLY fast over short distance because of their genetic make ups whereas distance does not come naturally and takes training.

Lets B Reel wrote:

These similar-themed threads about what an average person could run for X distance are just idiotic.

An average, "relatively sedentary" man couldn't even hit anywhere close to 15mph, for any distance.

"Average people," even in the groups you specify, at least in the U.S., are so pathetically out of shape and physically inept that they can't even do anything resembling running, much less approach the speeds you posit in your original post.

Have you ever watched a group of people in an urban area "run"(and I use the word very loosely) for a bus, or try to beat a changing traffic light while crossing a street? Most of them can't even get their feet off the ground, and their version of a sprint is a shuffling waddle.

But He is not talking about an average person in an urban area (average by your standard probbaly means about 35-45years old, 30-40lbs overweight and possibly female) whereas He was specifically talking about MEN at a healthy weight in their athletic prime Being able to run a 4 minute mile pace for a mere 15 seconds. Especially seeing as at least half of young men played sports (mostly soccer) as children - I don’t think it would be out of the question at all.

However if you were talking about maintaining a 4 minute mile pace for any longer than 15 seconds I would have to agree. Even a 30second 200 is quite above average and a 60 second quarter is certainly out of the question for 95% of guys reguardless of age and weight. But 15 seconds, I would have to agree, is quite doable without training for MEN who wete active as children. Women would probbaly need a couple of years of training to achieve this however.

average person 15mph for 100 meters? my ass! they couldnt even run 10mph for 1 meter.

My working theory for why people keep making these threads is that it virtue signals to everyone else that they must be pretty talented, so talented in fact that these moderately impressive feats seem completely pedestrian to them. I mean, anyone who has just the most basic exposure to the general population knows that the vast majority of sedentary men (even if you narrow it down to BMI's from 18-25), aren't going to come anywhere close to a 7.5 minute mile. At least half would have to take walking breaks.

It would be like if a powerlifter started a thread and was like, "Gee, what do you guys think the average dude could bench? 225?" Everyone would understand that he doesn't really think that. What he is really trying to say to his audience is, "Guys, I'm so big and strong that benching 225 seems so trivial to me that I assume anyone could do it."

I was well aware of which groups the original poster was referring, to which is why I specified ""Average people," even in the groups you specify...". I was not referring to middle-aged women carrying 40 excess pounds, These threads always wildy overestimate what an average person is capable of athletically. I mentioned an urban area because I live in one, and I constantly see the situations I mentioned in my post. Even the vast majority of younger people at decent bodyweights are still woefully out of shape and physically inept. Go to a live music event and have a look around you; most of the people there couldn't even finish a single 400 without bending over and gasping for air.

I won't read this stupid thread, but if you got an "average person" and had them run a 400, you'd get a big surprise.

Maybe 90 percent wouldn't finish, at all.

At best, you'd maybe get one man running a mid-70, and woman maybe an 80. Unless you had a Mary Decker or Webb there or something. EVERY person on earth can run fairly fast for about 10 seconds before the bear gets on their back. There is absolutely zero chance that anyone untrained will not stop, or will dig, or whatever, to run (hold on, I'm checking what you wrote) ... you said "relatively sedentary" men will run 11 mph for 400, or 78 or something.

You are so wrong it's amazing.

Why couldn't they? I could run a 7.5 minute mile whilst I was 30lbs overweight (bin 29.5) and smoking. It was the first mile I ran in 10 years since high school, and even back then I was sedentary. I could also run a 14.5 100m any day of the week untrained.

And don't even @ me saying I'm talented. I'm big boned and still considered overweight at a bmi of 25 despite running 5x a week (for the cardiovascular benefit bc heart disease runs in the family) for 3 years. And my times still SUCK with training

15mph is doable for just about any male under 30 who isn't disabled.

Do you think that 50% of sedentary men age 20-40 with BMI's 18-25 could go out right now and run a mile in 7:30 or less? If you do, I can't even describe to you how oblivious you are.

Dun2death wrote:

If you got the entire population 20 - 40 years old with bmis of 18-25 (exclusing any overweight or underweight people) and tested their max speed over certain distances and obtained the mean score... What would you get?

My guess:

(50-55th percentiles)

Relatively sedentary men:

800M: 8.5 mph

1600M: 8 mph

The slowdown between the 800 and the 1600 would be way more than 0.5 mph.

fatbody wrote:

Grant46 wrote:

Why couldn't they? I could run a 7.5 minute mile whilst I was 30lbs overweight (bin 29.5) and smoking. It was the first mile I ran in 10 years since high school, and even back then I was sedentary. I could also run a 14.5 100m any day of the week untrained.

And don't even @ me saying I'm talented. I'm big boned and still considered overweight at a bmi of 25 despite running 5x a week (for the cardiovascular benefit bc heart disease runs in the family) for 3 years. And my times still SUCK with training

15mph is doable for just about any male under 30 who isn't disabled.

Do you think that 50% of sedentary men age 20-40 with BMI's 18-25 could go out right now and run a mile in 7:30 or less? If you do, I can't even describe to you how oblivious you are.

Why the hell not? I did.

The 50th percentile for high school boys for the mile is 7:10. and I'd bet the average high school boy is pretty damn sedentary these days. Fully grown men are stronger and faster.

7.5 minutes is below average.