SUB-4 MILE Training

bump. 4:05 miler here enjoying this thread.

Bump.

Been referencing this thread a fair amount in my own training towards sub 4. I'd love to hear from usedabe, pipedreamz, and anyone else about their last 6 weeks or so of the build-up to the sub 4 race. Thanks!

Does my heart good when this thread gets bumped. Keep in mind, these workouts are nothing I would suggest during building phase. I was way heavier in tempo and lots of mile pace 200's for the vast majority of training.

6W Out:

81 miles

Tue: 5x1600 tempo pace (low 4:50's avg) 1:30 rest

Thu: 12x200 controlled (:30 avg) 1:00 rest

Sat: 3k disappointed with low 8's (goal was 7:55)

5W:

74 miles

Tue: 3x3200 (9:50 avg) 2:00 rest

Fri: 2x 200,300,300,200 (1st set 58 pace, second set 56 pace) 1:30 rep rest, 4:00 set rest

4W:

53 miles

Mon: 2x 8x400 (63.x avg) 1:00 rep rest, 5:00 set rest

Wed: 4x 100,200,100 (very controlled, averaged 66 pace)

Fri: 5k absolute bomb. Goal was 13:45. I think was fighting something

Took 4 days of just jogging but the third week out:

66 miles

Wed: 8x400 (62.x avg) I have marked in my log that goal was 60, but also that it was windy

Sat: 4x1200, 4x400 (3:25 and 62.x avgs). This was not a workout I had ever done and never since. I think it was supposed to be 5x1200 but it wasn't going well.

2W:

45 miles

Tue: 10x300 (44.high avg) 1:15 rest (goal was to cut down from :45 to :42 but they were all clustered around 44.x)

Sat: Absolute bomb of a championship race. Doesn't really matter what it was but I at this point thought I must have been delusional to think that I was in as good of shape as I thought. I had been thinking I was in 3:55, 7:55, 13:45 shape or thereabouts.

Week of:

42 miles

Wed: 2x 4x300 (1st set 60 pace avg, 2nd set avg 59 pace until the last rep i tanked a :48) 1:00 rep rest, 5:00 set rest.

Sat: mile. I had gone home devastated too many times and wanted to get in a slow race and bump my confidence with a win. Race didn't turn out as I expected it to though. It went fast, I just hung out in the back for 800, picked a few guys up over the next 600, then did my best to not fall before the finish. I think my splits were something like 60, 59, 60, 60.

Well, look what's back! My journal is in storage, but for my last 6-8 weeks, it was essentially the same structure weeks 1-4 and then completely different 5-8 due to racing.

Weeks 1-4 general outline:

M- am4 pm 2x (1200-3 minutes- 400)- 10 minutes rest between OR 3x800 (4 minutes rest) + 4x200 OR 1000/8/6/4/2 (4 minutes rest)

*All intervals were done as close to 60 sec pace as possible. That first 1200 workout gave me huge confidence at week 4.

T- am4 pm8

W- am4 pm8 + 8x100m at mile pace

Th- am4 pm10x400 OR 8x500

Always 2 minutes rest and all done at 60 sec pace. For some reason, that extra 100 makes all the difference in a confidence boost when the 500's were done.

F- am4 pm8

Sat- 20x200 or 10x300 walk 100 recovery so probably ~ 2 minutes all at 56-60sec pace

Sun- 12 easy

Weeks 5-8

Basically racing 1-2 times each week ranging from 800 (1:51.7) to 1000 (2:23.4) to 3000 (8:08). I always took an easy one day 5 miler post race, then usually a 6x400 (56-58) or 12x200 (27-29) as the hard workout between the next race. I'll tell you, after finally breaking 4, the feeling was pretty unreal. Greatest warmdown in the history of mankind. Couldn't believe I'd done it. Had planned 2 more weeks in Finland, but packed my gear and went to Spain instead. Spent the time on the beach and living a little. Returned home to a "real job" with "wings on my heels and hope in my heart". I haven't raced since, but can tell you that for some reason, accomplishing that goal changed me. Sounds hokey, but it really did. Made me truly believe in myself. It was like a hurdle I had to get over in my life to become the person I am today. Still a huge track fan.

Interestingly, you might have a look at the Steve scott training thread. Seems to be some really good ideas in there. Once again, massive thanks to Usedabe.

Thanks to everyone for posting all of this. Really cool to look at. I've run around 1:52 for 800m and I'm pretty young so I'd love to cut that time down a little bit now that I'm training post college. I'm definitely a lot worse at the mile and up than I am at 400/800 but I think one day I could run some competitive mile times.

I've recently made a new (ish) running plan and other than more volume / aerobic quality, I'm going to add in some of those 200s and other short repeats at mile or faster pace during base phase. Every time I race a mile I just feel fried and uncomfortably after 400-600 meters even though I should realistically have no problem holding that pace.

Wonderful thread!

One of the big mistakes I made as a runner and--sorry to say--as a coach, was not including in the off-season more of the "skill" reps that a lot of posters have mentioned: a small volume of possibly short reps (even as short as 100m) at something like mile pace.

