Is there a limit to the human body in the mile.?

Individuals have limits but the species does not.

It is quite likely that the top twenty to one hundred genetically superior individuals (mile-wise) have never run the mile at peak form. Some died at birth, some never tried sports, some were injured at a young age, others didn't have the psychological make-up etc., etc, So I doubt that today's best runners are the best the human race is capable of.

I am firmly convinced that the mile record could be vastly superior.

Mutations don't need thousands of years. An abhorrent gene could create the perfect running machine. But unlike an obvious mutation such as excessive height, two heads, 6 toes, mutations that would relate to perfection as a miler are more subtle thus probably missed.

If I recall, there was a study done a while back that said something like 2:45 was the physiological limit. The gauge was based on oxygen absorption rates. It was too technical for me to absorb at the time.

This thread is....something else.

Humans are NOT going to be a faster species in 10,000yrs, and we are probably no faster than we were 10,000yrs in the past.

mile times have droped a great deal in the last 100yrs, but it is not like we have "evolved" to be better runners(no selective pressure), in 100yrs.

...tracks can only get so much faster, shoes can only get so light, yes even coaching will reach its limit.

AND, of course there is a limit, you take the best human miler , from any generation, and race him against an average greyhound, and he would lose EVERY SINGLE TIME.

I am sure 10,000 years from now some stud will run the mile in 0.000 sec.Then 10,000 years later, The King of zamunda will assemble the best milers south of the Sahara to attempt a negative mile….I pretty sure the geniuses from the Zamunda institute of science and technology will have perfected time travel. I hope I answered your question.

Madein__82 wrote:

Humans are NOT going to be a faster species in 10,000yrs, and we are probably no faster than we were 10,000yrs in the past.

mile times have droped a great deal in the last 100yrs, but it is not like we have "evolved" to be better runners(no selective pressure), in 100yrs.

...tracks can only get so much faster, shoes can only get so light, yes even coaching will reach its limit.

People have been saying stuff like this for most of the last 100 years...and athletes have been making fools of them for most of the last 100 years. And as soon as you say that it is not possible to do X:XX, it just gives athletes something to shoot at. Just like the 4 minute mile or Pietro Mennea's 200.

If you take 19.32 * 2 + 4 sec = 42.64 (potential 400 time)

42.64/.87 = 49.0 (potential mile 400 pace)

So a mile in 3:15 is potentially possible with today's athletes (but this is predicted from a sprinter's 400)

Can someone ever run something "out there," like a 3 minute mile? Of course not, any more than someone can run 200 in 19.32.

LOLOL.

did it ever occur to you that those formulas (based on models), are pretty god damn worthless.

if it didnt the fact that your formula comes up with a 3:15 mile as being possible should clue you in.

jesus man, you start out with a 200m time of 19.32, lol.

no sub20sec 200m runner is EVER EVER going to hold a mile record.

I will go one step further im pretty sure the limit of human preformance in the mile, is right around 3:40.

AND, i seriously doubt anyone could really run that fast.

To the poster referring to pumping someone full of steriods and/or epo etc...

How do you think the world records now were set? I'm not saying all of them or dirty but I suspect more than a couple are.

Madein__82 wrote:

I will go one step further im pretty sure the limit of human preformance in the mile, is right around 3:40.

AND, i seriously doubt anyone could really run that fast.

I'm reading "The Perfect Mile" right now and find that statement funny. Perhaps we can save this thread and look back in 40 years.

We'll probably see sub 3:40 in our lifetime.

Yes. The fastest a human can run is 4:00. Any faster than that is just impossible; they would likely perish in an attempt to run it.

Mtn Dew wrote:

We'll probably see sub 3:40 in our lifetime.

More likely that we will see 1500m equivolents to such a time than it actually being run. The mile is run less and less with the better runners doing the 1500.

yeah whatever...El G took what , 3 ticks off Ovett? It is going to be one hell of a feat to do the same to El G.

by the way , Bannister has his place in history but, he has said some..."funny" stuff.

like how the 2:00hr mark is the marathoners 4:00min barrier.

Compare the number of elite (read abnormal physiological specimens) have specialized in the mile to the number of marathoners. The marathon is realatively new in terms of extreme focus...the mile is about 25-30 years ahead.

just wondering wrote:

Compare the number of elite (read abnormal physiological specimens) have specialized in the mile to the number of marathoners. The marathon is realatively new in terms of extreme focus...the mile is about 25-30 years ahead.

LOL...what the hell do you guys think this is horse racing??

we dont breed runners.

There are way way more competitive marathoners now, than there were fast milers in bannisters time.

Mtn Dew,

I agree sub 3:40 is probable. And I think one could calculate an approximate time based on past records. The sub 4 was when 1955? And how long after that was 3:55 broke, 3:50 and so on. If you take how many years between each 5 second achievement I think one could get a rough idea of when 3:40 will be broken. Anyone have this data?

technically then this would be .240000001 hand time.

canadian boy wrote:

ahh, actually that\'s exactly what it would mean, if that were the case. If you use evolution and adaptability as the basis of ur arguement then no, there is no limit, a million bajillion years from now, in theory, there may be descendents of humans running a mile in .000000001 seconds. However, there is a limit placed on every human, and therefore ever generation of humans. Right now, nowone on earth could break 3 minutes for the mile, it\'s just impossible to do on flat ground. so limits exist, but not if u look continuously forward at evolution

It would take 55, 55, 55, 54.99 to break 3:40. Is that so unbelieveable?

Or how about this: The WR in the 1500m is 3:26.00, in order to run 3:40 all one would have to do is hold that pace for another 109m and we'd see 3:40 point.

It's gonna happen, it's just a question of when.

Locknload wrote:

Mtn Dew,

I agree sub 3:40 is probable. And I think one could calculate an approximate time based on past records. The sub 4 was when 1955? And how long after that was 3:55 broke, 3:50 and so on. If you take how many years between each 5 second achievement I think one could get a rough idea of when 3:40 will be broken. Anyone have this data?

That would not work at all. Of course the slower the time, the shorter the time it would take an individual to improve a great amount. i.e. a 5K runner who starts off running 21:00 is obviously more capable of dropping to 17:00 in a couple years, as oppposed to a 15:00 guy trying to drop to 13:00, or even 14:00 for that matter. you can't go by your argument

With well-timed walking breaks, anything is possible.

Question w/out an answer wrote:

Just answer the damn question!

actually, his argument makes a little sense. He's not saying that the record drops by the same amount every five years. He's saying that if you could figure out what rate it drops at then you might be able to approximate the year of the 3:40 mile. For instance, let's say it dropped 3 seconds from 1955 to 1960, and 2.5 seconds from 1960 to 1965, etc. Anyways......

That brings me to my point. I think there must be a limit because the records have been dropping by smaller amounts over time. It's like the calculus concept of limits where asymtopes(sp? approach zero but never actually reach zero (sorry for the poor mathmatical explanation, I'm not a math whiz). In the case of the human mile, if we graphed the progression of one mile WR's, we would see the progressions becoming smaller and smaller over time. I would seem that they are approaching a limit that they will become infinitely close to but never actually reach....Personally, I believe the limit to be somewhere around 3:38ish. And what about human evolution? It seems that physical fitness and dominance is becoming less and less important to succeed or survive in our world, outside of professional sports. Might this mean that we will eventually begin seeing fewer great athletes coming out of the woodworks?