Interesting Question: About what mile PR does it take to be able to run under 5:00 solo

I would say sub 4:50 at least. The only solo TT mile I ever ran alone I ran 5:02 and that was on a snow covered track in early January, during that upcoming track season I ran 4:37.

Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:59.99

when i got my mile pr junior year i ran 4:45 solo with splits of 66, 68, 80, 71. never really had any idea back then on how to run even a semi even split but that was the first time i broke 5. so i'd say they need to be able to do at least sub 4:50 in order to solo it, time trial or race.

What?

Maybe I don't understand the topic of this thread, but it only takes a 4:59 PR to run under 5:00 solo. Why would non-solo make you faster? Is there a rope involved?

Suspicious:

Ask Walter Dix about his recent 200 PR or Rupp about his American record 10000 and if they could have done those times solo. Most people run faster when there is competition, either chasing or being chased.

Are you trolling or being sarcastic?

That is what I call a time-trial. If this estimate is 95% of RP, then that would be about 4.45. Some could do so off closer to 5.00, but their endurance/stamina/concentration would need to be pretty good. The problem with questions like this, is that it assumes that everyone is the same, which they are not!

You're right. Perhaps, I wasn't clear.

By solo, I mean being able to time trial it all by yourself. No competition. No spectators. Just you, a track, your spikes, and your watch.

Restating my original question, what time (in a race, competition) would demonstate having the ability to break 5:00 solo.

This is not about me, but, take me for example. My PB (a while ago) is 4:16. When I was in that shape, I could certainly show up at the track some evening, spike up, and break 5:00. But what if my PB was 4:30? 4:40? 4:50? About about PB would making breaking 5:00 solo (without competition) nearly impossible? That's the question.

Interesting.

I've always been able to run my pr's or set new ones with or without competition. maybe i'm not pushing myself hard enough in a race then?

This is not about me, but, take me for example. My PB (a while ago) is 4:16. When I was in that shape, I could certainly show up at the track some evening, spike up, and break 5:00.

REALLY!?! If my PB was a 4:16, I could certainly show up at the track some evening, NOT spike up, and do repeat miles ALL under 5:00 until it got dark & my mom called me in for dinner.

Suspicious wrote:

Interesting.

I've always been able to run my pr's or set new ones with or without competition. maybe i'm not pushing myself hard enough in a race then?

If you can PR routinely on your own, you ain't pushing yourself anywhere near hard enough, in practice or in races.

I'm pretty sure, even on LR, the vast majority of people will agree.

Pushing yourself leads to injury, staying injury free is more important than trying to do all of your mile repeats in under 5 minutes.

As long as you have a watch and a solid understanding of your own speed, competition shouldn't make a difference, if you have the ability to run a 4:59, you should be able to do it every single time you're fresh.

Granted it will be easier the faster you are naturally.

Really depends on how much you work on pace. If you work out on a track regularly and practice running race pace for 400s and 800s etc you should be at least in the same ball park. A race with comp might pull you for 5 extra seconds or so. If you just go out and run as hard as you can with out paying any attention to your pace then yes you will have more trouble on time trials.

GEts wrote:

Probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 4:59.99

This would be my guess. Maybe 4:55 though. Many runners have run their mile pr's solo in races leading from the gun. Racing has an adrenaline advantage but anyone at the 4:20 to 5:00 range should be able to PR in a practice in a one shot deal if they got after it.

I'd guess ~4:50.

Suspicious wrote:

Interesting.

I've always been able to run my pr's or set new ones with or without competition. maybe i'm not pushing myself hard enough in a race then?

Some people can do this and others can't. I was always faster in competition in HS but that has been awhile. Maybe I can solo timetrial my PRs now. I don't know.

This is actually a pretty interesting question.

I ran 4:06 at Penn Relays in the 4xmile with lots of company, obviously. At that time, I was running TT miles in 4:15, which was ~1.0366x more than my PR.

So, someone like me (with the same slow-down coefficient) would have to run 4:49 in a race in order to reliable run 5:00 in a TT. So, I agree with the OP.