Any sub 4 milers on here?

cotton shirt wrote:

Craig Virgin shows up from time to time, but I'm not certain what his mile PR is, but clearly he was very fast guy.

I don't have a 1 mile race by Craig Virgin. the shortest race I have by him is a world junior record at 2 miles in Champaign, IL in 1971 when he ran 8:57.4 aged 16. in 1979 when he was all grown up and stuff he went 8:22.0.

that I don't have him in a mile means he has not gone sub-4.

also, Kyle Merber has posted here from time to time, but he has been missing in action for several months now.

cheers.

I read somewhere that Virgin was frustrated that he hadn't broken 4:00 even though he thought he was capable of doing so. I think his best time ended up being 4:02.

cotton shirt wrote:

[quote]

also, Kyle Merber has posted here from time to time, but he has been missing in action for several months now.

Merber had major surgery for sports hernia late July early August.

I haven't done it but by 2020 I will.

Howdy there, never posted before but have frequented the boards since high school. I just finished my college career for Texas A&M.

This Spring season I ran 3:59.12 in the mile indoors at Clemson, and 3:40.66 at Bryan Clay for the 1500m; additionally being the last qualifier at USA outdoors for the men's 1500m.

My progression looked a little like this.

*I started school late, so I was a year older for my grade

*(i) denotes season affecting injury

2008 (7th grade) - 5:06. The year I started running.

09'- 4:49 (1600)

10'- 4:35 (1600) (i)

11'- 4:18 (1600)

12' -4: 16 (1600) (i)

13'- 4:10 (1600), 4:12 (Mile) Senior Year of HS (i)

14'- 4:08 (Mile) Freshman year at A&M (i)

15'- 4:09 (Mile), 3:48 (1500m) (i)

16'- 4:03 (Mile), 3:45 (1500m) (i)

17'- 4:06 (Mile), 3:44 (1500m) (i)

18'- 3:59.12 Mile, 3:40 (1500m) Senior Year of Eligbility at A&M)

My running career in HS and college was plagued by injuries. All of which were a result of my over aggressiveness in training. The biggest being a stress fracture that was non-union and required surgery to fix during freshman year of college (right after my mile PR in 14'), that put me out for over 14 weeks total non-weight bearing on that leg. That injury and the atrophy that followed began a long slow recovery process of working back to fitness that at times I took to hard and caused secondary injuries that plagued me up until my senior year. In total I went Feb-Dec of 14' without anything more than an easy run.

Early on my coach had told me that if I could stay injury free for one solid year that I would break the four-minute mile. He was right. Being able to stay healthy and the consistency that followed is what lead to the breakthrough; so I attribute that rather than any single workout that I remember that helped me get there.

I do remember an Ashton Eaton quote which was something to the effect of, it's better to be 90% fit and healthy rather than 100% fit and injured. So for me, I had to shift to a better safe than sorry approach which to my training. Which worked in my case because I would run over 100+mpw every week of the year if I could.

There was a lot of things I had to work through to get under sub 4. All of which would lead to a very long post if discussed.

I am washed up now, but at one time I was a sub-4 miler. When I tell people about it, I generally like to include that I was a trained runner for 11 years before I ran sub-4 (7th grade to 5th year of college). Consistency is king. Build, progress, and keep your training consistent without injury and you will see the greatest improvement. I was an 800/1500 type in college, so I will include 800 PR's as well. Also of note, I have managed to keep the sub-5 minute annual streak alive to date (currently 16 years)

7th Grade - 5:24 (1600)

8th Grade - 5:06 (1600)

9th Grade - 4:52 (1600) 2:04.5 (800)

10th Grade- 4:39 (1600) 2:01.2 (800)

11th Grade- 4:27 (1600) 1:59.1 (800)

12th Grade -4: 20 (1600) 1:58.1 (800)

Freshman- 4:16 (mile), 3:48 (1500) 1:54.0 (800)

Sophomore- 4:05 (Mile) 3:46 (1500m) 1:51.4 (800)

Junior- 4:06 (Mile), 3:48 (1500m) 1:50.1 (800)

Senior- 4:07 (Mile), 3:46 (1500m) 1:50.0 (800)

5th Year- 3:59.9 (Mile), 3:44 (1500m) 1:48.1 (800)

Oh Please wrote:

Banana Bread wrote:

Haven't quite reached the 4 minute barrier but not way off. I've gone 4:40.85. I hope to get closer again.

