How Fast can Phelps run a mile?

...better question, how fast can Bolt swim the 100m free style? :P'

My wife was an All-American swimmer. She runs the mile in about 7:45 now that she runs more than when she was a full time swimmer. She said when her college swim team went the track to run the mile she ran 8:15 and was in the top 10% of the men's and women's team. Being a great swimmer does not = sub 5 mile potential. It doesn't mean that there are no elite swimmers that would be sub 5 or even closer to 4, but it is not the norm.

...willing to bet 'dollars to donuts' Bolt couldn't 5 minutes for 100meters-just saying mates! :P'

I'm surprised to see such shallow estimates. "At best six minutes?"

A kid on the soccer team ran 5:55 and mind you this is a very novice, high school soccer team. Phelps is one of the best swimmers in the WORLD and in terms of cardiovascular strength and muscular strength I'm pretty sure it could carry him to at least somewhere around 5:20.

^^^This...this!

I'm guesstimating, just looking at his natural stance during the medal ceremony, with feet splayed way outward, that Phelps would be a massive pronator. With very little running behind him, he probably shuffles like a duck, or a penguin at worse, with his strong, but relatively stiff (for running) hips.

Very true most of the time. Cardiovascularly a great swimmer is very fit, and has the heart and lungs to run a good mile. Much like a good mid-d runner has it to swim a good race. In practice this rarely happens though. A huge part of it is coordination. Most elite swimmers I know are awkward at best out of the pool. They really are at home in the pool. Also, their physical differences which make them great swimmers hinder running ability, ie giant flexible feet and floppy ankles, short legs relative to height, bulky upper bodies, and generally extreme flexibility.

Honestly, I'd say one in 10 or 20 top swimmers I've met has decent athletic ability out if the pool. I'm not knocking them in any way, they are amazing athletes in the pool, but it's just what ive seen. There is this general goofiness about many of them on land though. At the top level it's even more pronounced- I've met most if the current Olympic swim team, and those that just missed the cut.

Bottom line, with a few months training I'd be very surprised if phelps could break 6 minutes, and honestly shocked if he came close to 5 minutes. But, it wouldn't surprise me at all if he was in the 7-8 minute range. He is the epitome of someone who is incredible in the water but awkward in land, which means a strong possibility of a DNF on the run be ause he tripped and broke something in the mile.

t94bell wrote:A kid on the soccer team ran 5:55 and mind you this is a very novice, high school soccer team. Phelps is one of the best swimmers in the WORLD and in terms of cardiovascular strength and muscular strength I'm pretty sure it could carry him to at least somewhere around 5:20.

Do good soccer players often have flippers for feet, extreme flexability, gigantic reach, and a long torso with short legs?

Based on watching his form from running off the podium stand to the locker room/changing area he would probably run around 5:59, and it would be ugly.

He is about as perfect of a human swimming machine as there is, just like his interview responses and his commercial appearance, everything but swimming is very awkward.

Forget the mile. Phelps is at his best in the water...that means...STEEPLECHASE!

running girl 79 wrote:

I don't know. Probably not all that fast though. I seriously doubt Phelps would run below five minutes for a mile, even with a fair amount of training.

I can't seem to find much data regarding mile times for swimmers or other elite athletes but was able to locate some marathon times, although Phelps would probably perform better in a mile than in a marathon. (One of Phelps' specialties, the 400 meter IM takes him about 4:03, similar to the amount of time a semi-elite runner would take to run a mile) Many Olympic champions or elite athletes in other sports do not run particularly fast marathons.

For example, Apolo Ohno, who was the most decorated Olympic speed skater, ran in 2011 New York City Marathon (3:25:12.)

Jennie Finch, 2011 New York City Marathon (Olympic softball player) (4:05:26)

Mark Messier, 2011 New York City Marathon (4:14:27 - NHL)

I understand the points you're making and you've done a good job overall, but Messier isn't a particularly good example to use. He was almost 51 when he ran and close to a decade after he retired from hockey. Also, I don't think he trained particularly hard for the race.

Look at this picture.

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-08/13/xinsrc_0320805131155609892428.jpg

Phelps is so huge and suited for swimming that he would have to drop some serious weight and do a few months of specific training first before running a 5 minute mile

Sub 4.. The most decorated olympian ever.. Come on, he is a BEAST.. probably could break the Decathlon world record on his first attempt. Childs play.

wow! nice photo, very impressive lats on Phelps! When you say he would have to drop some serious weight, how would that work with Phelps? He obviously doesn't have any fat to lose, so he would have to lose that upper-body muscle. But does that happen naturally just by running alot? How easy is it to lose muscle weight? I ask this because I wouldn't mind losing some muscle myself, in order to be a faster runner.

Similar to "based on this experience," we had a guy on my DIII college team who was All-American in the pool. He'd run for about 8 weeks of the year and would do low-mid 4:20s for the mile and and 1:56-57 for 800. If he'd trained year round for running he'd have been much faster. He was built for running, however. Probably about 5'10" 150. That said, Phelps is a big guy with big feet. At best 5:30 to 6:00 without training, maybe 30 sec faster if he trained as a runner for a while.

Consider This wrote:

ecin wrote:

Elite swimmers are some of the most unathletic people outside of the pool. One guy I work with who swam in college can't run without his legs making this weird pigeon footed circular motion (used in a swimming stroke I would guess). And, a friend of mines brother won bronze in athens and the guy can barely walk for a few minutes straight without tripping over himself.

Based on this experience I'd say a 6 minute mile at best.

There was a guy on my XC team in college who had been a multiple time state champion in swimming in a fairly competitive state. He gave it up because he stopped liking it, and was a 23-high 8k XC guy in college.

I just watched an interview with Phelps and he said one of his goals after his retirement from competitive swimming is to beat Lance's time in the Ironman. Michael stated that he regularly incorporates runnin in his training and typically puts in 80-90 mile weeks. He has run several marathons with a PR of 2:28.

For what it's worth, here's a video clip of Phelps hanging tough with 3:25 marathoner Apolo Anton Ohno and 2:44 marathoner Mary Wittenberg:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqZK5yBFLgI

His stride rate is really low, but he doesn't look all that bad. He does look huge compared to the other two.

He is an aerobic beast but swimming fitness does not translate into running fitness. He could run as fast as 520 but 5:40 more likely. I am 52 and weigh 210lbs and I'm guessing we would have a very close race.

t94bell wrote:

I'm surprised to see such shallow estimates. "At best six minutes?"

A kid on the soccer team ran 5:55 and mind you this is a very novice, high school soccer team. Phelps is one of the best swimmers in the WORLD and in terms of cardiovascular strength and muscular strength I'm pretty sure it could carry him to at least somewhere around 5:20.

Yeah but he's built like an orangutan. Maybe he should run on all fours?

Swimmajfjfjj wrote:

So I have some actual data. There is a Navy Seals Challenge where swimmers do a 500 yard swim, 10 minutes rest, 2 mins each of sit ups, pull ups, and push ups with two minutes between each, then ten minutes rest and then a mile and a half run. Here is the data for the every Big Ten swimmer.

http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/6a874505-9ed3-4f9e-9880-1305a217e7e1/big_ten.pdf

If you google it you can more swimmers' data but I wouldn't trust the distance measurements for them. My D1 swim team does a 1600 time trial for our first morning practice in the fall. Last year I was the fastest in 4:59, then number two was in 5:16, an most everyone was under 6 minutes.

My college swim team (Bucknell) used to run the mile in pre-season too, and the times were about the same. Most of our men's swim team was in the 4:30 range.