It's too damn hard to run a sub 5 mile

Did you try pushups?

Don't bail out now, Mo didn't hit his PR for this distance til he was in his 30's.

All that said ..

I agree with you, 5m/mile is WAY faster than most people are capable of running, or even coming close to. WAY faster.

3/10. Anyone with 55 sec 400 ability can run a sub 5 mile with appropriate mileage.

Focus on hitting a lot of miles and do 400 and 200 repeats every couple of weeks.

The first mile I ever ran was 4:55 in 9th grade

You've got plenty of speed at 55 for 400m

2:11 is a tad slow; ought to be closer to 2:04 with your 400 speed

Try focusing on the 5000 for a bit to build strength and endurance. Then go back and try the mile again.

wtfunny wrote:

Did you try pushups?

Don't bail out now, Mo didn't hit his PR for this distance til he was in his 30's.

I didn't do pushups on a regular basis, but once or twice a week, I'd hit the gym to work on my upper body, lower body, and core. I'm still young enough to break my PRs, but it's incredibly unlikely that I'll go under 5. A 5:10-5:12 could be realistic.

Troll Patrol wrote:

3/10. Anyone with 55 sec 400 ability can run a sub 5 mile with appropriate mileage.

I did the 55 second 400 off a low mileage/high intensity training program. High mileage either gets me injured or kills my speed. It may be hard to believe, but even in spikes, I couldn't break 64 in the 400 when I was running over 50 MPW.

You're too old. 5:15 is a time that any mediocre freshman on a HS team can run. By the time he's a junior, if he's not under 4:50, then either something is wrong or he's just not good. At your age, there is just no way.

No doubt wrote:

You've got plenty of speed at 55 for 400m

2:11 is a tad slow; ought to be closer to 2:04 with your 400 speed

If you put a whole bunch of 800 guys with 55" 400 speed in a race, more of them would run closer to 2:11 than 2:04.

Juantorena ran a 44.26 400 and a 1:43.44 800. Keeping that same 800/400 ratio (2.337) would result in an 800 time of 2:08.

noway8 wrote:

At your age, there is just no way.

Sprinters peak earlier than distance guys, and there are quite a few sprinters who ran their best times at 30+:

Carl Lewis: 9.86 100 (age 30)

Linford Christie: 9.87 100 (age 33), 20.25 indoor 200 (age 34)

Michael Johnson: 43.18 400 (age 31)

Justin Gatlin: 9.74 100 (age 33)

Kim Collins: 9.96 100 (age 38)

Honorable mention: Felix Sanchez, 47.63 400 hurdles, 2012 Olympic gold medalist, age 34 years, 11 months

Bro, you took my name. I am the first Troll Patrol... Come on dawg, don't steal my thunder.

noway8 wrote:

You're too old. 5:15 is a time that any mediocre freshman on a HS team can run. By the time he's a junior, if he's not under 4:50, then either something is wrong or he's just not good. At your age, there is just no way.

No. He's not. I ran under 5 minutes for a mile just shy of my 50th birthday, and I never had any great talent.

His 2:11 800m is plenty fast enough to break 5 min. I'd suggest some sessions of running 1000m or 1200m at sub 5 min pace (obviously possible) with full recovery and then some fast 200s or 300s.

Man, I feel for ya. I'm even more of a regular joe than you with regards to talent.

First off, I feel the short man's plight. I'm 5'5".

Secondly, it took me 3 and a half years of running to go under 6 for the first time ever...which happened last year at age 30. I also tried in high school, got agonizingly close (6:06), but never did it until last year. So I know what you mean about no way that the average guy can go under 5.

That said, I would KILL, literally KILL for your speed. My 400 best is 1:19 right now, and I went 5:53 on a very windy day. There is no doubt in my mind that if I had an extra 24 SECONDS PER LAP to play with that I'd hit sub-5. So maybe I'm doing something crazy wrong in the 400, or you're doing something crazy wrong in your mile-training, but probably both are true.

I also can't imagine how you can be so impossibly light. 112? Seriously? I'm an inch shorter and weight 143. I think you need some more muscle. Besides, your performance curve indicates that you're a fast-twitch, short-distance sprinter-type, so maybe you should train like them and focus a lot on the weight-room and drills. It might also be illuminating to know your 100 & 200 PR's.