Your boy Bekele has never officially run a sub 4 (obviously he was capable).

Wrong. 7:25 for 3000m and 4:49.99 2000m both sub 4, also has run at least 4:00.xx as a 1600 split during 5000m

.

Spend 90 percent of the year training for cross country and 5000m.

Sub 4 miler

Wound up running 4:02.

4:24 in high school

4:14 as a freshman

4:11 as a sophomore

4:07 as a junior

4:02 as a senior

Probably should have kept running but life happened after college. No magic, just didn’t get injured and put in consistent work. Mileage went (in MPW)

35

50

60

70

80

I leaned at the tape wrote:

6:59.94 guy here. Not quite there yet myself. Plan is to break 6:00 by Halloween, 5:00 by Thanksgiving, and go sub-4 by Christmas. World record attempt for sub 3:40 will be on Super Bowl weekend. Should be no sweat. I’ll keep you informed on this thread.

You end up breaking 6 yet?

4:00.00 *single tear*

whoami? wrote:

4:00.00 *single tear*

You're a 4 minute miler. You made the standard, you just didn't beat it.

If you're who I think you are, I hope med school is going well. Residency shouldn't be too far off.

I never got much better, but I was an elite high school miler back in the day. I ran a 4:08 full mile back in high school, got recruited to a PAC 12 school then subsequently got hurt and never ran much after that.

Its a shame

Green runner wrote:

dritius wrote:

Was curious if there were any active elite runners on LR.

If you have gone sub 4, 4:00.xx, or 4:0x before, what was your:

progression over the years? (In other distances,too.)

workouts that helped you a lot physically and mentally?

injuries/ adversities?

cross training and lifting?

racing strategy?

Ran 3'40 for 1500m, so maybe 3'58 or so for a full mile? I'm not sure about the conversion.

Sorry, a 3:40 1500 comes out to a 4:11 mile.

MidBest wrote:

Green runner wrote:

Ran 3'40 for 1500m, so maybe 3'58 or so for a full mile? I'm not sure about the conversion.

Sorry, a 3:40 1500 comes out to a 4:11 mile.

3:40 1500m = a 3:57 mile

epicTCK wrote:

Your boy Bekele has never officially run a sub 4 (obviously he was capable).

Wrong. 7:25 for 3000m and 4:49.99 2000m both sub 4, also has run at least 4:00.xx as a 1600 split during 5000m

.

Interestingly, in other threads I have argued in the same manner as you. However...

#1) 3k, 2k, and 1600m (in flight) are not a mile race.

#2) No matter how impressive, you cannot get an official time for a distance if it is not measured from the start (in other words, the last mile of a 5k doesn't count because he was already "in flight"

#3) Yes, the 2k time is an average of 3:53 per mile, so I agree that he assuredly ran the first 1609.34m in sub 4 but I believe there was no official 1 mile timer, therefore it doesn't count.

#4) The 3k time is an average of about ~3:59 so it is actually possible that he didn't run the first 1609.34m in sub 4 (plus no timer). In fact if that is the race I'm thinking of, I'm sure he didn't go sub 4 the first mile. I believe he hammered it after a few slowish laps to start.

#5) Of course KB was talented enough to do it (3:33 1500) and I believe he did do it the first mile of that 2k. He probably could have went sub 3:50 in fact. But, the fact remains: there was never an official timer at 1 mile in any of his races and he never broke 4 in an official 1 mile race.

Alan Webb posted on here before. He even has a tag under his name, I think it’s American Record Holder

PS- Every poster here went sub 4 on their d1 power 5 team at some point.

dfhureighu wrote:

MidBest wrote:

Sorry, a 3:40 1500 comes out to a 4:11 mile.

3:40 1500m = a 3:57 mile

I'm going to need a source for that.

dritius wrote:

I leaned at the tape wrote:

6:59.94 guy here. Not quite there yet myself. Plan is to break 6:00 by Halloween, 5:00 by Thanksgiving, and go sub-4 by Christmas. World record attempt for sub 3:40 will be on Super Bowl weekend. Should be no sweat. I’ll keep you informed on this thread.

You end up breaking 6 yet?

You end up breaking 5 yet?