BREAKING! Steve Spence runs 4:55 and continues his sub5 steak to 42 years.

Far Gone wrote:

Dang that is a solid double!

I was in 5.13+/4:40mile shape in my 40s but never tried the same day. I did run 2:11 and RP'd 13d age 50, months apart.

I climb out west, and hopefully I am about a week from my first 14a, age 60.

southeasternClimber wrote:

As a climber/runner i like that 5.13 streak! Where do you climb mostly? I had a dream of breaking 15 and sending 5.14 in the same day. The closest i got was 16.04/13c.

holy cow man, that is ridiculous! 14a at age 60 will be news worthy. I'll keep an eye out for it in the Hot Flashes!

in my early 30's I use to run 5ks in the morning in the high 15's and go climbing and probably occasionally do a 13 or a Ton of pitches of easier grades. The sports compliment each other pretty well.

Climbing hard at an older age seems more

Doable ....than trying to "run fast" at an older age.

There's so much technique in climbing I think you can hold on for longer in that sport. I can think of dozens of guys climbing 5.13 in their forties and still a dozen or more that climb 5.13 in their fifties. It's still bad ass! I just rarely see guys in there fifties running fast ever.

The difference is that running 5 minute pace is a fixed speed and distance. You have to run 5 minute pace from start to finish... Climbing hard often requires moderate stamina and some power you can master the route and make it a bit easier and you can also find routes that suit your style or strengths.

I'm not saying climbing is easy:) I'm just saying running 42 years staight of sub 5 minute miles is insane!

You know what? This is actually a fair point. When you're out of college, it can be kind of difficult to find a mile race on the track unless you live in a few cities like New York or Berkeley or LA where they have lots of all comers meets. There have been many years in which I could have run a sub 5 mile but didn't because there was not a single mile race in my entire region on the track the whole year and I don't count time trials and road miles. This is not to cast aspersions on his streak, because he is running the miles with others and has witnesses and it is damn impressive. Even Molly Ludlow did not brag that her 800m pr was 1:57 after she did it in a time trial; that became her pr only after she later did it in a race. But many others would assemble considerable streaks if they could just jump into a workout with college students and call that their sub 5 mile of the year.

Time trials don't count, sorry wrote:

He can't claim the streak because most of his sub 5 miles were not achieved in actual races. They were unofficial time trials, timed and paced by athletes he coaches,

He did achieve this years sub 5 in a race though. It was still paced by his athletes though.

It's like someone claiming a streak of sub 3 hour marathon from on a training runs.

Now, who really has the streak of the most sub 5s?

So Cal Cush wrote:

Would you accept someone claiming a sub 4 mile from a road race split, downhill time, self timed, timed by friends, training session, treadmill, altitude conversion, relay split, running start, time trial, adjusted time due to heat or wind, 1600m time? No you wouldn't.

I would. A mile is a mile and four minutes is four minutes so if someone covers that distance in that time or less then they've run a four minute mile regardless of circumstances. Now if you're talking about claiming some sort of record, then no, you need to have standardized rules as to what miles count and which don't. But Spence isn't claiming a record. He's simply reporting that he's done a particular thing at least once a year for 42 years and in recent years has made doing it into a project.

So you'd accept a 1600m training interval, self timed under 4 minutes as a sub 4 mile?

1600m isn't a mile. Scrap all those. Road race split, total bs, self timed training session, give me a break.

What about an unofficial road race split?

Would you accept all of Bolts sub 20 200m races as two sub 100m races?

What about an altitude conversion?

How many of Spence's claimed 42 sub 5 miles are legitimate times? Probably fewer than ten.

1600m ain't a mile.

Interval training 1600m ain't a mile

Road race splits are a joke

gotta agree with the critic

It ain't been done

Wouldn't even pass beer mile regulations

He's just having fun and trying to beat Father Time!

southeasternClimber wrote:

holy cow man, that is ridiculous! 14a at age 60 will be news worthy. I'll keep an eye out for it in the Hot Flashes!

I think the part of the 26y/5.13 streak I am proudest of is no injuries the entire time (or even going back 38 years of my climbing career). I attribute a lot of that to always dealing with injuries (or it seemed) in running, before I got into climbing.Once bitten twice shy, or in my case, dozens of times bitten. Above the belt, pristine, below the belt, scar tissue!

I finally have reigned in my running-injury/health problems with heart-rate training, barefoot grass training, and polarized methods. The latter is a huge element in my climbing training.

Temps are supposed to dip into the 70s next week, fingers-crossed for the redpoint!

ShipRaiders wrote:

Super impressive considering he ran 150+ mi weeks 25 years ago.

Discuss.

First off, If Steve is just having fun and banging out a sub 5 mile year after year (I trust that he's being honest about the distance) unofficial or official.....who cares!!!. I'm sure that Steve isn't doing this for anyone else but himself and all the power to him. Although he does say that he feels a bit of pressure every year to get it done. Second, on a personal note why would anyone 50+ years old want to put themselves through trying to run sub 5? This takes a considerable amount of training and time not to mention the pain and discomfort of trying to push yourself both mentally and physically. Steve has spent most if not all of his adult life running. The wear and tear on his body has to be an issue and at some point considered unhealthy. I'm approaching 40 years of running of which 20+ years were at a very high level (World Champs/Olympics) and not at the marathon distance. I run 3-4 days a week (3-6 miles per run) at 6:45-8:00min pace, mix in a little spin biking 2 x a week (30-45 min) and find that to be challenging and satisfying without taking a toll on my body. If your 50+ years old and are beating yourself up to just run sub 5:00 min you need to find another hobby and except the fact that your years of running glory have come and gone.

