How fast could the average American run 400m on the track?

Test

Ended up in a couple youtube discussions about kipchoges marathon pace when attempted by an average person and now made my way here while trying to do a bit of research.

He averages a 68 second 400m and thats what ill be aiming for if the weather allows for it this weekend (which doesnt look likely so it might have to wait another week). Judging by this thread and my youtube "opponents" i shouldnt be getting anywhere near it but i wouldnt be arguing if i didnt think differently :D ill try to maintain the same pace for the sake of my experiment so i wont be able to pace myself and instead run 17 second for all four 100m sections which will probably hinder me a bit.

Now a little about myself. Im a 20 year old german, 173cm (5"8') and 66kg (145lbs). So regarding that im already above average :D but that advantage should vanish when looking at how active i am. Did athletics until i was 10 (and already hated anything longer than a proper sprint back then, meaning back then longer than 75m and these days 100m) and had a pretty active childhood. Since then the only organised form of sport i did was a year of basketball (on a newly formed team in germany, you can probably imagine the quality lol) and the like 75 minutes of sports a week they make you do in school until i was nearly 18. Went to a gym once in my life because of school as well. Was still riding my bike a lot and played soccer fairly regularly with my friends albeit just for fun until i was 14. Since then ive spent my days sitting at school/uni and watching youtube/tv for the vast majority of my free time. To get an idea for my current level of activity ive thought about the somewhat physical things ive done this year which are about 4 hours of riding my bicycle, going swimming twice (although i just chill in the pool at least half the time), played badminton (didnt find a proper translation for what i wanted. What i did wasnt playing against somebody on a field but simply trying to keep it in the air for as long as possible with a partner) and i go rental karting every two months. Then ill have the odd two week phase once a year where i start doing random pushups, youtube ab workouts and stuff like that :D other than that there shouldnt be anything noteworthy.

Regarding diet i have vegetables every other week and fruit like once a month on average (not counting the leaf of salad on a burger and stuff like that). I have a pizza once a week, have mcdonalds id say 3 times a month, drink a litre to a litre and a half of sugary drinks (sprite, monster,..) per week. Overall carbs probably make up most/too much of what i eat. I dont drink alcohol and dont smoke (although ive been exposed to a good bit of smoke all my life). Think thats everything i can think of for now that might be relevant.

Now the only reason i gave you all that info is so you can guess if ill manage the 68 second constant speed 400m and/or how much shorter or longer you think i can hold that speed ;)

Ps: sorry for that wall of text and slightly abusing this thread, i just had too much time on my hands :D

The real question should be average miler in America...Everyone in the world understands mile times better than any other distance

Guess i wont get any guesses so heres my result. Did pretty well for give or take a minute, then started to really struggle and by the time i got to 400m i was 2 seconds off (so at 70 seconds). Didnt try to go any further cuz there was no way i was gonna keep the pace/gain back those two seconds

when I was 27 and in basic, ran a 12.05 two mile PT test so a 1.30 400M average. I am 6'2" and weighed 197lbs. 13 years later did it in 14.00 flat so a 1.45 400M average. Weighed about 210 then. I went in Army in 85 so this was a long time ago. Think most military members now would be hard pressed to hit your numbers.

50s are better than good, a 1 minute is good. i can get 1:10 which is not great but i believe a 1 minute and above is very good.concidering i work hard everyday and it’s difficult to break my time. and the fact that the word record is in the 40s i think. like 44 second 400 i think. i’m not sure though. i’m also a female ^

Old thread but the question is average quarter -- well, 40% of American adults are obese. 40-60% range would be average right? I think we're a group of runners and our guesses would be on the fast side or what we would consider to be good. Most people that run go out and run 10:00+ miles. I think breaking 2:00 for a lap is something attainable for the 40-60% group. You gotta think how many people run sub-2, sub-1:45, sub-1:30, sub-1:15, sub-60, sub-50, etc. It starts to get slim once you go under 1:15. I think an average person could sprint a 1:59 quarter. Even that might be a little hot and will certainly place most of America in a world of hurt.

Average American man has a BMI of 25.0—29.9 Overweight. I'd say they don't have a lot of anaerobic training either so I'd say about to 120 seconds

I agree. We have to remember most people are completely inactive and if so, even 2 minutes for a 400m are very hard.

And the rather few top athletes who can run well under 60 sec in a 400m don´t move the average time much.

When I say top athletes I don´t only point at runners. Elites from other sports often are so fast and fit that they can run under 60 sec. Soccer players, tennis players (Bjørn Borg participated many years ago in some multi sports competition - "Superstars" - and Bjørn turned out to be a very good runner both in the sprints and the 1500m), badminton players, swimmers (Alan Webb came from swimming), bicyclists and cross country and mountain skiers- at least from these sports you can find many sub 60 400m runners.

This is even more accurate in this day and age since 2/3 of the country is now considered overweight or obese. I'm sure there are some fast guys in the "overweight" category by BMI but due to muscle weight skewing it. Thinking a guy like Nick Bare would have a BMI but could easily beat 1:20.

The Average American can't even walk down their block without getting in their car. Seriously. My ex is a former XC/track runner in his 30s and he won't even walk 600 feet to pick up lunch instead of ordering Grubhub.

Average American mile time is probably 14 minutes + the slowest girls in my highschool cross country meets would finish a 5k in over 50 minutes (seriously look up any low tier girls open on milesplit). I think virtually all of us would walk faster than this.

Over 3 minutes

Me and my non track / retired from competitive running friends get together and race a 400m from time to time, and everyone (there’s usually 7-8 of us participating) runs under 65, usually close to 60 flat for most, usually 2-3 break 60. These are all guys that have done varsity sports and still lift/hike/skate/play pickup sports so not necessarily accurate to average, but i’d say your college age guy working on keeping up their fitness can usually pull off a 65 or faster.

An average man in his 20s who's regularly active but isn't a runner would get a ~65:

speedendurance.com

How fast do CrossFit'ers run 400m?

Jimson Lee

Sprinting is about 3 things: Strength, Power and Speed. If you want to add all Olympic events, then you might as well add Endurance. 9 out of the 10

Link:speedendurance.com/2018/01/15/how-fast...

But if you're talking about 20 year olds from the non-disabled general population, you'll get a ~80" (converted from a 56" 300). And if you want a true median American (mid-late 30s), you'll get ~85" for men and ~1:45 for women:

Ion think thats true it could just be the passage of time but i jogged and got a 1:21 at 225 Lbs (mostly fat i assume) i also got 1:21.14 running but thats because i stopped for a little while (Lack of stamina)

I have no idea what the situation could be in the USA; what I can say with good confidence is that in my high school (I live in France) in a PE class the median two years ago has been something less than 2 minutes (I don't remember the exact time of the median, but most people was in the 110"-120" range), with the fastest one (me) in 69" (anything south of 70" was enough for top grades so no need to go faster) and only two other people below 75", both of them on a football (soccer) team...and mind you, we are talking about twenty 18 year old guys, most of which play some kind of sport at least at recreational level (so in reasonable shape). So, for 1000 random dudes in 20-30 years age range and born and raised in America, the median might be somewhere north of 3 minutes, but only if there is some way to force them to run it (otherwise the median will be some dude that laughs at you and goes to the closer fast food restaurant).

When did he run that 5:25 mile? At age 21 when he played soccer and golf, or at age 27? Running a 5:25 mile off of soccer training is totally believable. But running a 5:25 mile after not having done anything in 5 years (assuming he graduated at age 22 and was sedentary since then) is total BS.

I don't think an elite miler could do that if he had to be sedentary for 5 years and gain enough weight to reach 185 pounds.