How common is it for a healthy 18 year old male to be unable to break 7 in the mile?

Your question is illogical.

How is it illogical?

Since you are a runner and most likely competed at the very least the highschool level you’ve probably been doing it for years, but it is very easy to forget how hard running is for people who don’t do it competitively. Let me give you some examples:

My highschool Lacrosse team was pretty good, and they did a time trial and the winning time was 6:20, with most of the good players in the 6:50s. Those are other athletes that put a lot of energy and time on the field in order to make states, and even a lot of those guys couldn’t break 7.

My friends that go to the gym but never do cardio also often struggle to break 8. One of my friends is as average as you can get and asked me how fast his 8:30 mile was. Running is not easy, and a lot of people have no sense of pace. That takes awhile to learn.

If you take an average 18 year old off the street they aren’t breaking 7 guarantee you. Think about your middle school or high school gym mile, a lot of those kids think a 6 minute mile is cooking.

If your question was phrased “with proper training” then I think it would be a different story, but just off the street, a healthy 18 year old male is not breaking 7. No shot.

David45? Is that you?

Is this a David thread? What do we define as healthy? Someone with no aerobic background probably wouldn't break 7 even after a couple months of running. For instance, a top hs golfer could be considered healthy, but may never do any running and thus wouldn't break 10! If you're struggling to break 7 in the mile, I suggest reading Daniels and following his program for middle distance runners using his advice for beginners.

supragraf wrote:

David45? Is that you?

Who?

It's not unless you're fat.

Get off the Cheetos and you'll break 7.

Then how come many healthy men in the military can't break 7 in the mile?

jakedds wrote:

supragraf wrote:

David45? Is that you?

Who?

Okay 100% troll

not banned wrote:

jakedds wrote:

Who?

Okay 100% troll

I don't know what "David45" you are talking about

jakedds wrote:

not banned wrote:

Okay 100% troll

I don't know what "David45" you are talking about

it's a codeword for a secretive training method. i'll let you in on the secret:

1) make an appointment with a liposuction specialist to reduce your weight to 45kg, or 100lbs.

2) run a 6 minute mile.

David45 is back !!!!

A healthy 18 year old male who can't break 7 is not a healthy 18 year old male.

How many 18 year old runners cannot do 50 pushups?

See I don't get this. I was overweight in middle school and I still ran a 6:55 1.05 mile run (the loop that we used was slightly long) during PE. I didn't do any sports and the only exercise that I got was during PE, which included only 3 runs, the aforementioned 1.05 mile run, a 2 mile run, and a 20 minute long run walk, with 1 minute running, 1 minute walking. I don't think this is even close to what most athletes run a week, yet I was able to break 7 as a chubby14 year old. Either the people doing this are sprinting the first 400, or they are incredibly untalented. I find it hard to believe that any healthy 18 year old male is incapable of running sub 7 with correct pacing.

Hey, David. Lets Run is only for people who have run sub 4 mile and sub 14 5k. Come back when you have cred.

jakedds wrote:

Then how come many healthy men in the military can't break 7 in the mile?

This is exactly what the David guy keeps saying.

I agree with it, btw,

First, you have to define healthy. A lot of healthy swimmers can’t break a 7 min mile like a lot of healthy runners can barely finish a 400M swim. Are CrossFit people healthy? A lot of the bulkier ones cannot break 7.

But, for the sake of argument my wild guess is that 15% of “healthy”18 year olds can break a 7 minute mile without any additional preparation. Give 18 year old males a monetary incentive, a coach, and 8 weeks training and I bet that more than half could do it.

My brother is 15 and only plays football twice a week. We wanted to find out what he could run in the mile so I acted as his pacemaker for a 6:30 mile. He dropped off towards the end but still managed 6:40ish. So I'd say if you can't break 7 you probably just don't run at all.