You are a joke.

He is not trying to validate you or what you think. He is simply interested in how many years in a row he can run any type of mile under 5:00.

I was a national caliber distance runner who ran in the OT, and Steve was much, much, much better than me. I couldn't hold a candle to him, and I used to run anywhere from 4 to 10 mile intervals in practice in all sub 5. My tempo runs were mostly sub 5 . I wonder if I would have been able to run a mile race in under 5 minutes?

You are a joke.

You're a joke. Self timed tempo runs, 1600m intervals aren't a mile.

Show some respect to the event.

Considering Spence and probably you have run fewer than ten true mile races in your lives it's a ludicrous claim.

Sub 5 is a 5. On the road,track, race or workout.

I'm pretty sure Steve is a complete ninja.

:)

I don't know many 35-45 year olds that can run 1 mile downhill that fast.

His streak is a personal journey and a pretty cool one none of us will be able to match.

When he started I doubt he thought 40 years later someone would question the rules! It wasn't like he wrote the rule book then started the challenge.

John Walker probably has the real sub 5 mile streak record at 20 or so years in a row.

I have run hundreds of mile races in my life though I was not a miler. Ran mile races in high school, college and post-collegiate.

My statement that "you are a joke" was way too harsh and personal,and I felt bad immediately after sending my reply. I apologize for that. It was uncalled for. And, I do agree with you that if claiming a record that he would need to actually have participated in official mile races. But, I think Steve is simply doing this for his own personal challenge and not for any type of record, and he knows, without a single doubt, that he ran a sub 5 mile in most every race he ran and every workout he did in his prime that had repeats longer than a mile. He also has all of his workouts recorded in his "logs". I can guarantee that.

I never did mile repeats on the track that weren't sub 5 when preparing for 5000's, 10,000's, half marathons, marathons,, etc.. and Steve was much better than me. I trained with Olympians and multiple OT participants like myself. Sub 5:00 pace was a given most any time we hit the track or intentionally pushed the pace.

Steve also knows this about his past running, and he is just challenging himself to try to reach his old tempo paces as he ages. Old tempo paces are now all out short intervals and mile efforts for him. I often do the same. Let him have fun. I have fun doing the same thing, it is just that the media and others around him find it interesting as he is an old Olympian. They aren't a bit interested in me, but I do the same thing. It is not his fault others have become interested in his own personal challenge. Trust me, what he is doing is fun and challenging. He enjoys that post workout feeling and the mental challenge of it all. It his how he is built.

Several years back my son walked onto the Shippensburg track team as a freshman with a high school PR around 2:02. There were at least a dozen guys there faster. Spence welcomed him and paid him as much attention as if he was all-PSAC. He gave a socially awkward kid a chance and found a way to keep him despite a roster limit of 55. My respect for Spence is huge and goes way beyond his (incredible) ability to maintain this sub-5 streak. Any athlete would be well-served in that program; it helped shape my kid's life in ways he probably doesn't even realize yet -- far beyond athletics. Great coaching staff, with Spence leading by example in every respect.

No one can disagree that Steve is the best, and most well-liked coach-athlete over the long-term. Kind of the "Anti-Alberto"

rxw12 wrote:

Several years back my son walked onto the Shippensburg track team as a freshman with a high school PR around 2:02. There were at least a dozen guys there faster. Spence welcomed him and paid him as much attention as if he was all-PSAC. He gave a socially awkward kid a chance and found a way to keep him despite a roster limit of 55. My respect for Spence is huge and goes way beyond his (incredible) ability to maintain this sub-5 streak. Any athlete would be well-served in that program; it helped shape my kid's life in ways he probably doesn't even realize yet -- far beyond athletics. Great coaching staff, with Spence leading by example in every respect.

I said I'd accept any MILE run in 4:00 or faster as a 4:00 minute mile. I said nothing about a 1600 though if someone jogged those last nine meters before time was up then I probably would because he'd have covered a mile in four minutes or better. Same with a road race split though doing those in under four has probably never happened but if it has, yes because again, that's what happened.

I would not credit Bolt with two sub 10 100 meter race times for a sub 20 two hundred, but I would give credit for RUNNING twice under 10 for 100 meters in a lifetime total if we know what the splits are and this goes to my point. Spence isn't claiming to have RACED. a sub 5:00 mile for 42 years but to have run one. So no, a 5:00 minute mile at 8,000 feet in a meet is a much better performance than a 4:59.9 run in time trial at sea level but it's not a sub five mile so I'd accept the latter but not the former.

Man, the "time trial troll" has really given this thread some legs. 80 posts on a non-controversial masters guy, 10/10!

I win. 80 posts about a Sub 5 mile.

1600m ain't a mile.

Just so you know it's me.