But the flip side of that skill-building is that the mile-pace reps mostly need to be run with a true miler's mechanics, rather than as a semi-sprint. Just one example: Ron Clarke, as a younger runner working occasionally with Franz Stampfl, was able to crank out sets of ~10 quarters at sub-60 pace consistently...but he never broke four, even later when he was the world's best 5k/10k guy. I suspect that he was running those fast quarters with mechanics somewhat different from what he'd use when racing a mile. He was enough of an aerobic animal that he could recover quickly after each quarter and launch into another semi-sprint on the next rep--but he was never quite practicing actual sub-four running.

TL, DR: it's not enough that your training *times* be race-specific, your training *form* also needs to be race-specific.

I agree with this. I think focusing on my speed, but more importantly, staying relaxed with my form and body during the faster speed work helped my 800m. Running sub 13 second 100m strides but feeling smooth and having 'jogging' form rather than sprinting, flailing, etc helped a million times. I just need to practice it more often with mile pace and even 800 pace in the off seasons.

Thanks usedabe and pipedreamz! I really appreciate the detail. I've done a lot of the base work discussed in this thread and I'm stronger than ever before. I have been hitting the race pace stuff lately and looking forward to the next couple months. I'll try to report back after the season's over - hopefully with results as good as yours. Again, thanks so much.

If there were a way to transmit contact info confidentially, I'd find a way to buy you a beer. Since I can't, virtual high five.

This is a great thread. Any more sub 4 milers want to share some of their training leading up to sub-4?

I'm no sub-4 miler, but this is such a beautiful sentiment, and I can feel your triumphant relief here:

"I'll tell you, after finally breaking 4, the feeling was pretty unreal. Greatest warmdown in the history of mankind. Couldn't believe I'd done it. Had planned 2 more weeks in Finland, but packed my gear and went to Spain instead. Spent the time on the beach and living a little. Returned home to a "real job" with "wings on my heels and hope in my heart". I haven't raced since, but can tell you that for some reason, accomplishing that goal changed me. Sounds hokey, but it really did. Made me truly believe in myself. It was like a hurdle I had to get over in my life to become the person I am today."

Love this thread. No politics, no ugly name calling. I wish there were more like it here.

pipedreams, first of all, congrats. Just came across this thread and that's awesome you achieved your goal which made a lasting impact on your life. I'm hoping to embark on a similiar journey, former sub 50 guy, a bit older now (mid-late twenties) but running more and hoping to make a 4 minute push. I'm wondering what age you were when all of this was happening? In college I was injured but I'm healthy now running decent mileage - I'm wondering what people think is too late to make the sub 4 push in terms of age?

did you ran an actual mile , or it was a 1500m conversion? Was it in 2014 ,in Finland? Because i couldn't find a sub 4 mile by an American in 2014-5 from Finland , nor an outdoor 2.23. No offense just curious, and an inspiring story, congrats!

Bump. Looking for more sub 4 mile training schedules.

Bump

asd said: did you ran an actual mile, or it was a 1500m conversion? Was it in 2014, in Finland? Because i couldn't find a sub 4 mile by an American in 2014-5 from Finland.

you ask good questions.

according to my records, there hasn't been a sub-4 mile run in Finland since 2010, which is 2 years before this thread started. and there hasn't been a sub-4 mile run in Finland by a person who speaks English as his first language since Adrian Blincoe (NZL) ran 3:59.27 Joensu, Finland 21 Aug 2010. and, there hasn't been a debut sub-4 mile run in Finland by a person who speaks English as his first language since Tony Polhill (NZL) ran 3:59.00 in Turku, Finland on 15 Jul 1971.

but then again, pipedreamz didn't actually say that he ran his sub-4 "in Finland," he just implied it, "Couldn't believe I'd done it. Had planned 2 more weeks in Finland, but packed my gear and went to Spain instead."

so, if you are staying in Finland, the only other countries where it make sense for you to have run your sub-4 would be Sweden or Russia. you could, theoretically, be staying in Helsinki then pop across the Baltic to Tallinn in Estonia and run your race there. but the only 2 sub-4 miles run in Estonia so far were both run by native Estonians, 3:59.74 by Tiidrek Nurme (EST) Viljandi, Estonia 9 Aug 2011, and 3:59.93 by Nikolai Vedehin (EST) Tallinn, Estonia 25 Aug 2012.

the last sub-4 mile run in Sweden was in 2005, by an American, as it happens. 3:55.63 by Jonathan Rankin (USA) Malmö, Sweden 16 Aug 2005.

four Russians ran sub-4's in Feb 2018, and one of them had done it in January, but no one who speaks English as his 1st language has gone sub-4 in Russia since July 1994 when Christian Cushing-Murray (USA) (who posts on this board from time to time) ran 3:57.05 in the Goodwill Games in St. Petersburg behind Noureddine Morceli and Abdi Bile. Terrance Herrington and Steve Holman were also in that race.

so, I'm calling b/s on pipedreamz claim to have gone sub-4.

cheers.

There are meetings all over Scandinavia (Sweden and Finland especially) in the summer that do not report results to any governing body. They might be club meetings or even local meetings. A mile distance would be rare but it's also possible that this was a 1500 conversion? Top thread regardless.

I also searched with the other times he claimes 8.08-1.51.7 and 2.23 and didn t find a runner with these times competing in Europe between 2013 and 2015.

I m really cuorius , if anybody has info about Pipedreams please share it wheather he is legit or not.

Quite inspiring story thought, poor mans Q.Cassidy lol