If you were handed a 4x200 team composed of 4 random guys off the street, could you train them to beat Rudisha's 800 WR?

Less than .001% chance you get 4 randos able to run a :25 average.

No way it happens

"a no-talent that can only manage a 27"

You are so far removed from reality that there is no hope for you.

ovals wrote:

BTW, we chose the 4x200 because it seems like the most realistic relay squad for this concept.

That is correct. Getting a 4x800 team of randoms to run a sub 8 (the 2 mile WR) is a pipe dream. 200 is usually where the wheels start falling off in healthy, active guys who don't train specifically for running.

I still think this is going to be tough. You'll probably get a semi-decent guy who can run a mid 25 from a standing start. Who knows what's going to happen for the other three splits. I've seen distance guys run a flying 24 without doing any speedwork, but I've also seen incredibly weak and uncoordinated dudes who can't break 27 with spikes, ideal weather conditions, and a flying start. So here's my best guess:

First 200 - 25.4

Second 200 - 23.9

Third 200 - 24.8

Fourth 200 - 27.3

Total time - 1:41.4

Nope, missed it by half a second. Pumping them up on 'roids and pure hate might do the trick, though.

Randos off the street? You're going to have guys running 40 second 200s.

If your pool was 18-30 year old US men chosen at complete random from the total non-disabled population there is of course a chance you could get lucky and do it. But to think that some crappy no talent could be trained to run 27 is absurd. If you got some crappy no talent guy on the team he might not even run 35 seconds and the whole thing goes down in flames no matter what the other 3 do.

Do you and your teammates take the short bus? wrote:

"a no-talent that can only manage a 27"

You are so far removed from reality that there is no hope for you.

Yes, this is LetsRun... where every male runs sub-14:00 for 5K, makes zillion$ each year and is married to a Victoria's Secret supermodel. In such a milieu, 27 seconds for 200m is within reach of one-legged Sumo wrestlers.

80-90 wrote:

Less than .001% chance you get 4 randos able to run a :25 average.

You do realize that they get a years worth of training, right? And since three of them get flying starts, the average is going to be closer to 26 than 25 for an open 200.

No way. In fact I would say less than 0.0001 chance of 8 guys breaking it each running 100m.

Silly question.

NEXT

ovals wrote:

A few of my teammates had this debate during a track meet yesterday.

Let's say you were given 4 random non-disabled guys in their 20s and had to form a 4x200 team using only those guys. Could they be trained to break 1:40.9 within a year? You're probably going to get a no-talent that can only manage a 27, but would that be balanced out by the studs who can run a 23? Three of the guys have running starts, so this seems at least somewhat plausible.

BTW, we chose the 4x200 because it seems like the most realistic relay squad for this concept. There's no way you could get a random 4x100 team to beat van Niekerk's 43.03 time, and the obese guy(s) on the team will kill the 4x400 squad's shot at beating El G's 3:43 mile time.

You know the answer. Random means four guys off of bar stools at Ruby Tuesdays. If you mean four guys off of bars stools, no. If you mean random high school Am. football wide receivers &/or random high school Am. football corner backs, sure.

Could I? Depends on what random dudes I got. Odds are, no.

Pretty easy question.

Yeah, random from where ? wrote:

Random means four guys off of bar stools at Ruby Tuesdays.

That wouldn't be random at all.

If you picked 4 random posters to this running website, they would still fail. It means hitting 25.0 flying.

work at it wrote:

80-90 wrote:

Less than .001% chance you get 4 randos able to run a :25 average.

You do realize that they get a years worth of training, right? And since three of them get flying starts, the average is going to be closer to 26 than 25 for an open 200.

It doesn´t matter. 25-26 second 200 is really fast.

wejo wrote:

Randos off the street? You're going to have guys running 40 second 200s.

Most if not all of them will start off that slow, but there's going to be a lot of improvement during the first few months. The key to this is isn't how fast the fast guys are, it's how slow the slowest guy is. If the slowest guy's flying 200 is 26.9 (highly unlikely), the rest of the team only needs to average a 24.6-24.7, which is not easy but certainly doable for a flying start. The most talented guy should start off the race. Besides the psychological boost ("we're ahead of pace"), he'll be the only one who needs to worry about blocks, reaction time, and acceleration.

If you can't train the slowest guy to break 32, you're screwed, since the rest of the team has to average 22.9. But what are the chances of this happening? I have yet to come across a trained, able-bodied young male that failed to break 32 unless that person did nothing but base mileage.

I still say the challenge fails because there is too much potential for one slow guy to screw everything up. Revise this for a 4x200 team composed of people who are all in the 50th percentile, and that 1:40 will almost certainly happen.

I play flag football in a competitive league with 25-35 y/o men, and I’m on the faster side. And I run 25-30 mpw with some shorter intervals. But I can’t break 27 from a standing start.

So no way. Four randoms, with a year of training, would have trouble breaking 2:00.

"I have yet to come across a trained, able-bodied young male that failed to break 32 unless that person did nothing but base mileage."

Look harder.

"Revise this for a 4x200 team composed of people who are all in the 50th percentile, and that 1:40 will almost certainly happen."

The 50th percentile would be more like 35-40 seconds after a year of training.

not how that works wrote:

Yeah, random from where ? wrote:

Random means four guys off of bar stools at Ruby Tuesdays.

That wouldn't be random at all.

I know what a pure random sampling looks like. A pure random sample would be every male with social security number of 5. In that case you will get male 6 month old male babies and 90 year old men in nursing homes. Guys on bar stools will get most males usually who can walk.

Do you all not understand what a random sample is?

This question is dumb. You might get 4 guys good enough, you might not. There’s no way to say definitively that you would or would not be able to break 1:40.91 because the sample is random.