How fast can Rai Benjamin run a mile? Find out here.

well i ran hill 500m repeats with a 49 400h guy with jog down.

coach threw him in with distance runners.

actually forget the exact distance.

sprinters are not cut out for this work

this poor fellow looked like he saw a ghost, as tough as a kitten.

so

430 would be pushing it without EPO.

EPO sprinters can run middle distance not the worst. like sub 420. that is with only 400 training.

it's more than blood boosting, the recovery time from hard work is cut by 1/2 to 2/3. this is probably the greater effect over hemocrit

for context: i ran against kevin young and danny everett in two different early season 800 races while at ucla, and both posted a very painful 1:50-1:51 (memory fails me on exact times); they were still 47-mid/44-low guys at the time in their respective events, though this was early season. that would put rai at least at a 1:49 even if not at peak fitness, but it would hurt. could he run two 80 second quarters back to back after? i think so, so sub 4:30 seems realistic, but he'd actually have to care about it. i will add, though, that kevin threw up immediately after his 800, so the difference in engines can't be overstated....

exactly.

thanks for this diamond story in this coal mine.

if one of these true sprinter types came up through soccer, then the mile would be less difficult, and 800 more doable without vomiting.

and you have to be a true sprinter type running 44x 400 non doubt,

garth bale comes to mind. he's a world class speed no doubt, and given an average premier league player runs about 10km / game, i wonder what this fellow could do in an 800?

of course you don't run track when you can score goals and make $20m / year, i guess that figure is low in today['s insane world.

With enough rest on that workout, I don't see how he couldn't run well under 3:40.

If you look at the pace chart, he clearly didn't stop his watch immediately after every rep. There's probably a good chunk of a few seconds post/pre each rep, totaling over 30 seconds.

I looked up his strava result, which had 4:12 total, yes, but on the graph large stretches of it say #'s sub-3:40 per mile, and it says there was at least one 54 and a 27 in there, so it does look like he was predictably moving well under 3:40 pace a good part of the way.

So we all agree almost all the elite 400/40 hurdle athletes should easily be able to run under 4:40 in the mile.

I was a top tier 400 guy 50 years ago, running 46 something on cinders, grass, and old tire rubber tracks.

At 10 years old I ran 5:30 for the mile

RB could easily gear himself to run mid 4s.

The differences in stamina among roughly similarly-performing 400m hurdlers is wild. Remember Brandon Johnson? World Athletics lists his 400 hurdles PR as 48.59--almost 2 full seconds slower than Kevin Young, yet he ran the 800 in 1:43.84. Granted it took some work for him to run that 1:43, but he was running 1:45.xx right out of the gate as soon as he switched events.

i think a consensus is 430 for a 400 sprinter or 400h, who came up from 100 200m and on 400 training, without special prep.

Brandon Johnson is a 10.4 100 guy at 17 or 18, and that means that he might be really a 10.2 guy or better if he specialized in that. his 46 mid is consistent with world class 800 men, but not an outlier, his 100m is though. so this guy is a rare breed.

that said, BJ ran 2 minutes his first time out, and 150 when his 400m was 46.

which tells the tale right there. BJ obviously specialized his traning for the 8.

and this debate isn't about what so and so could do with changing training for a few years,

what can so and so do now.

and it would be 430 ish mile,... we seem to think.

best google Brandon Johnson IAAF and look at stats, progression, for clarity