Stember is hoping to break 18 in the 5K?

Sptember is 33 and was an olympian. My first 5k in my 30s was 17:30 and I have never trained professionally.

So I think 18minutes is a piece of cake for Sptember after 8 weeks of training. If he talks about under 16 or low 16s then I might doubt his abilities.

The thing is, he chose an easy an achieveable target. Quite smart!

Flagpole wrote:

RockyRococo wrote:http://www.letsrun.com/2011/charity-1109.php

Just how much time did he take off? A guess some sort of blog will be posted on Letsrun in regards to how he trained.

Whatever he ends up running - the airplane at the finish is an absolute MUST.

A LOT can happen to a guy in 7 years. I don't know if he's fat or what. If I were betting, I'd guess he could get under 18 minutes, but it wouldn't shock me if he couldn't.

You are experienced enough to know that realism doesn't go far on this site...

I wonder if there's any guy from back in the day who could run sub-16 or sub-15 off just a few weeks of training. Bob Kennedy? Broe? Batliner? Nathan Nutter?

So does this mean Henry Rono, with far more than 8 weeks of training, should be able to break 18:00....?

In your thirties it is tough to maintain top end speed. But this is where Stember succeeds over the average recreational runner. I'm sure he can still hit 29 seconds in a 12x200 workout.

He better have done a lot of mile repeats, otherwise I don't see him breaking 18, especially if he truly is 180-190 lbs. now. That is nearly a 40 lb difference from his ideal racing weight.

http://www.usatf.org/athletes/bios/TrackAndFieldArchive/2005/Stember_Michael.asp

And dammit....he better do the airplane...even if he runs 21 flat.

I ran a 39 minute 10k last year and I had been running fairly regularly.

Then this spring I was running even more. A friend who is 3 years older than me (he's 40 or 41), had a 10k pr a minute slower than me (29 low), came out and we started running together. He said we had to do workouts. Immediately, he started kicking my ass. I asked him how much he had been running. He said until we started running he had run like twice in 3 months. I had been running 3-5 days a week.

The point is some people respond much quicker than others.

A former out of condition 3:54 miler should be able to run at least 15:25.

Mr. Ted wrote:

A former out of condition 3:54 miler should be able to run at least 15:25.

Why "should"?

This add campaign has played out perfectly for Charitybid.org. It was a sponsored story, the point of it was not for people to be talking about if he could really do it--of course he could do it (and probably while carrying one of you on his back)--it is to drum up pages and pages worth of conversation that will somehow get a few of you use Charitybid.org. It is a really cool concept, but based on the FAQs, I think a 10% cut is pretty greedy. That said, I wish I had thought of it. I love gambling, and I contribute a decent amount to friends charity runs, but I would probably contribute a lot more with an over / under.

A lot can happen with 8 weeks of training, but that goes both ways; Stember could respond quickly to workouts, or he could take a long time to restart a motor that has been dormant for a few years.

That said, you gotta have some balls to throw down a 18:00 5k time while working a full time job and...have money on the line. I give the guy credit.

Apart from the CharityBets advertising on the site, Michael agreed to talk about his training for the 5k and running in general and we said we'd give him the space.

So what questions are you interested in hearing from him? I've got a few of my own I'm interested in but we'll start first with a Q&A.

He ran a 1:49.69 800 back in '07, and 16:28 5K in '06 so...it's not like he's been on the side lines that long. The guy could probably break 18 with a lik3 3 easy runs and a couple strides. This will be extremely easy for him. A better wager is can he qualify for oly trials in something now that would be worth some change. Gotta say him doing this for charity is a great thing and I would love it if more people did this. I would love to see BK and TW and Spivey, and Todd Snyder, and Culpepper, and RoJo etc. get back after it. I wish we had some more Joan B's on the mens side. Go Michael!

+1

He could run sub 18 minutes with zero training. He must be looking forward to a nice jog.

Ask him what was the most difficult part of getting that fat ass back in shape. How inactive had he been before starting back for this short time period? Was it more difficult than he remembers? How was your first run after inactive period? Did you struggle at all? Could you beat Gabe Jennings right now? Which is more important--talent or hard work?

We have no idea what kind of condition he is in. He should be in sub 4:30 mile condition if he is contemplating a return.

Sub-4:30 shape is pretty difficult, especially for someone who's working full time. That said, going sub-18 for 5k off minimal training is tough. I wonder what kind of shape Stember was in before he stepped up to do this?

Questions that I want answered:

1. How much mileage per week for his comeback?

2. What workouts did he do for his comeback?

3. How much weight did he lose (if any) in preparation for this race?