Mo Greene Mile

Yeah, Greene could go under 6, but not under 5. I used to run 3:59 before I opened the bar.

Coach Nathan Taylor - currently of Cornell and formerly at Penn - used to have the sprinters and jumpers do "testing" during the fall to assess their basic conditioning. I'm guessing he still does it, so perhaps Rojo, Wejo, or a Cornell athlete can provide their input as well. Many an "informal" wager was made by members of the XC team on the times of various participants in the mile/1600m run. While none of them made NCAAs, we did have several good sprinters with sub-10.7, sub 22, and sub 48 speed. While they weren't at their peak, none of them came anywhere close to 4:40 and I can only remember one of them breaking 5, and he ran 46-point in the 400m, which is about what I'd expect Mo to run out of the blocks. Granted, they're a long way from Mo Green in the 100, but saying that the GOAT would have to work HARD to run under 5min at the time he set the 100m WR is not unrealistic. Afterall, decathletes TRAIN for the 1500m and don't run must faster than 5min pace.

Mo, I know you read LetsRun, fill us in!!

10th grade study hall wrote:

I've never seen a sub 10 100m runner attempt a fast mile, but I can tell you that I've seen 20.5 200m runners and 46s 400m runners fall far short of 5minutes (and in many cases not break 6).

And I've seen 10.5 and 47 second guys break five with ease. It all depends on conditioning, which majority of sprinters do a lot of. And due to his extreme talent, he would most likely run right around five minutes, plus or minus ten seconds. Anyone who says 4:40 or better is dreaming. But anyone who says he could not break six is joking with themselves; it takes a special kind of track athlete at the elite level to not break six minutes.

Its true many pure sprinters transmutate at distances over 200m. I remember watching a peak-form Carl Lewis in a 300m and the last 75m were embarrassing - I think he ended up like 6th or something. I'd be surprised if Mo could break 6min.

Mo green in shape would be around 5 pretty easily. I ran a 4:46 1500 (as a 100m-400m guy) and I was not anywhere close to Mo.

I cannot believe how many don't think he could break 6 minutes for the mile. Think about the worst guy on your high school team. Remember when that kid broke 6 minutes for the first time and was super happy? Do you seriously think that the world record holder in the 100 meter dash (at the time) could not run as fast a mile as that person?

At this year's USATF Junior Olympics a Bantam girl (born after 1997) ran a 5:07 1500. You are trying to tell me Mo Greene would get killed by a 10 year old girl?

I would say that he would be between 4:40 and 5:10, but I cannot see a world class athlete running much slower than that.

Torr wrote:

If you think he can't break 6, you must think him incapable of breaking 2:05 in the 800 also. If he ran 2:05, he would then have to run 3:54 to break 6 for the next half mile. If he could break 2 he could run 8 minute pace. 50, 1:30, 1:40, 1:55 would also put him under 6. Maybe he doesn't get 5:00, but fast twitch muscles are not useless in a mile race.

I saw Carl Lewis run a 2:08 at a celebrity event. He kinda of died the last 100.

If Carl Lewis can run 2:08 at a Celebrity event, then he could easily go sub 2 in his prime. Both Carl Lewis and Mo Greene would pound 5 in the mile. My freshman year of high school I ran 2:08 and 4:44, and I'm not a world class athlete.

This idea that because he is "a world class athlete" he can break 5:00 is dumb. World class athlete does not = good miler. There are lots of marathoners who are "world class athletes" but no one feels the need to say they can perform well at some other discipline, simply because they are a world class athlete. Maybe he can break 5:00, I don't know. BUT, there is NO reason to assume he can, and there is definitely no reason to think he could approach 4:30.

There are two important questions that need to be answered before we can solve this conundrum:

1) What kind of performance-enhancing regimen will he be on before the race?

and 2) Will he be wearing sprinting spikes or mid-distance spikes?

I'd recommend trainers, actually, because he will be heel-striking for most of the distance.

FWIW, here's my take on it: The decathlon is a poor predictor because Mo doesn't train to do the high jump, shot put, etc, so his vertical leaping won't matter and his upper body won't be prohibitively bulky like some of those decathlon-types. He is trained to run quickly and efficiently. His stride length and stride frequency are way above average for any track athlete. His running form is fluid to say the least.

