Running under 4:20 in the mile at age 41

I ran a 4:00 mile and I am 40 years old. I am happy to be able to run on daily basis. I am not trying to kill myself!

Unorthodox. 😯

😯

This is what Letsrun message board used to be all about! Keep up this thread. Even if you fail keep us updated, don’t ghost this thread.

I was 4:16 in HS, 3:46 1500 in college. I’m the same age and have the pipe dream of breaking 4:00 in the 1500. I’m 41 but have not had a break from running. Keep at it!

best of luck, but running the same time at 40+ that you did in high school only very very few can do.

It will only be a waste of our time if you don't document the process well. Whether you hit your goal is secondary.

The 4:26 as a freshman puts you in a different league from me and most other 4:18 HS milers. That bumps the odds up a bit.

I haven't read through the posts but, I'm 63 and I will tell you to incorporate pure speed into your workouts- sprints with full recovery, drills to keep you "bouncy", etc

The first thing to go is that ability to truly sprint.

Stay flexible and concentrate on hips/hip flexors.

Look up results from 5th Ave Mile at NYRR website. 4:33 mile for a 41 year old translates to 4:17 mile age graded with 86.72%.

Five videos, and he hasn't yet run even one step. It's not looking good.

outsideonline.com

Ask Pete: Which Goes First with Age—Running Speed or Endurance?

matt

Five ways to fight aging and run faster for more years.

Open link

A few posters here have touched upon loss of speed as a prime factor behind slower mile times as we age. They're right. But they're not as right as they might think. The link is for a column I wrote to address that issue. I only dipped below 4:20 once as a master (4:19 at age 43), and ate Tony Young's and John Hinton's dust in those days. But smart training that includes a focus on faster muscle fibers (and the energy systems that fuel them) has kept training/racing fun for a couple decades as a masters runner. Good luck!

I had similar PRs. Had a 20 year break. Weight went from 150 to 165. I made a “comeback” in my 40s. Got my time in the 4:40ish range.

As others said, very very unlikely to get 4:20.

Injury was my nemesis.

Good luck, though. It’ll be interesting to follow.

hmm does running 4:26 as a freshman bump the odds up? I almost had the opposite thought, that he might have "peaked" too early.. idk, when i was in high school a lot of the fastest freshman weren't the fastest by the time they were seniors. But I guess that's irrelevant for doing it at 40+ - it certainly looks possible based on this thread.

I'm inspired to up my training for these trail ultras I signed up for, I've just been running ~hard 30-35 mile weeks with no workouts, just 7/8 exertion every day which is obviously a poor strategy for running fast times. Kinda thought those days were behind me but maybe not! lfg

Ambitious - but I like the idea and will try and follow your progress. I did the same thing at age 42, but with the more modest goal of running sub 4:40. I basically started back up from scratch with a surfing, beer drinking and 0-2 times a week hobby-jog base. It was a 2 year journey for me though. My 02:

1. Start slow - I tore my quad trying to blast mile repeats @ 5:10 ish pace about 4 months in and that that set me back a while. Stupid. You ain't 17 anymore. In this regard, I would consider a longer timeline than 12 months.

2. Build slow - modest and gradual increases in daily paces and mileage are key. Would consider not even running 2 days in a row for a the 1st few months and under no circumstances, should you put in back 2 back hard days.

3. Run CC or get into some 5ks. A full Fall CC season before Spring and track helped me tremendously. The 5 to 8K distances are good for getting those legs to feel the turnover more similar to the mile, but not quite so fast that your risk the injuries associated with mile race pace.

4. Enjoy the ride. Although trying to hit your time(s) is the ultimate goal, the best part for me was the journey. Training and racing w/old friends and making new ones was awesome. Planning out my training, monitoring progress and setbacks and of course, that feeling of sinking my spikes into the track 20+ years later was more gratifying than hitting my marks.

Large luck

I'd like to echo what several posters have said about the biggest challenge being not getting injured. While I didn't quite have that speed when I was younger and I'm not quite as old as you, I also had several years away from running entirely and did an awful lot of cycling. The biggest thing you'll have to get used to is how much fitter you will be than what your tendons/ligaments/running specific muscles are capable of handling due to all the cycling. You need to be prepared to keep the pace very easy and keep the runs shorter than you feel like you'd be able to handle. I recommend doubling between running and cycling for a while to maintain aerobic fitness. It's pretty easy as a fit cyclist to go out too soon for an 8 mile easy run and give yourself achilles issues.

It really depends on the individual as to how much cycling fitness will carry over -- my experience is that your running economy isn't harmed by cycling but definitely isn't helped one bit. MTB racing will do a lot for your VO2Max though, so don't worry about that any time soon. Gradually get slow miles in your legs to readjust them to the running-specific demands, eventually add in some strides to work on higher speed running economy. It's probably best to avoid a timeline whatsoever, as the degree to which your legs will be able to handle the running training without injury is very individual, and a goal timeline will only increase the temptation to push it when you really shouldn't.

Good luck to you!

Not familiar with age grading - do you have a link you can share?

Extremely doubtful. The human body begins losing aerobic capacity at the rate of approximately 1% per year after 35 years of age. Given your lack of training for a very long time, I'd put your chances at less than 1/1000. Running under 4:40 would be far more realistic for you as a target. Enjoy getting older....it's not for the faint-of-heart. I'm in my late 50s, and it got depressing years ago when I KNEW there'd be no more PRs of any kind unless I hadn't competed in that particular event before.

No more PRs. Cold, hard facts of life.

Below is a link to one table I've found. Based on this, a 4:19 mile translates to about 4:00 as a runner in their prime; http://misweb.cbi.msstate.edu/...

Thanks for the post - I did a mile TT today. Felt great warming up and even did a few strides (the plan was to run around 7 minutes, so I wasn't going to bother). On the last one, I went full gas and was blown away with how fast the legs turned over. I instantly got excited and decided to run harder than originally planned. I got some video of the sprint that I will post on my channel. The TT wasn't ideal. It was on a horse trail with mud and rocks, on/off rain, cold and not completely flat. I started off at 6-minute pace and that felt moderate. The last-minute plan was to switch into race mode with 800 meters to go and be at full gas the last 200 meters. At around 800 meters my calf started to feel funny and by 1200 meters it hurt so I decided to stop. My NGP was 5:37 for around 1200 meters (El Gain 54 El Lost 79). I'm a bit bummed because I was ready to launch the last 800 meters. I don't think it's a serious injury as I was able to MTB right after with minimal pain. The interesting thing is that I hit a new HR max of 186 which is incredible because I absolutely destroy myself MTB racing. The TT didn't seem like I was going that hard and it was the same H10 I use on the bike.

I'm doing exactly that, running (mostly walking) in the morning and riding in the afternoon. The only major bike difference this year is that I'm reducing the number of base hours and using that time for gym work and running. Agree with eliminating the running timeline, especially since I'm already having an issue with my calf.

It's a small setback that could have/should have been prevented. I've literally only been on two runs longer than 5-minutes in continuous duration, everything else has been walking or a combination of running/walking. A few days off, then back at it...