How fast can the average american run a mile? Can anyone train and go under 6 minutes?

The area I run in has a military recruiting office near it and they take new inductees out and do

pre boot camp training. Usually see groups of 12-15 sometimes more doing PT and running.

Just out of high school to maybe mid 20s in age.

I doubt over the last 4 or 5 years I've seen more than two guys that might have been able

to run a sub six mile.....maybe if somebody was trying to kill them!

They seem to go about a mile to mile and a half loops and most are walking before they're

done.

Guess on average they might be 10-11 minute mile pace.

Dave

The average American can't run 200 meters, much less a mile. And no.

If you can run a mile in under 6 minutes you don't need CrossFit....Stick with whatever you're currently doing unless you're specifically competing in the Open workouts.

I ran a mile for the first time when I was in 7th grade as part of our middle school Presidential Fitness Test. I could only muster 9:45. But again I wasn't active, and didn't play any youth sports through middle school.

I can run sub 6 but I would definitely benefit from CrossFit as would most people on this website. How many people here could even bench their BodyWeight?

That'd be a fun show for the daytime tv zombies.

Average cheese drinker gets 6 months to train then gets put onto a treadmill @ 10mph for 6 minutes.

The ads would be great. Mostly about constipation relief foods, supplements, and meds.. and cheese covered food... a mix of champs. Future hoomans will scratch their heads for sure.

A 6min mile is something you can only do if you're in really great shape and/or trained for it. Especially 1.3 miles at that pace.

But anybody can do it even old folks if they lose the weight and train for it as long as they aren't disabled somehow. 80 - 90 year olds prbly can't hit sub 6 but they're still able to put on muscle, bone mass, and train cardio a lot better than most ppl think.

I change my mind I want a show of 90yr old ladies training cardio 30hrs a wk.

Yes a pre trained vo2 max test is required

.[/quote]

I can run sub 6 but I would definitely benefit from CrossFit as would most people on this website. How many people here could even bench their BodyWeight?[/quote]

I'm old, 6ft. and about 180 lbs , as of last Tuesday night I could bench ( free bar ) 200 lbs

for three reps.

This was a max effort...I think my left testicle may have swollen.....

I can just break 7 minutes in a mile all warmed up on a good day

without having a heart attack.

mile pacer wrote:

targeted just right wrote:

The ad is aimed at people who think they are in shape, but aren't. They fail their 2K time trial, and instead of a free session, they are shamed into signing up for pay sessions.

Ah. Smart. That makes sense now! Cheers.

But, how easy is a 6 minute mile for the average person? Impossible for some or not?

Nailed it.

I think the average male who thinks running is easy would scoff at at 6:00 mile & then have a hard time breaking 7 or 8. With training, I think most men could get under 6. Under 5 with good training or having some talent to begin with. Everything under that just gets you closer & closer to the very top of the sport depending on how fast you go.

Average person in the best shape of their life could probably run 13.0sec in a 100yd dash and maybe a mile in the 5:30-6:00 time range. This includes both males and females under 30.

And yet the Spartan guys are nearly all walking up a hill two minutes in.

raging bonr wrote:

And yet the Spartan guys are nearly all walking up a hill two minutes in.

Lol, not a good example. Those guys focus on cardio about the same as people here focus on strength (so not a lot)

The same goes for guys in the army, guys who hit the gym and most guys who the average person would consider to be “fit”.

Most recreational soccer guys can run 6:xx without much struggle and under 6 with a few weeks of consistent training, you could argue that anyone who picks a sport which is mostly aerobic is probably naturally on the slim side but for men in their prime, 6:00 mile is only “good” and not “excellent”. I don’t know about women’s standards but any chick with a 6:00 mile is welcome on a run date with me.

FFF wrote:

The average American can't run 200 meters, much less a mile. And no.

+1

Exactly. I don't understand these threads - they're very stupid.

This thread is corny! Do you thin flyweight runners have any idea what the average weight is of an American male these days? Do you runners ever get out to the malls, concerts, ballgames, etc., and actually see the state of American health? Try 197 lbs for ages 20-39 and over 200 lbs for dudes 40 and older! And with the average height of an American male at around 5-9, you're not going to have many 5-9, 197 pounders jog a mile let lone run one!

https://www.healthline.com/health/mens-health/average-weight-for-men

This is absolutely no way the average US resident could run sub 6 right now.

Data:

The average US resident is over 37 years old

The average US resident is female (chromosomally) (50.8% female)

Over 70 % of US residents are overweight or obese

I estimate less than 1% can run sub 6 right now.

I estimate that if you took all US residents right now and forced them to focus primarily on training to run a mile as fast as possible for one year, less than 10% would run sub 6.

Too much weight to loose, too many years of bad health to overcome, poor genetics, too old, high chance of injury.

My dad ran a 6:0x mile when he was in his mid 40s. At that time he was easily 20 pounds overweight and only ran a few times a week. I think just about any 18-50 year old male who isn't in extremely poor health could run under 6 minutes with a bit of training.

The average person certainly couldn't, but I think that has less to do with the difficulty of breaking 6 and more to do with how terribly unhealthy most people are.

it doesn't take much wrote:

My dad ran a 6:0x mile when he was in his mid 40s. At that time he was easily 20 pounds overweight and only ran a few times a week. I think just about any 18-50 year old male who isn't in extremely poor health could run under 6 minutes with a bit of training.

The average person certainly couldn't, but I think that has less to do with the difficulty of breaking 6 and more to do with how terribly unhealthy most people are.

Running a few times a week already puts you in the top 1% of health. Also, when people here’s talk “20lbs overweight” I can never tell if they are talking about 20lbs over optimal racing weight which would mean a bmi of about 23 (which is actually not overweight by any means and in my opinion is a really healthy weight to be at) or 20lbs medically overweight meaning they would have a bmi closer to about 28 which unless it is mostly muscle is a pretty unhealthy weight to be at.

hjasdfl;alsdff wrote:

Any guy can almost certainly run a sub 6 mile with enough training (if they aren't injured or disabled in some way, obviously). I'd guess any woman could probably run below 7. However, if someone is already 500 pounds at 25 years old it may be too late for them to lose the weight and run it.

I personally think that with the proper training and diet any guy could run sub-5 but there are too many variables to be able to begin to measure this with.

6 minutes, probably yes, 5 minutes, no-way. There are guys who run track and/or road races and train seriously who can't break 5 minutes. The average untrained American can't run a mile at any pace beyond walking and even people who workout in any way beside running will struggle to run an 8 minute mile and anyone who can faster than 7 minutes usually runs on a somewhat regular basis and/or is involved in some type of endurance activity. Only runners and endurance sports athletes can break 6 minutes and the only people who can break 5 are track, XC and road race athletes with some talent. Obviously, there a people who do absolutely no exercise and can run a 5 minute mile...I am not talking about outliers.

I think because everyone in the LRC is a highly successful runner who can run a 5 minute mile backwards holding a conversation causes them to overrate the average person. Even when I was a D1 athlete, if I took more than a couple weeks off, I could not break 5 and a couple months off and I could not break 6 minutes.

The average age in the US is 38 years old.

According to this age grade calculator a 50% result is 7:44.

(bvllsh!t)

You are welcome.

http://www.mastersathletics.net/index.php?id=2595