5 min mile after 40 with no running experience. Attainable? How do I train?

Hey Alex! I'm 22 and I started running about a year ago with no prior experience with the goal of breaking 5. Still haven't done it, I've had many failures leading up to it, and it definitely has required a lot more patience than I had initially expected. But I am gradually making progress day by day. Consistency is key. :) I'm in the process of documenting some of my workouts up on youtube, if you wanna see them, you can check it out here

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGuPWvqsHVp6l_yfuxMKOnA

(BUT keep in mind that I don't have much experience with running periodization or anything fancy like that lol, and also future vids will be coming soon) Would love to hear how your journey turns out! Good luck and keep pushing! We in this together bro!!! As the great Rocky Balboa says, "it ain't about how hard ya hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward."

I broke 5:00 from when I was 12 until 48. I thought I would be one of those sub 5:00 50 year olds. I hit 50 and injury after injury, I just couldn't do it. I DID get down to 5:10 in my early 50's.

I'm 59 now and would be happy to break 6:00.

I just can't train like I used to and my IT band is killing me.

Today, after another week of 8mph x 30mins daily runs, I decided to try a 5:43 mile on a treadmill (10.5mph for 6 mins).

I completed it, but my feel during the run fluctuated, so I wanted to check if I need to adjust something.

0 - 1.5 mins. I started the run with very relaxed legs, trying to save the energy. It felt easy at this point, almost like walking.

1.5-3 mins. Things started to get harder rather quickly. Nothing unbearable yet, but I started to doubt around 3-min mark if I would complete 6 mins.

3-5mins. I maxed out my breathing pace and switched to longer steps for 15-20secs couple times to ease the pressure. The hard part plateaued around 3-3:30 and it started to feel easier. At 5 min mark I felt almost the same as at 2 min mark. Maybe the excitement that I would make it added to the feel.

5-6 mins. I ended up with about the same feel as I had after 3 mins. I could have run another minute at least probably. The HR peaked at 168, which is much better than 189 I reached on the first day of training in early Dec.

After the run, I walked for 3 mins and finished the day with 8mph x 15 mins. Ended up with a sore throat (like after screaming a lot) but still fairly fresh legs.

Question: Are those stages normal in a mile run? Am I doing something wrong? Do I need to warm up differently?

My guess is that my warm up (walking a few mins) is in not sufficient for a fast mile run, leading to a partial fuel cut off around minute 3, when my anaerobic capacity gets depleted but my aerobic engine is still warming up. By minute 5 I feel OK, but minute 3 is definitely a low point.

I do not experience anything like this during 8mph x 30mins runs, but apparently 10.5mph run is different.

What would be the best warm up for a mile run, prepping up the body sufficienctly w/o getting too exhausted?

It's been over a year since my original post and I wanted to share that I got myself into a 5-min shape at the age of 44 - 12.5 months after I picked up running first time in my life.

Training summary of 2019.

- I ran about 1000 miles in 2019, averaging close to 20 miles/week. sometimes up to 40/week, but never below 10/week (except for 3 weeks when I pulled my hamstring in March playing tennis 'too competitively' - but it healed perfectly). I've had absolutely no running-induced pain or injury at any time. My busy consulting work limited my overall mileage. But I also didn't want to force it too fast as my first ever injury seriously scared me back then.

- 95% of my miles were easy runs at 7:30-8:00 min pace, lasting between 40 and 60 minutes. 40% on a treadmill and 60% on a hilly paved road outside (2.5K loop with 70 feet altitude change). No track sessions except for a few time trials. No speed work faster than 5:45/mile between March (hamstring) and October.

- I am 5'10.5''. Started running at 160lb, went down to 157 by March, then hit gym during hamstring recovery and ended up 163lb but lean as my waist stayed at 29.5 (newbie gains). Kept going to gym twice a week for the rest of the year.

Time trials:

- In early Nov I tried 5K on track in 18:48.7. It was a hard effort. Maybe running in a fasted state with little tapering wasn't a good idea.

- In late Nov I decided to try a mile on track and surprisingly ran 5:00.8 with 71(409)-74-81-75 splits. I couldn't believe I was holding this pace after my 5K failure. Maybe sugar, caffeine and tapering helped.

- I was planning another mid Dec trial, but ended up on a treadmill due to weather. Completed 5 mins at 4:48/mile, felt like could go for 6 mins run, but decided to stop and save my throat. Both mile runs made me nearly sick for half a day.

What's next?

First of all, I am very happy to get myself in a sub-5 shape in a year of running! Physically I feel like I am 25 again. I can occasionally play sports like in good old times - soccer, basketball, tennis. My brain is sharp and I again can fly 14 hours non stop with little impact. Great feeling and this was so much worth it!

So, how do I improve from here?

My goal is more of a long term - I'd take running 5:00 mile at 55 over 4:30 mile at 45 any day. I want to stay injury-free as long as a I can.

That being said, I would like to race and race well even as a 'hobbyjogger'. For some reason, I am slow at 5K/10K vs mile time, even though I did very little speedwork. This discourages me from competing at 5/10K. Is this because I am heavy or low mileage? I am built more like 200m/400m runner right now and I have no desire to give up on lean mass at this point in my life.

