Hypothetically, how fast could an elite endurance athlete with minimal running ability run a mile?

Male or female?

I intended the question for male athletes and my guess of sub 4:30 was for them, too, but I am curious what women could do as well if they were training in similar ways. Sub 5, minimum?

Well years ago at either the Bislett Games or the Oslo Games (I don't remember which) They had a two mile race for the Norweigian men's cross country ski team. Legendary Bjorn Dahlie ran 8:58. If I remember correctly he was first or second. This was in the summer when most training would have been running and roller skiing. So likely he had several months of 3-4 days a week of running.

Based on that two mile time I would think he would be at least capable of 4:15 or better. This would have been early to mid 1990s

Just looked him up. Wow, those Norwegians really do some incredible endurance training. Take a look at the Ingebrigtsens as another example. Both known for incredible VO2 maxes, as well as efficient vVO2 maxes. Curious about what type of training leads to such economical distance capabilities

They are fit but some wouldn't be good at running even though they probably all run as cross training.

varies greatly wrote:

They are fit but some wouldn't be good at running even though they probably all run as cross training.

Even with that variation, I am confident all elites could run at least sub 4:40 in a full mile. Women at least sub 5:10.

Completely depends on the athlete. Some could run fast right off the bat, some it's going to take a lot of work and they'll still not be very fast.

I've known elite Olympic/World Cup level skiers who would struggle running a sub 5 minute mile, and that's with a couple months of training. But others could drop a 4:10-4:15 without much specific work. And as mentioned, Ben True ran sub 4 indoors while in college and I think that was in the midst of a fair amount of ski training--think he was juggling two seasons at the same time.

Ole Klaebobakken Einar Dahlen Bjornstruddel wrote:

Well years ago at either the Bislett Games or the Oslo Games (I don't remember which) They had a two mile race for the Norweigian men's cross country ski team. Legendary Bjorn Dahlie ran 8:58.

Holy crud. That guy is a complete and utter animal of an athlete - that is something like an 8-20 3k for some absolutely huge monster dude with very little running training. I just can't quite get my head around that, it would be like Arnold Schwarzenegger hammering out a 4-minute mile or something...

The other athletes I wonder about regarding the OPs question are the CrossFit athletes. I guess you could call them endurance athletes as they seem to be doing pushups and chinups for several minutes non stop so they must be the endurance equivalent to at least 5k runners or something. I remember there being a trail distance running event and duathlon at one of the CrossFit games and the guys and girls were literally hammering through the first mile in just over 5 mins which is hugely impressive when you consider the amount of weight they have to lift for their events. But still not quite as good as Bjorn MF Dahlie....

Audun Endestad, a Norwegian native and former junior national class weightlifter, took up competitive skiing after moving to the US in his 20s. At his prime was about 6'3" or 6'4" and fairly big--190 and could run 31/15 for 10K and 5K and did some very fast trail marathons. Would train high volume year around, but mostly skiing and rollerskiing. Olympian and placed in the top 20 in the 50K.