Obese 240 lbs guy at my work claims to have run a sub 5 mile at his current weight. How plausible is this?

I started running in my 30s and not long after ran a 4:15 mile at 230 lbs with a dislocated hip and a permanently detached hamstring. It can be done.

That chart os bunk......Zion Williamson has reportedly run a 4:55 mile at around 270 pounds....maybe he was a bit lighter then but, still....waaaayyy under 6:05

Very plausible.

You've got to remember he ran this mile between two telephone poles that seemed to be about a mile apart (they were actually 0.8 miles apart). And he timed it by thinking that it seemed to be about 5 minutes (it was actually 6:30).

It really wasn't that hard.

The Mountain wrote:

That chart os bunk......Zion Williamson has reportedly run a 4:55 mile at around 270 pounds....maybe he was a bit lighter then but, still....waaaayyy under 6:05

I love it when people "reportedly" ran a certain time.

I reportedly ran a 3:44 mile myself. Of course it was hand timed so you might want to add a few tenths to that.

There is no unnamed co-worker. OP put this together partly from OP's imagination. The 240lbs. sub-5 miler is a composite of real letsrun posters and OP's imagination.

Alex Viada wrote:

I started running in my 30s and not long after ran a 4:15 mile at 230 lbs with a dislocated hip and a permanently detached hamstring. It can be done.

Yeah...I recall seeing you posting about this before. More details on the injuries? Proximal detachment i.e. , acute avulsion from the pelvis? (distal detachments are very rare). Confirming no surgery? Complete ruptures of the proximal hamstring origin results in significant trauma and usually requires surgical intervention for an athlete to have a better prognosis for returning to pre-injury level. How about the hip? Any reduction by manipulation done? That's another major trauma that has a poor outcome for an athlete without reduction or surgical repair.

The 4:15 mile @ 230 lbs is one thing but how did you honestly run that fast with those types of injuries? I'm a bigger runner (not 230 though) and on the short side of 60 years old. Not too long ago I sustained a grade 2 distal hamstring strain in the middle of a 5k - which resulted in a complete run stopper. In fact, I couldn't run for a month (non-weightbearing cardio only) as I initiated phase-1 rehab protocol. It took another month for phase 2 and a total of about 3 months to get back to near pre-injury level with still some limitations.

So, how in the heck could you run at all on a permanently detached hamstring let alone a dislocated hip?

Alex Viada wrote:

I started running in my 30s and not long after ran a 4:15 mile at 230 lbs with a dislocated hip and a permanently detached hamstring. It can be done.

Um, no you didn't. Sorry.

We need videos of everything. WIthout videos then this whole thread is pointless. Plus we would need current lifting videos of him to get an idea of weight as well.

The above is nonsense from Elephino, a registered poster. He started this nonsense about four years ago. IT IS ALL FAKE.

matt_london_413 wrote:

We need videos of everything. WIthout videos then this whole thread is pointless. Plus we would need current lifting videos of him to get an idea of weight as well.

Good point. Here's a video of a 220 lb muscle man running a timed mile. Consider his time and wonder how on Earth could a 240 pounder run a sub-five? ? The run starts @ 8:30 in.

The above ... wrote:

The above is nonsense from Elephino, a registered poster. He started this nonsense about four years ago. IT IS ALL FAKE.

b.s.

It's published on the internet and therefore true.

Needledik wrote:

No way in hell.

I was there once upon a time.

You can’t seriously break a 9 min/ mile at that weight. And guys who claim to be 240 lbs are usually 255. 240 was probably 2 yrs ago.

I unfortunately weigh around 240 pounds. My "easy" runs (sadly my only and infrequent runs these days) are run at about 10:30 pace. I am pretty sure I could run one "timed" mile in 9:00.

However, a sub 5:00 mile is impossible for someone that weighs 240 -- even if they trained like an elite runner. Using the 2 seconds/per pound/per mile formula, the same guy at 210 could run a sub 4:00 and a sub 3:00 at 180.

240 was three months ago wrote:

I unfortunately weigh around 240 pounds. My "easy" runs (sadly my only and infrequent runs these days) are run at about 10:30 pace. I am pretty sure I could run one "timed" mile in 9:00.

The 220 pounder in the above video went 7:21 and says he needs to lose about 10-15 lbs to reach his goal of a sub-7.

Alex Viada wrote:

It's published on the internet and therefore true.

^^ This is not me, the real Alex Viada. I would never say something so stupid.

Look, fact is, I'm an elite hybrid athlete. And something I've never even told anyone online is that I ran a 4:20 mile in the middle of a 100-mile ultramarathon, after wading through three rivers and being chased by a hungry bear.

Don't believe me? You can check my results at the link below. You're all deluded if you don't think I can do what I say I can do.

Alex Viada wrote:

Alex Viada wrote:

It's published on the internet and therefore true.

^^ This is not me, the real Alex Viada. I would never say something so stupid.

Look, fact is, I'm an elite hybrid athlete. And something I've never even told anyone online is that I ran a 4:20 mile in the middle of a 100-mile ultramarathon, after wading through three rivers and being chased by a hungry bear.

Don't believe me? You can check my results at the link below. You're all deluded if you don't think I can do what I say I can do.

https://ultrasignup.com/results_participant.aspx?fname=Alex&lname=Viada

I am the real Alex Viada, a.k.a. Alexander Viada, and you can see my results here:

And that 11:42 50 miler is actually 9:38 because I stopped for over 2 hours to administer CPR and save the life of a dying runner and also carried one of my clients for an hour after we both broke our legs.

Here are my real times (if link works):

you sure he is 240 pounds or does a 180 pound guy look obese to you because you're underdeveloped and 135 pounds?

Big Man On Campus wrote:

matt_london_413 wrote:

We need videos of everything. WIthout videos then this whole thread is pointless. Plus we would need current lifting videos of him to get an idea of weight as well.

Good point. Here's a video of a 220 lb muscle man running a timed mile. Consider his time and wonder how on Earth could a 240 pounder run a sub-five? ? The run starts @ 8:30 in.

https://youtu.be/I2LUGO29Esc

My best mile time at 6'0 and 207 was 4:57 on 400 meter dash training and really only a few weeks of some mediocre distance running.

That converts to a 4:40 in the 1500.

Trey Hardee at 6'5 and 210 has a PR of 4:40 in the 1500.

I was basically at olympic decathlete strength or better with what I did there. Especially considering that I barely even trained for it. Yeah I get it that decathletes are running the mile after everything else.

But I had a lot of room for improvement on that at that body weight.

It all goes by bodyweight.

And like I said before. Show the videos of the 240 guy.

The video you showed here had him doing a pathetic 7:30 mile or some crap at 220. Who cares?

matt_london_413 wrote:

Trey Hardee at 6'5 and 210 has a PR of 4:40 in the 1500.

Trey Hardee was notoriously bad in the 1500. I think he usually ran over 5 minutes.

Jurgen Hingsen, some Canadian guy whose name I forget, and the Ivy League guy from a few years ago all ran in the 4:20s at 225 lbs.