Do you think I could be better at 800m with the dedicated training?

I would appreciate any advice. I am happy where I am, but I am not sure what to do next.

Alex, this is awesome - the reason most of us come on this site - your dreams became reality! Congrats.

So you ran 5:00.8 for 1600 meters (not a mile)and ran again on a treadmill? I'm sorry my friend but no one on earth would say you have run "sub-5." You're very close to becoming a "real man" so keep going and keep the board updated, we will all be proud of you.

truther wrote:

So you ran 5:00.8 for 1600 meters (not a mile)and ran again on a treadmill? I'm sorry my friend but no one on earth would say you have run "sub-5." You're very close to becoming a "real man" so keep going and keep the board updated, we will all be proud of you.

Misread and saw you did a 409m first lap. But still not sub-5, sorry.

Keep in mind that to get a bit closer to ground conditions, you need to put the treadmill on a 1% incline or so for sub 7:10/M pace. Even so, you're going to be able to run a good deal faster on treadmill than outside. Go outside for your interval and speed workouts, while you can do progressions and tempos, as well as easy running, on the Dreadmill.

A good goal but an extremely difficult one if you have no running experience.

The 3 indicators of endurance performance are effiency, lactate threshold, VO2 max.

When you say you didn't run as a junior making you an effiecent runner will take time. Your lactate threshold will take time and your vo2 decreases with age. I guess you see where I am coming from.

My suggestion is easy running with 2 days per week with shorter efforts from 100-300m but not too fast while you build your aerobic capacity.

I would also encourage running over hills and to build total body strength though strength training. After you have trained consistently for 6 months give update and let us know how it is going.

To everyone who's challenging that 5:00.8 ground mile solo with terrible self-pacing as well as 4:48 treadmill mile are both not properly recorded sub-5 miles - you're right. And I didn't claim I ran it. I just said that I got into a sub-5 shape based on the above results. I will re-do it at some point, but an all-out mile is no fun to try every week.

Coahc - you might have missed my earlier reply today (please scroll up a few posts) - I did get into a sub 5 shape after 12.5 months since I started running. You and otter gave me some good suggestions originally and I really appreciate them.

I am curious if you suggest me to try 800m based on my body composition and the fact that I responded to mile much better than to 5K. I was also better at short distances in HS, running 12.0 non-FAT, 2:12 (800) and 11:20 (3000) untrained.

I am also curious how bad my running mechanics is. Is it possible to give some advice based on my 4:48/mile treadmill running video?

Sorry I having read above post dealing with heat and bushfires news at the moment.

I coached a 17year female to a 2:11/4:52 mile so when you were younger u would have broke 5 minutes.

Running an 800m would be a good indicator for sure and would recommend that. I ran 4:54 for 1 mile at 44 and that was just off running 6 days a week over a hilly circuit about 35-40miles.

Now I currently coach a 46 year old iron man triathlete and he come from a running background and he would struggle to run 510.

Now the reasons...stride length, weight, and not enough running. Running sub 5 still requires a certain amount of talent. Based on your 100m and 800m you probably do but that was a while ago and depends on how well you have looked after yourself.

Cheers

Congrats Alex! Awesome to see you get into your goal shape.

You mentioned being discouraged about 5K/10K potential due to your poor time trial and the fact you haven't been doing much speed training. I ran 800/1500 in HS & college, and was always pitifully embarrassingly bad at 5K/8K (cross country) compared to 1500. In the last year, I've started running again (in my late 20's) and am crushing my old 5K/8K PRs (despite being 25 seconds slower for a mile). The key for me was adding a weekly tempo run of 20-25 minutes. I think you should be able to break 18 minutes in 5K given your mile time.

https://runsmartproject.com/calculator/

gives a threshold training pace of 6:13/mile for 18:00, so maybe you want to try one month of training with weekly tempos of ~20 minutes at ~6:15 pace and then retry the 5K?

Another reason you might consider some focus on 5K instead of 800: 5K is probably the most common distance for road races, where 800 races only happen on the track. This means you can enter 5K races with decent competition pretty frequently if you desire, while for 800 it depends on whether there are all-comers track meets in your area. It's also easier to train for 5K on treadmill than it is for 800.

Thanks! Getting into sub-5 shape in mid 40s in a year with no prior running experience while working full time with family & kids definitely feels great. Many people at work started to run looking at me - and this is even better!

I may try to focus on speed for a few months to see if I have any 800m potential left at this age. If not, I'll continue focusing on mile (protecting my VO2max from declining too fast) and maybe even 5K ifthe time improves.

put the treadmill at 12mph and see how long you last . most likely you can't even move your legs this fast and should try a -6 min goal.

You probably missed that I ran 5 min at 12.5mph (4:48 mile) and could likely go for 6 min total.

Congrats! It's always nice to see a thread resurrected because someone accomplished their goal. While you haven't "technically" ran under 5:00 for the mile, I'd agree you are capable of it.

MINDSET!!!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2GN48wO7ig