The average healthy young male should be able to run sub 14 5000.

The average healthy young male would prefer to be swole than be able to run a sub 14 5000.

Sub 14:00 5k is very decent running. I would say the average healthy young male should be able to break 16 minutes (2:15 marathon pace). If they also do some modicum of training.

I am a healthy male age 31 18.9 BMI 6'4" with long legs and could never run a sub14.

I ran 140mpw even a 160 over June-August and in September at track races got a 4:48 Mile, 9:26 3K and 16:21 5K PBs.

I was running since age 27 Previous 5K was 17:05 which I ran every Saturday for 14 weeks in a row trying to break 17 at 90mpw but I did all mileage and races barefoot so it took longer to build up and get used to it.

A year later of 90mpw I got into 15:45 shape but stupidly ran 50km up a mountain of 1600m then attempted 5x1K the next day and did my groin in doing sprints afterwards. My training was so stupid too fast easy runs and no volume build up for workouts.

Sub14 feels impossible, superhuman but then again I never got my mileage or training consistent, never built up to the type of workouts my friend does who runs 190mpw 13:30 5K

I’ve always suspected this is true. I mean, I ran 13:28 off 25 miles a week and I was a pack a day smoker....

and do 1,000 pushups in a row too

Ridiculous statement, the average healthy young male can't run a 5 minute mile and you think they should be able to string three 4:30s together????

Takes a VO2Max of about 75 —only about 1 in 1,000 people can reach it. Still, that’s probably more common than you’d think. Of course, most who can don’t, mostly because running is, well… kind of boring.

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I think this is a pretty successful troll post for such a low effort, congratulations. It's quite amusing to see how people start countering by bringing up that national average would include obese fast food junkies and chain-smokers and as a result average person would barely be able to walk 5000 meters.

The take here I guess is that "healthy young male" is too loosely defined, but it's further refined by "70-80 mpw". "Healthy young males who can consistently run 70-80 mpw" is a minuscule part of population. sub14 is probably still a stretch, but if we find a decent sample of athletes who ran at least 2 years averaging no less that 70mpw before the age of 20, maybe it's not as big a stretch really.

Not many teenagers consistently do 70-80 mpw at all though, so it's hard to say. It's hard to stay out of injury, keep being motivated and manage all the other student stuff at this volume. If running could give you money, fame and female attention it would give motivation and more people who can in fact stay injury-free would run higher mileage, it would be possible to say if OP is wrong or not.

Obvious troll thread, but less than 1% of the population is genetically capable of running sub 14. Anyone who ran in high school and college should know this.

There were people in high school I raced against or were teammates with who were clear standout talents and were effortlessly among the best in the conference. None went on the get even close to 14. It generally takes someone who's a state champion or contends for state championships to give sub 14 a go in college (California may be the one exception to this just due to size).

Also, it takes a certain type of talent to break 14. People who are standouts in sports like basketball, football, tennis, baseball, sprinting, etc are all great athletes but not really suited for running 5ks.

No, you do not have a friend that runs 190mpw and you did not run 140mpw to run a 4:48.

Not true.

VO2 Max is only part of it. Mine was 76,but I didn’t have the leg speed to get anywhere near 14:00. Our 14:00 guy in college had a 78 VO2 Max and 53 400m speed.

These days you need sub 14, a masters degree and 5 years of experience to get an entry level job.

these type posts are annoying. you don't give an age, which matters. you don't really mean average, as in off the street with native ability off whatever natural athletic work they get now, you mean -- and eventually say -- oh, they'll be running 70 miles a week. and then there's probably an asterix on that for how those miles are run, ie, not just long slow.

so this isn't really an argument about can the kid walking by in PE run 14 minutes, it's an ad for a training regime or something.

even taken on its face the argument is silly and self-refuting. how many schoolkids, collegians, adults in the whole country manage this barrier trying hard as they can, working their butt off. you can win HS XC meets with times in the 15s sometimes. ditto D3 meets.

nah, this is a rare thing that's a mix of talent meeting work meeting coaching. you could take a talented kid off the street, who would set school records most places, and he's probably low 16 or 15s off the shelf.

it's kind of like you aren't going to find some unfit guy in street clothes who can challenge you to a race then run under, i dunno, maybe 11 in the 100m. to achieve top speed. to not tie up. to not pull a hammy. to get out of the blocks right. to work the phases. that's work. a gifted passerby might beat the worst JV kids. the rest is work and details.

but to be clear, and this is where i beef about "average," no, sorry, your average passerby is slooooooooow. they could tap into their inner athlete, work their tookus off, and my guess is like 20-25 min. you have maybe been around tracks too long. you don't know joe schmo from shop class anymore. and in reality i had some talented hard working teammates nowhere near 14.

nope.

and my guess on your average person walking by, what they'd do for a 5k, out of a box, the training athletes (say, ride mountain or road bikes regularly) would be 25-30 min. they could jog it. the average schmuck would be 45 min - 1 hr, slightly faster than a walk. they'd try to run and hurt and walk.

last, 70 mi is beyond what 99.99% of serious HS kids do, and probably even a good chunk of college at any level. that's years of training in the dojo since 7th grade or whenever TF/XC starts there. they probably still don't do your mileage and a normal athlete that quality is like 15-17 min.

i think you're emphasizing the work when a lot of this is genes/talent. this is a typical LR mistake by folks who got "there" by hard work but don't admit "there" wasn't a national championship. maybe it's i was primarily sprints and hurdles but sometimes a guy is simply better at you at high hurdles for being taller. and the guy running 10.3 in your HS heat isn't usually more fit, he's naturally faster and maybe works the details better. i think it's an LR thing to think if i ran one more mile maybe i change that. nope. but it's still your job to maximize you.

Is this a joke? Anyone running 40-50 miles per week should be able to run sub 1350 5k

hahahaha 1400 is sooooo slow. If you take the average male, make them run 40-50 if they don’t run close to 1350 in 3 years they are weak losers. My wife would never sleep with anyone slower than 1410. 1415 worse case

The average American Male elite marathoner cannot best the women's marathon WR

Wow.

Tell us you know nothing about human physiology, without saying that you know nothing about human physiology.