Masters runner. Can somebody with my (very limited) talent one day hope to race a sub 5 mile?

You have ZERO natural sprint speed - an indication for lots of ST fibers, which would make you a great marathon runner (for your physiology). I'm surprised you even got your speed down to 33 sec/200m, that's a very good improvement.

I think you could have run sub 5 had you started running earlier. With your age I doubt it's possible, at 40 mpw with proper training schedule and 8 years of training you only run 5:52/21/44.

I would set different goals, like a 40 min 10k, or a 3 hour marathon or BQ. Otherwise you might hit your head against the wall too many times desperately chasing that sub-5 mile and might even end up quitting running if you repeatedly fail and realize it's out of your reach.

Forget about breaking 5 minutes for a mile. Set other goals. When I was 37 I was able to run a 27 second 200, a 59 second 400 and barely broke 5 minutes for a mile. I also had limited talent and didn't start running until I was 31.

My understanding is that slow twitch people are very great good at holding their (albeit, slow) top end speed for longer periods of time. Even though I suck at sprints, I still don’t think “holding my speed” is something I am good at, I still feel that I am stronger anaerobically than I am aerobically. I find that running 10 miles at sub 8:00 pace requires some real effort.

Marathon running doesn’t really interest me, I would rather try and get as fast as I can for shorter races because that’s what I enjoy. I can race a 400m in 1:10 which is 4:40/mile pace - I really don’t think I’m ever going to get much faster than that with my poor sprint speed but based on that, what is the absolute fastest a person could hope to run with 70s/quarter speed if fully trained? Even though the 5:52 absolutely KILLED me, I still feel like with more training that I could go faster. By the way, before anyone asks for weight details I am quite lean at 5’6 and 126lbs.

I find most runners are not anywhere near their potential. Start treating the building and maintaining speed as a life-long pursuit. And its always the same advice.. run more, run workouts, cut weight, don't get injured, be patient.. Its never changed..

Someone who's slow at sprinting isn't indication that he can run marathon fast. Bottom line: you can't run a marathon at a faster pace than you can sprint, and fast marathon runner's marathon pace may be faster than your sprint pace.

To OP, I wouldn't say it's impossible, but it's very tough. I can run a low 18 5k at 40 now, but still haven't cracked 5min for the mile with considerably longer weekly mileage.

Jordan_Runs wrote:

I find most runners are not anywhere near their potential. Start treating the building and maintaining speed as a life-long pursuit. And its always the same advice.. run more, run workouts, cut weight, don't get injured, be patient.. Its never changed..

No worries there, I do speed maintenance sessions two times a week, one in the form of fast 80s or 150s and one in the form of strides after an easy run (these strides tend to be 8x150m at around 600m pace with 30s rest). If I dropped anymore weight I don’t think I’d be healthy to be fair, I’m working on getting leaner though!

I meant to say "I could run low 18 5k with 40 mpw"

Damn spelling correction.

According to Daniels charts on p114 3rd edition, a 70 second 400m predicts a 5:41 mile, and you'd need to run a 61 to get a sub 5 mile. Of course, there are exceptional cases but this is too big of a leap right now.

Furthermore, just looking at your 5k and 10k results, you actually DON'T have a lot of endurance yet. If you were a pure ST runner who has put in the miles and done the right longer interval workouts, with your 400 time of 70 you should be at about 19:30 for 5k.

The good news is that you can improve a lot more with mileage. How long have you been at 40mpw? Have you had any injury issues? If not, why not add even more EASY miles? ST types benefit the most from lots and lots of easy miles.

I never know if these are real posts or trolls... am going to give benefit of doubt here and give a serious response.

A good part of a fast mile is native turn over and largely-untrainable FT/LT ratio,. Seems like you didn't win that lottery.

My best Master's mile was 5-flat off decent leg speed (25,39,56s for 200,300,400), low 16 for 5K, and10K in mid-34.

So how to put this... with times you posted, even with much more training, theoretically possible... but more like "Snowball's chance in Hell".

Edit: " largely-untrainable FT/LT ratio"... s/b FT/ST