if you took a year off with no training at all, how fast could you run the mile?

I had 15 years with no serious run training (maybe 10-15 miles of jogging+ hiking, etc.). I gained 15 lbs, but it was all upper-body muscle. I started training again before becoming a master, and in 5 weeks I was under 5:00 (barely). The kicker is: despite trying EVERYTHING except PEDs (a waste on a no-talent like me anyway), and having raced it over a hundered times, my lifetime PR is 4:40. That 19 seconds is a lot of sweat, toil, tears and laughter.

i'm pretty sure i have enough natural talent to run atleast under 5:30....i remember the mile in grade 9 gym class i ran just under 5:30 in these huge gym pants (i won by about a minute)..i had never trained before..i'm now 22 and have become stronger physically, so i think 530 would for sure be doable after a year

the430miler wrote:

A WHOLE YEAR?? with NO training whatsoever?

hmm... id say righ under 5minutes.

Your PR, which I assume you set with a whole season of hard training and proper peaking, is only 30 seconds faster than what you estimate you could run after not training at all for a year? You either don't train at all or you seriously overestimate your ability to run fast after not running for a while. There is also the very likely possibility that you are a complete moron who knows very little about running but likes to pretend that you do, I vote that one.

my pr is 427. i post under this name because of i stay in 430 shape year-round.

i came out first day of xc last year after NO summer training, just good diet, and ran a 450. thats after about 3 months off. id say right under 5:00, like 458, is accurate for me taking a 1 year sabbaticle.

I took a solid year off and came out with a 5:04. I didnt run at all that year, but went for a lot of long walks (just enjoying the outdoors, not to get in shape). However, I was coming off of three years of college training before I took that year off and I did not gain any weight during the time off either. I think weight gain is what kills everyone if they take that much time off.

just shut the f*ck up, you're the dumbest mother f*cker ever

that's to the430miler

kind of facing the same thing, except mines 3+ years :( i stopped running after chicago in 2003 and have just started back. i've gained 30 lbs. and i'm struggling to string two 6:30's back to back. i have a long road ahead of me. i'm not a miler.... but my pr is in the 4:30's (during a workout)... i will never see that again in my life. i'm not looking for it either... just 6 min pace for the marathon is all i'm working towards.

if i took a year off... who knows... can't answer your question... i went over that.

the430miler wrote:

my pr is 427. i post under this name because of i stay in 430 shape year-round.

i came out first day of xc last year after NO summer training, just good diet, and ran a 450. thats after about 3 months off. id say right under 5:00, like 458, is accurate for me taking a 1 year sabbaticle.

if you gained 20 seconds from 3 months, how do you expect to only gain 10 seconds for the other 9 months?

pr was 4:57 in 2004. Took one year off due to injury, Lifted a lot. Put on 20 lbs of muscle. Went from 115 to 135. By august 2005 i was like f*** this i wanna see how fast i can run a mile. I hit 5:18 and then proceeded to throw up. It hurt more than anything i had ever run when in shape. But id say thats not a terrible loss. I was going on lots of nature walks and playin 72 holes of golf per week.

5:25 after 11 months off, followed by a stellar 12:34 2 mile a few days later. I dry heaved like a champ after both.

It's funny how your body forgets how to hurt, but your mind doesn't.

I can't believe there are so many people posting that have taken many months and even a year off from running. Why all the time off? I've been running for over 20 years and I've never taken off more than a few weeks. Even when I'm in 15's 5k shape, if I take more than a week off I have trouble running under 70 for a quarter. Once I took 25 days off no exercise or running and then I ran 3 miles at 7:15 pace and it was agonizing, and I had just run a 15:30 5k 25 days before!

I've gotten a lot of painful injuries that require 2-3 weeks of rest to fix, maybe 25 times in my life, but why would anyone take off 5 months or even a year from running?

It depends by no training at all whether you mean no RUNNING at all, or that you're not allowed to do any running, swimming, cycling, hiking, soccer, any other form of sport.

I think after a year of complete inactivity it would be pretty bad.

As to 'why would anyone take 5 months of a year off from running' - with me it was stuff going on in my life that lead to me quitting running. Eventually I missed it too much and decided I wanted to start back again.

Baby and the resultant lifestyle change put pay to me for 12 months - if I couldn\'t train properly then I wasn\'t interested.

Weigth gain is the biggest barrier it has to be said. Back now and after 3 weeks of 30 mpw I can run 5miles at sub 6 min miling and can cope with 12mile runs at sub 7 min miling. Could probably run a mile in 4:35.

you cant just do a math proportion and expect that to tell you what time you can run.

guess what, the longer you have been IN shape, the longer it it takes for you to get OUT of shape.

say for instance i have been in competitive shape for a year, it'll take a whole year for me to get out of shape again.

UK wrote:

I can always run sub 5min mile though.

I remember when I said that once. Stop running long enough and then get older and you won't be able to.

agreed with flagpole.

most of you are underestimating what NO ACTIVITY will do to you. no activity isnt jogging 30 miles a week, it isn't lifting, or playing basketball. no activity means sitting on the couch all day. i ran 15:12 and 4:17 13 months ago this week. ran 5:50 for an all out mile the second day back about 2 weeks ago.

yes, there will be a time when you can't break 5 minutes for a mile. no, you cant run under 5 minutes after a year of sitting on your ass. plain and simple. 12 months off, after 10 years of distance background, and 5:50 was all out.

also to the poster that said what would happen to make you take that amount of time off, do you actually live in the real world?

I did this once, and the result was slightly over 7 minutes and I lay in the grass for 15 minutes seeing stars.

It wasn't that difficult getting back under 6:00, though, just took a few weeks of running. I'd guess I'd be around 5:20-5:30 right now if I raced it.

ok.

This is sophmore year in college. i ran a 52 second quarter when i have not ran in 10months. My school in cali was having an all comers meet, and even though i quit the team the year before, my team and coach still liked me,and they needed an extra guy for the team relays 4x4, and i was watching the meet when my coach asked me if i wanted to run they needed an extra guy. i ran back to the dorms and got my spikes. I had 2 strides as a warmup and off it was. i didn't feel to bad after the race, but 200m into the race my legs were so f'in heavy I felt like I was running 30sec 200 pace at least.

Now, after hs i didnt think i was going to run college track(my school has no xc program) so I hadnt trained since the end of track season. I ended up walkin on and the FIRST day of practice I did a 1600m TT, 20min rest, 800m TT SOLO. There was not one other distance runner in my schools program, all sprinters jumpers. I ran 458 in the mile, and I crossed 600m of the 800 131 and finished with a 2:14 or something like that. MY coach told me all he cared was that i hit a good 600 split time. that was a painful day.

BTW I didnt gain any weight and was weight lifting when i wasnt running. I have great form too, to bad I couldnt stay motivated training by myself everyday.