Also, how many hours of sleep do you get? You say you get enough, but I'd like to see a number.

Cavorty wrote:

noway8 wrote:

You're too old. 5:15 is a time that any mediocre freshman on a HS team can run. By the time he's a junior, if he's not under 4:50, then either something is wrong or he's just not good. At your age, there is just no way.

No. He's not. I ran under 5 minutes for a mile just shy of my 50th birthday, and I never had any great talent.

His 2:11 800m is plenty fast enough to break 5 min. I'd suggest some sessions of running 1000m or 1200m at sub 5 min pace (obviously possible) with full recovery and then some fast 200s or 300s.

I know this is the canonical answer, but I don't agree. OP, try this as a weekly workout for the next month: 5xmile in 6:00 with 100 meter jog. If you can't do this, back off to 6:20 then, once you've accomplished that, down to 6:15, then to 6:10 and so on. My bet is that once you've done four consecutive weeks of this workout with 6:00 miles, you'll break 5.

Honestly, I think that everyone can be expected to run a sub-8:00 mile if they are able bodied, but not sub-5:00. Especially including females and the overweight.

My goal in high school was to break 5 mins as well but the closest I got was 5:01 at our county meet my senior year, my last track race. It was a huge PR. I think my previous best was 5:08 or so. The race went out fast and I was almost last with a 70 or 71 sec first lap. I passed a lot of people in lap 3, so I'm not sure what more I could have done. My PRs for 400 and 800 were only 57 sec and 2:18 so you definitely have more speed than I ever did.

Interesting thread. I'm in my 40's and have just recently run 3 x mile repeats at the track in 4:59 each with 3 min rest, and subsequently raced under 16 min for 5k. Yet, a couple times I've gone to the track to do some all-out 400's and have only been able to run 68 seconds.

The first time I ever raced a mile at age 15 I ran 4:58, getting down to 4:30 at age 18. My all-time fastest 400 was only 60 seconds though, and that's with tons of speedwork too.

I can't imagine having 55 sec 400 speed and not being able to break 5 min in the mile. Maybe you are 100% fast-twitch fiber?

I coached high-school kids for 15 years and every kid I coached that wanted to break 5 min did so. I coached a 4:05 miler and that's real talent, not breaking 5 min.

Just keep working and try different approaches each year. You're bound to get your goal eventually.

First off I think this is a troll trying to illustrate how fast 5 flat is for someone without talent for running. I agree and people claiming to run 5 who ran less than one mile or who ran 5:50 is probably why.

"though I was on pace for a 4:58 mile at the halfway mark)"

If you are serious this is your answer. You were not ready on that day. You need to run more 800m reps at 5 min pace because running that far that fast currently kills you. Something like 3x 800. Long reps long rests to improve form at speed.

op, you are underweight. Until you get your weight up, your body won't have the fat stores to run a sub 5 mile. Its literally trying to shut itself down while you are trying to perform. Even top Kenyans MARATHONERS aren't underweight. Not even Ritz is underweight, despite what letsrun will tell you about his weight being 117 (its actually like 123) when he was at his best. BMI is perfect for distance runners. you need to raise your bmi to 18.5, and really probably closer to 19 unless you have an Asbel Kiprop like physique. I would suggest gaining 5-6 lbs. You'll be amazed at how you can run faster just by eating more. Humans have evolved to survive, not necessarily perform. When you run you're fighting the survival instinct to store calories.

IMho u probably just need to do some anaerobic endurance workouts. My fastest ever 400 was run in my 800 PR, and it was like a high 57/58. My 800 time ended up being 2:04 (horrible splits right?) the same time I was able to run a 4:44 mile. What did I do? Well I was dumb af and ran all out interval workouts on a two day hard, one day easy cycle through the week. 8x200@goal 800 m pace with 45 sec rest on one day and 8x400 @ goal mile pace with 1 minute rest on the other. In retrospect, I was a nut for doing that so much (kept that up for like 5 weeks straight because I basically have no high school coach) but it sure as heck made me tough. I was mentally prepared for the lactic acid near the end of the race. Now I did peak early and effed up my chances of reaching my goal of 2:02 but oh well.