He will obviously struggle with the endurance aspect, but if he took a conservative approach he could probably break 5 minutes. Say, 77, 79, 81, 63. Hell, he could probably run a 30 second 200, then float a 47-51 200, and repeat that 3 more times. These guys aren't all that uncomfortable running 7:30 pace on their 3 mile "distance" days. I'm quite sure he could push a little and run 6:00 for a warm-up, then right around 5:00 with some forethought and effort.

Anyone think he would try it if each of us put up $10 toward Mo's favorite charity? I'll give $20 if he breaks 5. We could pledge through one of those donation management websites...

Have any of you ever seen the Wingate Test administered on a sprinter? They put up tremendous maximal power numbers in the first 10 sec, then absolutely DIE over the last 20 sec. I'm talking barely able to crank over the pedals. True, Mo Greene wouldn't go balls-out from the get-go in a mile, (unlike a Wingate Test, which is supramaximal effort from the start) and he would probably still put up a decent time for an exceptionally fit individual, but nothing like mid-4:00. Sprinters have little fatigue-resistant muscle fibers. They don't train what little they have, either. So why would you expect him to peform like he does?

man you guys are ridiculous. you can't possibly think that the world's fastest man wouldn't break 6:00 in the mile. all of you 5 minute types just don't want to admit that a sprinter could possibly beat you in a mile, yet i'm sure you're the same ones who would claim every good 10K runner has 10.x 100m speed. mo greene would not hit the wall and have to crawl the last half mile because his fast-twitch sprinter muscles suddenly shut down, because he obviously would not start out at 100m pace. believe it or not, sprinters routinely run distances greater than a mile without stopping. i was just as much a 100m guy as mo (and obviously in nowhere near as good shape and with way less speed) and i JOGGED a 6:28 mile in gym class in high school because i had a meet that day. i could have easily run in the mid 5:00 range if i had raced it. but you're telling me that mo greene couldn't do the same. right. mo could warm up with a sub-6 and i'm sure crack 5:00 if he had any desire to.

There have been several posters on this thread who have said the same basic thing:

"I am a 100/200 runner, and while I'm not nearly as fast as Mo, I can run a 100 in 10.8 and I can run a mile in under 5 minutes, therefore Mo, with his superior speed and fitness, should be able to run a mile under 5."

What these posters don't get is that the very reason that Mo can run a second faster than them over 100 is the same reason he would struggle to run under 5:30. He is loaded with fast twitch muscle and he has spent his entire career working to turn his body into a speed machine. And all this speed comes at the expense of endurance.

wrong. you make it sound like the guy can't even walk to the store because he is only "fast-twitch". sprinters run longer than a mile all the time. by the same logic, bekele must not even be able to break 13 for 100m, since he's spent his whole life becoming an "endurance machine", and of course that comes at the expense of speed. what kind of pace do you think mo greene does for his warm up laps, 10:00 miles? get real people.

any athlete who's in shape can break 5:00, come on. my guess is that he'd be somewhere around 4:30 unless he did some sort of mile-specific training.

From my decath experience, in my best competition for the 100 and the 1500 I ran 10.96 and 4:50. I came into decath with a throws background, and I don't think I'd run over three-to-four miles in my life. I had only had a couple years of formal running training, and rarely ran more than 500 m at a time.

Greene's 100 m time was about 12% faster than mine, so even if that "fast-twitch disadvantage" completely works against him, making him 12% slower over the mile, that'd put him under 6 for the mile. That assumes, however, that fast-twitch doesn't help you at all in the mile, which isn't true.

The other factors, like superior running economy, better distance-running body type, greater career training volume, not having contested 9 events previously, etc., all indicate that he could run faster than 5-mid. Since no decath guys who are 10-mid-ish break 4:30 for the 1500, I'd say 4:40 would be preposterously low, but in the 5-range sounds very reasonable.

Now, if you put him in a 10k I'd agree with some of the people who predict preposterously slow times. Just from my experience, I hopped in a road race out of college because I was rooming with some distance guys, just to answer a speculative question like this, and it wasn't pretty.

How many of you had a soccer team at your high school. Yes their work was more endurance based, but there were still kids who with 0 running training would go out and break 6 for the mile. Hell, even the lacrosse team and baseball team had a guy do it almost every year. Mo could MOst definitely get under 6:00. I think 5:00 is pushing it though.

4:33 easy