personal fitness criteria

None of those four are good running achievements. Are you an all round fitness guy or a runner? You need to decide.

What about flexibility? I think generally strength, cardiovascular fitness, and flexibility are the hallmarks of a well-founded fitness program.

How fast you can run a mile is almost totally irrelevant to anything else in life except when you are so slow that it would indicate morbid obesity. The only kind of exercise that is really important for overall health/fitness is hard resistance training. That covers cardiovascular fitness, metabolism, muscular strength, bone strength, etc. Running is only useful if you plan to compete in running events - it is not itself a very productive form of exercise.

hate to break it wrote:

How fast you can run a mile is almost totally irrelevant to anything else in life except when you are so slow that it would indicate morbid obesity. The only kind of exercise that is really important for overall health/fitness is hard resistance training. That covers cardiovascular fitness, metabolism, muscular strength, bone strength, etc. Running is only useful if you plan to compete in running events - it is not itself a very productive form of exercise.

This is hilariously misguided. There are so many guys who can bench and squat a good amount, and are in terrible overall physical conditioning. They have beer guts, would tire out very quickly in almost any measure/test of physical conditioning (other than pure strength at their pet lifts). But they can pump a few good reps of a huge amount weight. They are strong, that's it.

A runner will live much longer and be much healthier than the lifter I described.

Having said that, a combined approach is certainly the best for overall conditioning and health (pure strength and endurance work). And yes, a slow distance runner many times won't be a very good athlete at other things. He likely will still be very healthy though.

I am now trying to be an all-around fitness guy as I don't have the time/motivation to train seriously as I did in college - all of my running achievements are well behind me. I'm just trying to think of numbers to hit to keep me motivated. The flexibility is a good point, as that's something I probably should incorporate. I don't know how one would go about measuring that though - being able to touch my toes?

wanna be overall athlete wrote:

I am now trying to be an all-around fitness guy as I don't have the time/motivation to train seriously as I did in college - all of my running achievements are well behind me. I'm just trying to think of numbers to hit to keep me motivated. The flexibility is a good point, as that's something I probably should incorporate. I don't know how one would go about measuring that though - being able to touch my toes?

Measurement is not really important except as a motivational tool to keep yourself going (positive feedback loop). I would recommend yoga for flexibility. Perhaps they have some ways to measure.

as far as strength goes here is some "useful" info from the American College of Sports medicine.

If you want to be above the 70th% in upper body strength you need to this bench press weight ratio ( weight pushed in pounds/body weight in pounds). If you are under 20 1.24, from 20-29 1.22, from 30-39 1.04, from 40-49 .93.

For leg strength: from 20-29 2.05, from 30-39 1.85, from 40-491.74.

I would use your ability to touch your toes as a good barometer of posterior flexibility. I would use resting heart rate and ability to recover from a workout as cardio barometers as you will get slower with age. But I would try to keep your mile time and 5k time respectable.