Detroit Piston Richard Hamilton a 4:30 miler?

Phoenix wrote:

I ran a 4:24 mile, 1:55 800, 51.12 400 in HS off of 15-20 miles a week. I do not consider myself super talented.

Well, I do. I'm pretty sure that most here would consider you super talented.

It is possible that he has the ability to run a 4:30 mile. But I have a problem with his casual jump: "I can run a mile under 5:00. Probably like 4:30."

There is a huge difference between 5:00 and 4:30 as most know. It is a bit doubtful that he could step on to the track and run much under 5 without some specific training.

BCT wrote:

but I bet a couple guys on each of all of the other teams, except maybe bowling and archery, could have at least given me a stern challenge, if not beat me, with little to no training outside of what they did for basketball, soccer, or whatever.

A couple guys on each team could run close to 4:36 without training for it? Not a chance. Maybe one or two guys from soccer or lacrosse, but none of the other sports. What kind of training do you think these guys do for football, basketball, or baseball? Nothing that's going to help them much in a mile race, that's for sure.

I agree, that is ridiculous to assume that one or two kids one each team could run 4:36... 4:36 and 4:45 at completely diff. worlds. I think that Rip could run 5:00.

I ran 4:40 off of only a little jogging and 20 pounds overweight. I'm sure there are a number of NBA players that could run faster than that, considering they, for the most part, are in great physical condition.

I think Rip could go around 4:40-4:50. He has the ability to probably run a 4:10 or faster if he quit basketball and trained for running, but I think some other methods of training would be needed to run a 4:30.

dukerdog wrote:

A couple guys on each team could run close to 4:36 without training for it? Not a chance. Maybe one or two guys from soccer or lacrosse, but none of the other sports.

That's just not true. I played high school tennis, and when I was 19 hadn't "trained" a grand total of 30 miles since my brief stint with HS track in 10th grade--by that I mean running outside playing other sports. I did play a lot of tennis and pickup ball. Summer after my freshman year, I made a little money from selling some software I happened across, so I bought a bunch of stuff off ebay, including track spikes. The day they came I went out to the track, ran a 4:34 1600, first time in my life I'd ever worn racing shoes. That's a 4:36 mile chief, off tennis training. And I'm no great talent either, my best 1500m is still only 4:02.

Why do you think teams like York or the Woodlands get amazing teams year after year? It's because cross country is THE sport, and the guys who make it so good are the same ones who would be playing soccer, basketball, football, and other sports at other high schools.

I agree.What a load.

My best for a mile is 4:26......,I think,but probably,more like 3:56. Somewhere in that 30 second range....and probably closer to 3:56.

New Yasso test for running a 5 minute mile. Put treadmill on incline run 1 minute at 8mph = 1 mile run in 5 minutes or 4:30.

The thing everyone....well, almost everyone....is forgetting .... is that Hamilton said "probably like 4:30," which could very well mean....like....4:45. Which is a lot less dubious than 4:30

You missed the point. The point wasn't that the training for said sports was so good that their athletes would all be ready to run their best, the point was that there were a lot of people who just happened to be vastly superior athletes who chose to play baseball, basketball, and football. My team grabbed the kid who ended up setting the school home course record in XC off of the bench of the basketball team in 10th grade, after he ran a 4:39 in gym class. He wasn't a good basketball player, but he was a good athlete, and he wanted to play basketball, not run. He ended up being the #1 man on an ok DIII team in college (25:00 8K in XC, 30:50 10K on the track). It wasn't that basketball training was so good that all of the basketball players could beat all of the runners, it was that for the most part, the track team was composed of all of the rejects from the other sports, like me, who weren't athletic enough to do anything else. Decent athletes, like him, who could put one foot in front of the other without tripping and falling down, wanted to play basketball.

dukerdog wrote:

BCT wrote:

but I bet a couple guys on each of all of the other teams, except maybe bowling and archery, could have at least given me a stern challenge, if not beat me, with little to no training outside of what they did for basketball, soccer, or whatever.

A couple guys on each team could run close to 4:36 without training for it? Not a chance. Maybe one or two guys from soccer or lacrosse, but none of the other sports. What kind of training do you think these guys do for football, basketball, or baseball? Nothing that's going to help them much in a mile race, that's for sure.

