A friend of mine that is not a runner asked if any trained man can run a sub 4 mile pace for a lap. At first I thought this was way too fast for everyone to do it, but then I thought it might be possible for the average person to pull it off. Obviously an obese guy cannot run a 59 second 400, but assuming that they lost enough weight, could most young men run that time? Assuming they train properly?
There has to be a point where talent plays a factor but at what point?
And yes, I know that we've had similar threads for longer distances (sub 5 mile, 16 minute 5K, etc), but I can't find much discussion about train-ability for sprints.