Did Ritz and Hall ever SUB 4???????

Kenenisa Bekele officially has a PB of 3:56.2 as a split from his 2000m race.

woo hoooo wrote:

Kenenisa Bekele officially has a PB of 3:56.2 as a split from his 2000m race.

Was there en route timing set up? If this was just an unofficial hand time split, it doesn't count.

IAAF credits him with a 401i as well as a 332 outdoor 1500 (which is far superior to a sub 4).

Yes, he certainly went through the mile well under 4 in that 2k. I don't think that counts though.

@brojos time for a letsrun mile. Hall, Ritz, and HS phenoms Hunter and Slagowski going sub 4 with Webb to rabbit. Prize $$$

Hahaha Webb couldn't pull a sub 4 right now. But throw Tamagno in the race and have someone like Robby Andrews rabbit through the 1200.

Hall should break 4 at some random so cal all comers meet in his high school jersey and backwards trucker hat.

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

I wish I was as cool as Sheila Reid. As an American, I am happy to lend credibility to her arguments against mile nostalgia though. She was right, but sometimes that argument is a touch tougher to make as a Canadian.

She just seems like a grumpy and bitter woman. Pity for someone that talented.

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

woo hoooo wrote:

Kenenisa Bekele officially has a PB of 3:56.2 as a split from his 2000m race.

Was there en route timing set up? If this was just an unofficial hand time split, it doesn't count.

IAAF credits him with a 401i as well as a 332 outdoor 1500 (which is far superior to a sub 4).

Yes, he certainly went through the mile well under 4 in that 2k. I don't think that counts though.

It makes a lot sense that it doesn't count. C'mon man. He did it and it counts.

Further proof that if you want to be great then focus on racing people and not arbitrary time barriers.

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

I bet he could whip up some speed if he wanted.

Since speed is needed at every distance don't you think he would have whipped up some speed by now?

This thread is about Ritz and Hall but we can discuss Bekele too. Do you really think that none of these guys ever ran a sub 4 mile in training? We're talking about just a hair faster than 3k (or estimated 3k) pace for Ritz and Hall during their primes, and just a hair faster than 5k pace for Bekele during his prime.

If mere mortals pop off a 1-mile rep at slightly faster than 5k pace (or even slightly faster than 3k pace) during a hard build-up, then don't you think that any of these three runners could have easily done that?

You think it is common for a distance runner to do a mile interval faster than 3k race pace?

Sheila R Fan wrote:

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

I think this speaks to this irrelevance of the 4 minute mile, a relic of WHITE male nostalgia.

Fixed

Sure, Sydney Maree, Filbert Bayi, Kip Keino, on and on, nostalgic white males galore...

sleazazar wrote:

You think it is common for a distance runner to do a mile interval faster than 3k race pace?

I have never run a mile faster than my 3k pace in practice. That's damn hard. Shit, even in 1 mile races if you have a bad race you could be close to 3k pace, it's happened to me before...

Other options wrote:

sleazazar wrote:

You think it is common for a distance runner to do a mile interval faster than 3k race pace?

I have never run a mile faster than my 3k pace in practice. That's damn hard. Shit, even in 1 mile races if you have a bad race you could be close to 3k pace, it's happened to me before...

I never have either, apart from a 6 minute all out effort we did once.

sleazazar wrote:

You think it is common for a distance runner to do a mile interval faster than 3k race pace?

"Common" - as in often performed in training by overzealous runners, or "common" as in perhaps part of a peaking workout in a well-organized training plan?

If the former, yes. If that latter, yes.

Is it something I commonly do in training? No, but I do this a handful of time per year for various reasons.

When I need to learn to hurt again (when having not raced in a while) as one example. For a collegiate guy training for the 5k/10k, you would simply enter yourself into a much shorter race, but for those like myself who are 10+ years post collegiate who still want to compete on the roads, we have a hard time finding an avenue for a hard effort to accomplish the task at hand.

I also might do this in order to start a peaking process - as stated previously.

There is a time and place for everything.

And a 2000m record

Okay, I would take the bet that Hall and Ritz would have ever run sub 4 in practice. You are an exception to the hundreds of runners I've trained with in my life.

BK ran 1600-1200-800-400 at sub 4 pace, his 3k pace.

Bring Back the 880 wrote:

Nope. Neither did Bekele.

0/10.