How far can the average person hold 5 min mile pace?

math! wrote:

Bib #1 wrote:

This is the correct answer

Guys, this snarky response only works for pace, not for speed. If one time is infinite, the average of all the times must be infinite.

On the other hand, even if most people can't run 5:00-pace at all, that doesn't cause the average to be 0. Think of it like this: if only one third of people can hit 5:00 pace for any distance at all, take the average of those distances and divide by three to get the overall average.

So I would expect the average to be somewhere around 600m. I think the vast majority of people can't do that, but there are likely a lot of people in the 300-600m range, and the one dude who can do 1.5 miles at that pace cancels out 4 nonrunners who can't do anything at all. And professional male runners would get around 50 times the standard.

3200y5000 wrote:

A lot of people are saying the average person couldn't get up to 12 mph. I don't believe that to be true at all. The average person (I'm assuming 'person' means American) isn't morbidly obese, just somewhat overweight- and I've had overweight people beat me in a dead sprint. In fact, I'd dare to say a lot of average people can outsprint your run-of-the-mill distance runner, due to distance runner's lack of fast twitch and muscle mass. If the average person were explained that pacing is essential, then I'd think most would land in the 200m-400m range, because after that, they wouldn't be able to sustain an average of 12 mph, because it's a sprint for them. The difference between the average person and a distance runner is that 12 mph isn't a sprint for us. We've specialized our bodies through training to be able to hold such a pace very efficiently, and that's where we hold the advantage- and this is something commonly misunderstood- we aren't faster, we're just able to go for longer.

Rez wrote:

3200y5000 wrote:

A lot of people are saying the average person couldn't get up to 12 mph. I don't believe that to be true at all. The average person (I'm assuming 'person' means American) isn't morbidly obese, just somewhat overweight- and I've had overweight people beat me in a dead sprint. In fact, I'd dare to say a lot of average people can outsprint your run-of-the-mill distance runner, due to distance runner's lack of fast twitch and muscle mass. If the average person were explained that pacing is essential, then I'd think most would land in the 200m-400m range, because after that, they wouldn't be able to sustain an average of 12 mph, because it's a sprint for them. The difference between the average person and a distance runner is that 12 mph isn't a sprint for us. We've specialized our bodies through training to be able to hold such a pace very efficiently, and that's where we hold the advantage- and this is something commonly misunderstood- we aren't faster, we're just able to go for longer.

This is exactly what I was thinking. Great post, sir.

celery wrote:

I was on the start line of a 10K race. It is the most competitive annual 10K race in my state. On the start line, there where 2 guys who were talking about their days of playing football in high school. They were by no means out of shape. They looked out of place next to the lean runners on the start line, but if you saw them on the street, you would think they are in shape. They looked like the typical 20 something male who were kind of active weekend warrior types. Probably into crossfit and other stuff.

They were jokingly getting down in a football crouch to start the race, and daring each other to sprint at the start and get in the front of the pack. They were not trying to be obnoxious, I think they were just clueless about normal race etiquette.

The race started and they both sprinted to the front. The were ahead of everyone for about 3-4 seconds. Then the rest of us runners started passing them as we settled into our 5 minute pace over the first 10 seconds of the race. As we all passed them they started looking left and right at all the skinny guys floating by them. I heard one guy say to the other "holy s--- these guys are fast."

These guys were more on the fast twitch side of the muscle spectrum (since they played football in HS), and they could hold 12mph for about 150 to 200 meters tops. Maybe the average non-fast twitch healthy guy can maintain it for 300-400 meters.

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

celery wrote:

I was on the start line of a 10K race. It is the most competitive annual 10K race in my state. On the start line, there where 2 guys who were talking about their days of playing football in high school. They were by no means out of shape. They looked out of place next to the lean runners on the start line, but if you saw them on the street, you would think they are in shape. They looked like the typical 20 something male who were kind of active weekend warrior types. Probably into crossfit and other stuff.

They were jokingly getting down in a football crouch to start the race, and daring each other to sprint at the start and get in the front of the pack. They were not trying to be obnoxious, I think they were just clueless about normal race etiquette.

The race started and they both sprinted to the front. The were ahead of everyone for about 3-4 seconds. Then the rest of us runners started passing them as we settled into our 5 minute pace over the first 10 seconds of the race. As we all passed them they started looking left and right at all the skinny guys floating by them. I heard one guy say to the other "holy s--- these guys are fast."

These guys were more on the fast twitch side of the muscle spectrum (since they played football in HS), and they could hold 12mph for about 150 to 200 meters tops. Maybe the average non-fast twitch healthy guy can maintain it for 300-400 meters.

Help me to understand this logic. Why would slower twitch (average) guys have an easier time holding a sprint than the fast twitch average guys? If both subsets are 'average', and neither group can hold it for even 400m, then there's no way the fast twitch group is destroyed by the slow twitch group. The fast twitch average people are the only ones with a chance to even be able to hit 12mph for any amount of time. If your muscle makeup is predominantly slow twitch, and you are an average person, you're not going to ever get to 12mph.

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

celery wrote:

I was on the start line of a 10K race. It is the most competitive annual 10K race in my state. On the start line, there where 2 guys who were talking about their days of playing football in high school. They were by no means out of shape. They looked out of place next to the lean runners on the start line, but if you saw them on the street, you would think they are in shape. They looked like the typical 20 something male who were kind of active weekend warrior types. Probably into crossfit and other stuff.

They were jokingly getting down in a football crouch to start the race, and daring each other to sprint at the start and get in the front of the pack. They were not trying to be obnoxious, I think they were just clueless about normal race etiquette.

The race started and they both sprinted to the front. The were ahead of everyone for about 3-4 seconds. Then the rest of us runners started passing them as we settled into our 5 minute pace over the first 10 seconds of the race. As we all passed them they started looking left and right at all the skinny guys floating by them. I heard one guy say to the other "holy s--- these guys are fast."

These guys were more on the fast twitch side of the muscle spectrum (since they played football in HS), and they could hold 12mph for about 150 to 200 meters tops. Maybe the average non-fast twitch healthy guy can maintain it for 300-400 meters.

Help me to understand this logic. Why would slower twitch (average) guys have an easier time holding a sprint than the fast twitch average guys? If both subsets are 'average', and neither group can hold it for even 400m, then there's no way the fast twitch group is destroyed by the slow twitch group. The fast twitch average people are the only ones with a chance to even be able to hit 12mph for any amount of time. If your muscle makeup is predominantly slow twitch, and you are an average person, you're not going to ever get to 12mph.

celery wrote:

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

Help me to understand this logic. Why would slower twitch (average) guys have an easier time holding a sprint than the fast twitch average guys? If both subsets are 'average', and neither group can hold it for even 400m, then there's no way the fast twitch group is destroyed by the slow twitch group. The fast twitch average people are the only ones with a chance to even be able to hit 12mph for any amount of time. If your muscle makeup is predominantly slow twitch, and you are an average person, you're not going to ever get to 12mph.

Because 12 mph is not sprinting. The sprinter football players were at the front of the race for about 4 seconds. I have no doubt that they could probably beat most of us at a 40 yard dash. But their muscles tire quickly, and they start slowing down after 6 seconds.