Do you think anyone can with enough training and no injury?
I'm thinking it's the equivalent of a 5-min mile for men.
Do you think anyone can with enough training and no injury?
I'm thinking it's the equivalent of a 5-min mile for men.
Do you mean what percentage of women can currently run a 6 minute mile right now? (Probably about 1-2% of population)
Or what percentage of women can run a six minute mile given *insert number of years* training? (Probably about 60-80% of population)
I am a female who started running at 17 and I am now 21 and I think my life is quote different to a lot pf letsrunners because I have never stepped foot on a track in my life. When I am well enough to get out of the house, I road run. I am partially disabled both mentally and physically (awry immune system since birth, an inefficient digestive system and thyroid issues- spend some days bedridden) and have taken up running as a hobby to deal with the stress of being chronically ill. Granted, I try pretty hard and I can run a six minute mile at my absolute maximum on a good day which I am very proud of.
And I would like to think that another female my age would be able to run as fast if not faster than me (considering I am unwell and they are healthy- surely this would be easier for them to achieve) so I am going with hell yes, MOST females who wanted to run a 6 minute mile absolutely could with training.
Anything under 6 would probably take a little more natural talent. But as a human being, I think that being able to hold a near sprint for a controlled period of time is a basic human skill and that everybody should at least attempt to make it part of their psysiological ability just like reading and writing.
And when I say I am unwell, I am in no way DYING but it is a little harder for me to do these things than most chicks so I really don't see why other gorls couldn't do it or at least give it a good crack :)
Have a nice day letsrunners.
No.
I know girls on my team who have trained seriously (year round 5 to 6 days a week) who have been 5-15 seconds away. Also depends on the age of the people. Women over 18 or 19 probably have a much smaller chance than, say, a class of middle school girls. But if you took 100 12 year old girls and put them in a rigorous youth track program, then by age 14, probably 40 could break 6.
1% to 2% of the population?? You must live in a _very_ fit city.
I've got an 11 year old daughter who is right around that pace, and she makes most adult runners look slow. I doubt that you would find a faster runner taking 50 to 100 women randomly n off the street.
Not every man has the ability to run a six minute mile even with the best training which may seem like a sad story but it's also a true story. So based on that I think it requires at least a little bit of natural talent for women. Having said that, I don't think it requires heaps so I am going to say that a good percentage of women (at least half) who have it in them to try for six minutes could actually do it if you gave them long enough to train, had an appropriate diet and could handle 20-25 MPW which I'm sure 90% of the population can providing they are at an appropriate weight or not disabled.
Running Dan wrote:
1% to 2% of the population?? You must live in a _very_ fit city.
I've got an 11 year old daughter who is right around that pace, and she makes most adult runners look slow. I doubt that you would find a faster runner taking 50 to 100 women randomly n off the street.
Sorry I should have been more specific. I was referring to women around my age (21). For so e reason I had that in my head. OP didn't really give an age bracket. I am almost positive if you got 100 random women in their genetic prime and held them at gunpoint or offered them £100000 to run a 6 minite mile at least one or two of them could?
It happens to a lot of us, our views are skewed because we are runners and we spend a lot of time surrounded by more athletic people, we kind of lose touch of what is considered a normal fitness level among the general population. Maybe more like 1 or 2 out of 600 women In the under 30 catorgory could break 6 and that would mostly consist of females running in school and/or college. For all women maybe more like 1 or 2 out of 7000.
There are those who can, and those who can't. So the percentage is 50%
Expert Stats Man wrote:
There are those who can, and those who can't. So the percentage is 50%
Let's get little more analytical...how many percentage of those 50% who can and can't?
Probably 2-3%.
Of course assuming they had optimal training, it would be more like 20-30%.
I'll use data. Based off the Presidential Fitness Test data which is a sampling of all kids in the US, the 50th percentile mile time for a 15 year old girl is 9:58. The 85th percentile mile time for a 15 year old girl is 7:59. 15 is the age that women/girls run their fastest mile time. By age 18, these numbers go up 15-20 seconds.
Let those numbers sink in a little bit.
I asked this same question on the 5-minute-mile men thread :-)
someone named "Moose" figured out for the men using census data
I'm not that clever so I tried using age-grade calculator statistics
age-grade calculator shows just about 70% for women ages 16-35 and then starts to fall off before/after that age, so would this be the right logic to inverse the 70% and figure 30%, so roughly one in three women can do it?
https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1819792&page=12
but why wrote:
I'm not that clever so I tried using age-grade calculator statistics
age-grade calculator shows just about 70% for women ages 16-35 and then starts to fall off before/after that age, so would this be the right logic to inverse the 70% and figure 30%, so roughly one in three women can do it?
The 70% is how the time compares to the world record time, not the percentage of women that have run (or not run) that time.
Only 15 out of 100 15 year old girls can run 8 min or under for a mile. The number of women who could run under 6 min is much, much, much less than that.
does the presidential data give the kids time to train? or is that just taking them out to the school track one day and say "run!"
I run past a day camp every other morning and it is inspiring to see the little kids running around a makeshift track, sometimes being led by an adult - they seem pretty happy about it and not begrudging the effort
there are also some of "run a mile before school" programs out there which I think is a fantastic idea
but why wrote:
does the presidential data give the kids time to train? or is that just taking them out to the school track one day and say "run!"
Probably just taking kids out of PE class and having them run, but I am not certain. The times could be taken after a semester of training for the fitness test, though. Not certain.
Expert Stats Man wrote:
There are those who can, and those who can't. So the percentage is 50%
Agree completely. Glad somebody gets it. Run under 6, or run not. There is no try.
are you sure they only use the world record time?
I thought they use the statistical curve by looking at ALL the age records, which should give a far more accurate picture than one point of data
if anything they would be more conservative about how many people could run the 6 minute mile (after training) not more generous
(sorry there is no mile graph)
Is the presidential fitness test accurate? No. 99% of the kids participating in that test have no idea how to pace themselves. If they did, the percentiles would likely go up.
grenio wrote:
Expert Stats Man wrote:There are those who can, and those who can't. So the percentage is 50%
Agree completely. Glad somebody gets it. Run under 6, or run not. There is no try.
This makes no sense. The people who can't would heavily outweigh the peope who can (both statistically and on the scales)