This nonsense coming from people about having no talent is absurd. Analyze the following:

"I ran a 51 400 and 4:30 mile without training, but I really don't have any talent."

Let me say that that is offensive to a number of athletes at many schools, myself included, who train as hard as our bodies allow (and if want the catalogue of injuries from our team training TOO hard, I can give it to you) in all conditions and reasonably intelligently too and who have not run 4:30 for the mile or 50 for the 400.

And there are not potential 4:30 milers infesting every school in America. A few from the soccer team once in a while, sure. "A lot"? No way. And it's an insult to suggest that it is so easy to run those times. Many have run that and faster, but that does not mean it is easy.

I believe Rip could run a sub 5:00 mile, the article is just poorly written or worded by Rip that it makes him sound like he does not know what he is talking about as far as running goes.

i don't really think his mile time is that high up on his priority list. its just one time he said "ive ran sub 5" and since then stupid running media publications and dumbasses like the people on this board make a huge deal out of it. who gives a shit.

"I made a little money from selling some software I happened across, so I bought a bunch of stuff off ebay, including track spikes."

You're 19, you've made a little money, you're into tennis, so you go on e-bay and buy track spikes? What else did you get, a fondu set, chia pet and Gideons Bible?

"I ran 4:40 off of only a little jogging and 20 pounds overweight."

I could believe that, if your football/basketball/soccer/Phys.Ed. coach's "mile" around the practice field was 200m-600m short. What you described is insanely better than what distance prodigies in HS ran for their first mile, when they were already fit (not +20 pounds), and went on to win Footlocker on 35-40 mpw and then went on to win NCAA and USA titles and make the Olympic finals.

there's nothing like a bunch of runners getting together to bash on other sports where they claim athletes don't work hard enough to achieve times runners can.

people here need to remember there is a whole lot of difference between running a fast mile and a fast 5K or something. anybody who is engaging in an activity where they sustain activity at a high level for more than a few minutes (this eliminates football and baseball, which are more explosive sports), can run a decent mile. and i think just about any NBA guard/forward or pro soccer player or pro biker or olympic swimmer and the such can easily run sub 5:00. that's five minutes of sustained effort. anyone who is in the condition these sorts of athletes need to be in can do that no problem. 4:30 might be stretching it some but give me three weeks with him and i'll have him there.

and quit this "i ran 4:30 in high school and it's really hard" or "the basketball players at my high school couldn't do that" garbage. hamilton ain't in high school anymore, people. he's at the highest level of his sport. you don't get there by having a pretty jump shot alone. these guys work hard and are in superb physical condition. and i'm sorry to break this to all of you, but 4:45 is not exceptionally hard to achieve. maybe you struggled with it as a pre-pubescent high schooler. any developed athlete should be able to hit that mile time range quite easily, especially when they're in peak physical shape at their peak physical age.

It seems to me you folks are giving basketball players too much credit for being in shape.

Go watch an NBA game. Put a watch on the downtime for timeouts, tv timeouts, foul shots, etc.

You will be amazed. Even at the pro level, the sport doesn't require much speed endurance at all.

The comparisons with soccer players are also out of line. Soccer requires quite a bit of speed endurance.

water cooler wrote:

"I made a little money from selling some software I happened across, so I bought a bunch of stuff off ebay, including track spikes."

You're 19, you've made a little money, you're into tennis, so you go on e-bay and buy track spikes? What else did you get, a fondu set, chia pet and Gideons Bible?

Haha, that's actually kinda funny. In fact, I bought a number of posters most of which I've never opened, some clothes, a heart rate monitor, and some artificial turf soccer cleats. 2 years later and pretty broke I wish I had saved some of that money. I got the cleats for the same reason as the track spikes, I was at a D1 school and thought it would be cool to try out for a sport (which I did unsuccessfully). Don't believe me, take a look at my ebay transaction history in July 2002.

chuck d wrote:

it requires plenty of speed endurance, even with all the time-outs. i think everyone knows what these guys do. they play thirty-six minutes of high effort within a roughly two hour period.

Somebody get a speedometer on a Richard Hamilton during on of his games, then use the data to make an equivalent fartlek workout. Now have a HS runner with a 4:30 PR to run that workout, and if he has decent 800m and 400m times to handle the occasional fast break, I'm confident he would breeze through it. Then have Hamilton try to run a 4:30 without any special training for it.