How many other older runners on here regret not training for sub-4?

all I hear are a bunch of excuses. classic letsrun posters. textbook, in fact. this explains many of the judgemental responses I see on this forum.

Yes, I reget that somewhat. Ran 4:06 in college, then went the career path. Certainly no assurance that I would have made it, but I do sometimes regret not making the attempt. On the other hand, I've had a good career that might have been derailed by pursuing a 4:00 mile.

4

4:51 miler so no

;

with fat chicks do round up or round down

If I had graduated college as a 4:02 miler (nowhere close), then there would be some regret that I didn't try to join a club team and train hard another year or two.

ASD wrote:

You don't "train for sub four," you either have it in you or you don't.

What a dumb post.

Xfit_guy_the_real_1 wrote:

You tell a hot chick your ran under 4min in she's like "great, I yesterday did the elliptical for an hour".

I hate to say it, but he's right.

To the man on the street a four-minute mile ("didn't some guy do that in the 50s? you should try to go for a marathon") as barely more exciting than a three-hour marathon ("wow! my buddy did one and it took him almost five hours").

Looks like a lot of people regret not having enough opportunities to run a full mile. Pretty sure you guys are aware already, but if you aren't, "Bring Back the Mile" is a great little coalition out of Santa Barbara doing what they can to revive the 1609 distance.

I've ran in one of their events and it was a blast (Downhill mile in SB, I "PR'd" with a 3:58, my 1500 best is 3:48.03).

That being said, I'm a year out of college and pursuing the sub-4. It comes at a cost, like others have said. My career is dangling on life-support.

But, people don't write promotions on their tombstones...

rupp-certified saladbar wrote:

Xfit_guy_the_real_1 wrote:

You tell a hot chick your ran under 4min in she's like "great, I yesterday did the elliptical for an hour".

I hate to say it, but he's right.

To the man on the street a four-minute mile ("didn't some guy do that in the 50s? you should try to go for a marathon") as barely more exciting than a three-hour marathon ("wow! my buddy did one and it took him almost five hours").

No he's not. Plenty of people know that a 4 minute mile is extremely fast.

I agree, I think I would have been a better miler if I had bypassed college team running. I never had any desire to run 5k much less 8k and 10k during XC. Those months were would have been better used doing circuits, weights raw quarter speed training and low key 5k races to get the confidence up for the track season

When I saw John Landy's progression, yeah I regret stopping early listening to others rather than trying.

I regret not having the talent with my 4:48 mile PR. I regret not focusing on a 5K when I was in great shape. My 5K PR was from a tuneup race for a 10K.

I focused on 5/10 in college after running 4:10 in HS. I could have run sub-4 if I had focused on it. At the time I didn't regret it but I sure do now. I ended up running sub-4 equivalents for 3000m through 10,000m but it is not the same thing.

This thread has inspired me. I'm going to quit my job and train full time with a goal of qualifying for the Olympics in the mile. Do you think 4:00 is good enough to medal? What is the Olympic qualifying time these days? Can't be much below 410...much faster than that and you'd be world famous or something.