Serious: why are most runners so slow?

urine drinker wrote:

I did my fist half in 1:56 minutes and felt terrible.

That sounds painful. I would feel terrible, too.

Serious: how do some runners still stay fat even after so much hobby jogging mileage?

I know this middle-aged hobby jogger in his 40s who runs more miles than me. Every weekend morning he runs 6-8 miles as part of his morning ritual. Yet his times are way slower than mine and he always goes at a 9:30 mile pace when racing 5k's. It's barely better than my fast walking. That guy still has man boobs, belly fat and a double chin with a BMI of 27. He's the rule rather than the exception.

Most people will never be able to break 25 minutes for the 5k. In the hobby jogging world, a sub-25 5k is very respectable. Sub-25 is to them as sub-17 is to posters on this forum. I am dead serious. Look at all the oversized and weak people out there. Look at the average American's physique, weight, diet, and health. They just can't do it. An 8 minute mile pace is far harder for the average person than you think it is, and many will never be able to achieve it. Mr. Average Joe being out of shape is far worse than Mr. Letsrunner being out of shape.

I'm saying this as a sub-5 minute miler. But I know what reality is like and keep in touch with ordinary people's running troubles.

ur in the clear wrote:

urine drinker wrote:

I did my fist half in 1:56 minutes and felt terrible.

That sounds painful. I would feel terrible, too.

At least it wasn´t a full fist.

Reality strikes wrote:

Most people will never be able to break 25 minutes for the 5k. In the hobby jogging world, a sub-25 5k is very respectable. Sub-25 is to them as sub-17 is to posters on this forum. I am dead serious. Look at all the oversized and weak people out there. Look at the average American's physique, weight, diet, and health. They just can't do it. An 8 minute mile pace is far harder for the average person than you think it is, and many will never be able to achieve it. Mr. Average Joe being out of shape is far worse than Mr. Letsrunner being out of shape.

I'm saying this as a sub-5 minute miler. But I know what reality is like and keep in touch with ordinary people's running troubles.

From my experience, there are not a lot of people out there with the god given ability to break 17 even though it may or may not be below average here, people with truly average running ability need to do more work to break 25 minutes than people in this forum make out. It took me two years of consistant training to break 25 (tempo runs and speedwork included) and by the time I was breaking 25, all of my other female friends (who are decently fit, enjoy recreational sports/exercise) were scared to run with me. 3 years later and my 5k is now in the 21s. I am mid 20s and run 40-50 miles each week. There are lots of women in my local women club who arent exactly old who I see doing intervals on the track at weekends, running an hour a day on the roads, etc who are putting out 26-27 minute 5ks.

You should remind your lady jogger friends that their average watts per kilo is about 75% lower than world class women with an absolute look of disdain on your face

totally legit wrote:

serious runners have mentally moved the bar of "fast and slow" to a point that is unreasonable for most regular folk.

This is spot on. If somebody is not a fast runner, most likely they:

1) do not train nearly as hard as most fast runners

2) are not nearly as talented as most fast runners

A lot of people here like to forget about #2. Both these factors are hugely important.

Shouldn't he be running a 5k in under 20 with that mileage?[/quote]

The notion that a certain training plan has a minimum time that corresponds to it is such BS. There exist people in this world that could not run sub-20 if that were literally their life goal. I have no idea whether your buddy is one of them but you seem to underestimate the sort of variance that exists in talent for distance running, when including the non-running population.[/quote]

Talent is a real thing. I don't know if I can break 18 for the 5k even with a focused plan, yet most here can do it in their sleep.

I do think some people are better at different distances. I am not good at 5k or below but I think my strengths are at the half and full.

A Christian wrote:

chinocochio wrote:

I don't see any pot-bellied 21 minute 5K runners around my neck of the woods. They are around 35. The in-shape non runners that run once a week do about 28 minutes. And there are a lot of guys that run 20, 30 mpw and do 23, 25 minutes. There are a lot of slow folks out there.

My sense is that the pot-bellies get pretty rare as you dip into the low 20's. They are pretty common from mid 20's and up. However, the guys in the low 20's aren't built like runners in that they often have larger frames, relatively short legs, etc...

I am 5'2'' with short legs and run 45-60 mpw but I am in 20:30-20:40 shape...but I haven't trained for the 5k, just the marathon. I'd like to think if I specifically trained for the 5k I'd run sub-20 but who knows?

Anyone can unless they are mentally disabled. Almost anyone can run a sub-19:00 5k too. Majority can run sub-18:00, even if it might take some a lot of work. I’d say genetic potential starts to play a fairly large role around the 16:00-16:30 range, under ~16:15 you need to be at least of average talent even with a good bit of work, and under 15:30 you need to be definitely talented, under 15:00 and then I’d start to argue that many couldn’t run that fast even if they dedicated their lives to it. I say this as a freshman who can barely break 12:00/ 5:30 in the 3200/1600, which is worth about a 19:30 on the track. If I can do it off of an inconsistent 20-25 MPW summer, then anyone can. Plus, there are people who run half as much as I do yet still break 18:00 so really talent doesn’t matter when it comes to breaking 20 because even for an hs freshman that’s not very good. In xc I ran 20:19 and I never placed well except in our season opener where I ran 21:15, which was kinda good because it was a season opener, even then I was only like 44th/150 or so, still not that good, and my last race was my PR where I got like 65th/about 100. And don’t worry, I had many races where I had to run varsity because our smallass HS team has like 4 guys, I ran like mid-21s in these races and was almost dead last, so I don’t want to hear anything about how sub-20 requires a ton of talent because I was getting crushed even when I ran 20:19 by people who weren’t even that good.