I ran a 3:30 marathon with no training whatsoever in the 6 months prior to it. I could not break 5:30 at that point for sure. Maybe 6:00.
I ran a 3:30 marathon with no training whatsoever in the 6 months prior to it. I could not break 5:30 at that point for sure. Maybe 6:00.
This isn’t even a discussion for anybody who runs or has run at any point in their life at a legit level (varsity cross in high school being the low end of the bar) running a 4+ marathon is a joke. I could do it today and I’m an overweight 40something, who maybe gets in 10-15 mpw. Running 5:30 is freaking tough. I haven’t sniffed it in years.
It’s not even something anyone can do with training. There has to be some element of natural speed present, especially with older folks.
A half-taleneted 15 year old can step on a track with no training and run a 5:30
4 hour marathon
Big Red wrote:
A half-taleneted 15 year old can step on a track with no training and run a 5:30
Jim Ryun was more talented than almost anyone else, and even he only ran a 5:38 as a 15 year old:
https://www.kansas.com/news/article1145253.html4 hour marathon is so much easier. Thousands of extremely mediocre runners do it every year. Anybody in reasonable shape could grind it out tomorrow. Sure they would suffer but they could get it done. They couldn't run 5:30 without a solid training block with some decent speedwork.
No matter how hard or long I trained, I think a 5:30 mile would be impossible for me, but I could do a 4-hr marathon.
A 4 hour marathon may take more miles in a training block, but a 5:30 mile is way harder. So things equal, summertime who can run a 5:30 mile will be able to run a 4 hour marathon in their sleep as long as they have built up a few long runs in a cycle. I can’t believe this is even up for debate.
Who cares, marathons are stupid
I agree for guys in their 40’s a 4 hour marathon is easier than a 5:30 mile. I stopped running seriously for 20 years and trained for and ran a marathon in 4:12 with my mile time then around 6:30. With a few years of serious training.. I got my mile time down to sub-5 and marathon to 2:42. For an overweight guy over 40 who hasn’t run seriously in years running a 4:00 marathon is easier to train for than a 5:30 mile.
Using kids is a bad example. I ran a 5;49 mile on “no training” my Freshman year of HS. I also played soccer which is sprinting off an on for 90 minutes each game and many days during practice. Kids in sports have training that is much more suited for the mile than the marathon.
For the average 30 something male I think it would take much more training to break 5:30 than a 4 hour marathon.
I mean training for a fast mile requires way less training.
It took me about two months of once a week interval training to break a 5:30 mile. So about 6 hrs work.
I also did 40mpw for 4 months before a marathon and didn’t even break 4hrs. So about 70hrs and failed.
Seems pretty straightforward. It is hard to deal with so many people who try to argue with basic facts. The only way to prove it would be to select 2000 participants who have done no training. 1000 run a mile on day 1 and 1000 run a marathon on day 1. How many break 5:30 and how many break 4 hours? Many more will break 5:30. Then have each group run 20 mpw for a month and test them again. Even more will break 5:30 than what break 4 hours. Then have them run 50mpw for a year and magically many more break 4 hours than what break 5:30. It takes more training to break 4 hours.
Fast twitch wrote:
I was reading this article, which (correctly) says that a fast mile is more impressive than a slow marathon:
https://www.outsideonline.com/2230186/fast-mile-more-impressive-slow-marathonThe average marathon time for young men is around 4 hours, so I'm pretty sure anything worse than that is considered slow for that demographic. Granted, a 5:30 mile isn't blazing speed either, but it's a lot closer to the WR than the 4 hour marathon is.
So, which one takes more training and commitment? I'm not a miler, but when asked what my times are, I tell people that I run a five and a half minute mile since it's a distance that most people can relate to, as opposed to something like the 400, which is my main event. But a lot more people are impressed by the 4:57 marathon I did, which I ran on a whim after track season was over.
A lot is going to depend on what type of runner you are, and age. I'm 62, and having run around 5:00 for a mile in my mid 50s, I would find it very, very difficult to run a 5:30 now, whatever training I did, maybe impossible.
On the other hand, given I can do my "long" run of 8 miles in low 7 min, so I don't think it would take too many weeks to a marathon in 9:09 per mile.
For a younger "speedster" they may be able to run a 5:30 mile at the drop of a hat, but would struggle to run 26 miles at any speed.
This can't be answered on a global level. Age and sex play far too much of a role. For males between say 15-40, this might be an interesting discussion, but outside of that the 5:30 mile is waaaay harder.
A 40 year old female running a 4 hour marathon translates to a 58% age grading. The same for a 5:30 mile translates to 80%. The M75 mile world record is 5:41 but there have been 85 year olds who break 4 hours. Women can't break 5:30 by their late 50s, yes continue to run sub 4 hours into their early 70s.