How much mileage and for how long would you expect for an average-talented, HS male runner to run a sub 5 mile? Assume he's like any other 16-17 year old male; fairly fit, plays some soccer/baseball/basketball, but never had a solid running background.
Sub 5 would require much quantity at all, as long as the quality is there. My coach back home rarely had us run over 30 mpw, but most the guys (excluding the ones that ran for fun) could run sub 5 after a year or two.
why are you looking for the absolute minimum to run 5:00, just run as much as you can/want and see how fast you get
just run baby
Although wrote:
Sub 5 would require much quantity at all, as long as the quality is there. My coach back home rarely had us run over 30 mpw, but most the guys (excluding the ones that ran for fun) could run sub 5 after a year or two.
I was wondering because there is a senior in my team who's run sub 5 (by that I mean 4:50 to 4:59) just twice, but he's run 16:30 for the 5k.
That contradicted with what most people say on letsrun, that sub 5 mile is easy to break/
Can be done by many on little miles but it's easier with more miles. Really groundbreaking info, I know...
0-25 MPW
20-25.
I ran 4:52 at an official meet my junior year of HS off of basketball practice the winter preceded. It consisted of 5 days a week of 2-3 hours daily doing ball handling drills, shooting, and walking through offensive sets (we scrimmaged very little) plus jogging 2 miles total (wu & cod for practice) and balls to the wall change of direction sprints.
I didn't get any faster when I started "track training", but I had no real coaching.
But that is an n=1. Some guys can do it from sitting on the couch all winter, some guys can't do it off of 70 mpw. Personally, I think basketball made me more mentally tough than anything. That means a lot in the mile.
Running forwards or backwards?
My life was devoted to soccer in 8th grade but I ran 5:22 a bunch of times and then the last meet of the season a 5:09. Track was just an activity at that point.
Freshman year was again devoted to soccer which brought about some bad habits. Our soccer team was a state powerhouse and also big time stoners. Some kids got caught and we never really faltered due to suspensions because the JV and freshman teams were so deep.
Will never forget those first moments drinking pepsi and eating doritos after getting baked by the way. Those were the days!
I was pressured to go out for track by some upperclassmen and convinced to go out for track by a friend/non-runner. The upperclassmen dragged me along on runs every Tuesday and Thursday and they really kicked my ass. I wasn't strong enough to keep up in training but could bring a little extra each race day.
4:57 first indoor meet
1st abd last bump
probably 20-40 with injuries every other week, like myself back then when I managed sub 5 a couple times. No tempos, no long runs, plenty of track stuff but aside from quick 600s and sub 30 200s I can't recall doing any VO2 max stuff (800-2k).