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

idiot, it is so easy

I feel ya, bud. At least you have the sub 5 1600 to fall back on. My friend and former high school teammate tied his 2:00.2 800 PR in his last HS race and it was heartbreaking.

That’s incredible. Almost there!!!

Dude that's awesome! You're a 5 minute miler for sure ... rounded down ;)

Why don't You run longer, but slower intervals?

Like 5x1000m with 60-120s rest?

kudos for a good race, but to me it's kind of weird you've run just barely over 5:00 a couple of times now. my armchair quarterback opinion is you've built up this barrier so much in your head that your subconscious is making you think it's harder than it is, so you're hesitating to push for that breakthrough. you obviously have the fitness for 4:59 - maybe try listening to some linkin park before your next race, get riled up, and mute that subconscious! u can do it!!

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone! Your music idea brings back some memories. At one point, I was getting fed up with people calling me a troll, so I played Chamillionaire's "They see me trollin" song to get pumped up before the race (the song's actual name is "Ridin"). No sub 5, though, it just made the first lap easier and the last lap harder. Maybe Linkin Park would have been a better choice.

In regards to Ivrhs's suggestion about doing longer but slower intervals, I did them last fall while experimenting with the Easy Interval Method. I started off with two weekly 6x1000m sessions in early fall and gradually built up to 6x1500 by late fall. I think they helped drop my 3K and up times by quite a bit, but the improvements in my shorter distance races and time trials weren't as dramatic.

Good job, man.

IMO, an indoor mile isn't faster (or slower) than an outdoor one, but you tend to do better indoors because you have a habit of overstriding. The tighter indoor track turn radius makes it harder to overstride, so you run more efficiently and get a faster time.

For some reason, this reminds me of Nick Willis's 4:00.22 Midnight Mile. Same venue, same distance, similar outcome.

Thank you for sharing

4:57.77!!! You were right after all:

The weather were good but not ideal - mid-low 70s temps, no rain, and a slight 5-8 mph wind. But the vast majority of the field was seeded at 4:50-5:03, so I knew that I had some great competition, and my 5:00 indoor mile last week gave me the confidence that I had a good chance of pulling this off on a local outdoor track that I was fairly familiar with.

I pretty much stuck with the pack and hit the first quarter mile in ~1:13, the half mile in ~2:30 (that lap was slow and felt slow), and the 1000m point in ~3:07. It was right on pace, and at that point, I heard someone yell "Can you give me a 600? Come on, man, how badly do you want it?" and I sure as hell started picking up the pace since I didn't know of any more mile races in So Cal until at least this summer, and I definitely didn't want to have to fly out of state again.

I hit the three quarter mile mark at around 3:46. It was maybe a fraction of a second faster than last week's split, but I felt that I had more energy this time and kicked it in instead of waiting until I had 200m to go. With half a lap left, I glanced at my stopwatch, saw a time of 4:22, and knew that I had it despite the burn in my legs. I surged again, passed a guy on the curve, took another glance at the 1500m mark, and saw my watch turn from 4:37 to 4:38.

By then, I was just hoping and praying that I wouldn't cramp up, trip, or get bumped on the homestretch. I looked at the finish line clock, watched it tick from 4:51 to 4:52 to 4:53, and panicked because it seemed like it was still really far away. But then like magic, the finish line came up rather quickly. I dug deep, leaned at the finish, and looked at my stopwatch in disbelief as it read 4:57.69. I pretty much stumbled onto the infield, lay there feeling dizzy, and could barely comprehend that my official time of 4:57.77 meant that I had finally gotten under 5 after all those years. What a journey.

Last week's log:

Saturday (2/12): off (travel back from NYC)

Sun - 4 miles

M - 800m warmup, 3x800 (800s consisted of ~50m jogs followed by ~50m sprints), 1 mile cooldown

T - 1 mile warmup, 500, 400, 300, 200, 3x100 hard but untimed and not all out. 1200m slow jog cooldown

W - 4 miles

Th - off

F - 2400m a bit slower than tempo pace (ran 10:03?), 100 in 16", 200 in 34", 100 in 16", 800m slow jog cooldown

Sat (2/19) - 6 and a half minute warmup run, 100m stride, 280m in 48", 15+ minutes rest, 1 mile in 4:57, 400m cooldown

I hope that my logs were helpful to anyone on here who's trying to break 5. It's been 6 years since I started this thread, and though I may want to change a few things in the original post, I still stand by the thread's title. For those "Average Joes" without much talent, a sub 5 mile really is damn hard to achieve. But don't give up - just because something is tough doesn't mean that it's impossible.

I guess that'll be it for the weekly logs and race updates (at least for me; I'd love to see others post their sub 5 training and racing updates on here). I'm now off to claim my benefits as a newly minted member of that exclusive sub 5 club. Word on the street is that club members get a 5% discount on Dragonflies, free pasta on their birthdays, and free use of the Armory track during lunar eclipses ;)

congrats!  great to hear

Very happy for you.

I ran a 458 mile once in HS and a lot of 502s or around there. I can relate to you for sure.

My training was totally different.

Congrats! Enjoy it :).

Congrats!! Very surprising to wake up and read this, and just like that, your journey is over. LetsRun black page worthy for sure. Now if mods can lock the thread and redirect to the new It's Too Damn Hard to Run a Sub 4:50 Mile thread...

Congrats! Headed on my own similar path now. How old are you now if you don’t mind my asking. Enjoy the accomplishment!

congrats dude.  part of the membership materials are that every mile you do now is at 5 minute mile pace.  you can retire the garmin and just use a timex, and next time you run an hour, you'll know you ran 12 miles...

carpe crepusculum,

cush

Thanks, and good luck! I'm 33.

Thanks, everyone! BTW, here was my sub 5 playlist:

Heading out the door: Whenever, Wherever - Shakira

Driving to the meet: Believer - Imagine Dragons

Before warming up: Kryptonite - 3 Doors Down

After warming up: Livin La Vida Loca - Ricky Martin

I've been following this thread for a while and hoping that you'd go sub 5. Congratulations on finally breaking the barrier!