How common is it for HS track runners to not be able to break 5 in the mile?

Man, you need to stop. 20 min 5k is not fast. 5 min 1600 is not fast. No high school kid runs the mile. Please go away.

Very common - few sprinters and field athletes could do it. Many distance females can't do it, either.

Deep sigh... wrote:

Man, you need to stop. 20 min 5k is not fast. 5 min 1600 is not fast. No high school kid runs the mile. Please go away.

How is it not fast when most people don't have the genetics to run that time?

Is it common? Yes

Is it common for somebody who does the bare minimum (showing up to practice and doing what their coach asks of them) training? Kinda

Is it common for somebody who takes the sport very seriously? No

GZMONEYSNIPER wrote:

Is it common? Yes

Is it common for somebody who does the bare minimum (showing up to practice and doing what their coach asks of them) training? Kinda

Is it common for somebody who takes the sport very seriously? No

So someone who takes the sport seriously doesn't do what the coach says?

yaleftw wrote:

Very common - few sprinters and field athletes could do it. Many distance females can't do it, either.

How about for distance males?

And it is ironic you say that when most people on LRC believes that the average person can't run sub 5, regardless of training

This schtick is beyond old. You’re just rehashing material now. We all know you‘re a 45 y/o in a basement whose only joy in life is getting people to respond to you on the the internet, not some hapless HS kid.

This is my one response, you don’t get any more. Find a new joy.

Look these guys are being jerks because you post stuff like this all the time looking for people to tell you you're not slow.

That being said, I'll answer your thread honestly, yes it is very common for high school boys to not break 5. When I was a sophomore in HS we had about 15 distance guys and not 1 NOT ONE GUY broke 5. We were obviously pretty bad, but even on good teams, half or more of those guys won't break 5 that season

Yes, there are plenty of runners who don't take it seriously and have a PR of 5:30

But there are plenty more who take it at least somewhat serious and end up running 5:09

look wrote:

Look these guys are being jerks because you post stuff like this all the time looking for people to tell you you're not slow.

That being said, I'll answer your thread honestly, yes it is very common for high school boys to not break 5. When I was a sophomore in HS we had about 15 distance guys and not 1 NOT ONE GUY broke 5. We were obviously pretty bad, but even on good teams, half or more of those guys won't break 5 that season

Yes, there are plenty of runners who don't take it seriously and have a PR of 5:30

But there are plenty more who take it at least somewhat serious and end up running 5:09

That sucks. How do people have a PR of 4:20 then?

david45 wrote:

look wrote:

Look these guys are being jerks because you post stuff like this all the time looking for people to tell you you're not slow.

That being said, I'll answer your thread honestly, yes it is very common for high school boys to not break 5. When I was a sophomore in HS we had about 15 distance guys and not 1 NOT ONE GUY broke 5. We were obviously pretty bad, but even on good teams, half or more of those guys won't break 5 that season

Yes, there are plenty of runners who don't take it seriously and have a PR of 5:30

But there are plenty more who take it at least somewhat serious and end up running 5:09

That sucks. How do people have a PR of 4:20 then?

A combination of genetics, luck and hard work. Although there is about 0.001% that could get away with not doing hard work to run 4:20

I threatened breaking 5 in the 1600 when I was in 8th grade (ran somewhere around 5:05 I'm guessing). I also ran a 5:18ish and a 2:11 800 in 7th grade, ran a 2:09 800 in 8th grade, and split a lead off 2:04 in the 4x8 as a freshman in high school.

I've never broken 5. I eventually became a sprinter. I tried to play soccer in college at one point, and actually got back down into the 5:1x range during the preseason testing one year, but I've never gotten anywhere near it again.

To me, a sub 5 mile looks fairly legit. I was near it a LONG time ago, and I remember loathing the work it would have taken to cross the threshold. I was saved by my skill-set over the 400/800 distances which helped me avoid having to run the mile/1600 anymore until a complicated series events transpired that finally allowed me to do what I always really wanted to do: sprint.

If I would have been forced to continue training as a middle distance guy, I would have probably quit track. And if I had been forced to be a "mile" runner, I might not have even run my freshman year.

Ironically, it would be neat to have broken 5 just to say I did it. I waver on whether or not I'd be willing to chase it now. I still....want to sprint; even as an old has been.

But to me, a sub 5 is still an accomplishment on a certain level, though. Then and now.

david45 wrote:

Is it common?

I couldn't give you an exact number, but it's less than half. a 5 minute 1600 is far more impressive than a 20 minute 5k.

my school has about ~2000 people, yet, only myself and a senior teammate have done it over the past two years

that being said, i did see like maybe 3-4 others on the team who couldve done it but they were too lazy to train.

there are also people in other sports or people who dont know what talent they have.

actually, a senior ran ~4:40 for 1600 off no training. in basketball tryouts

The Predictor wrote:

my school has about ~2000 people, yet, only myself and a senior teammate have done it over the past two years

that being said, i did see like maybe 3-4 others on the team who couldve done it but they were too lazy to train.

there are also people in other sports or people who dont know what talent they have.

actually, a senior ran ~4:40 for 1600 off no training. in basketball tryouts

So the other people on the team simply had no talent to break 5?

id say 3-4 other people could have done it who were on the team, only if they were willing to seriously train. (im talking even just 30 miles per week).

other than that, and the people who havent realized they have running talent in our school or just dont want to be runners, i dont think anybody else has the genes to do it.

i would say estimate that ~7% of boys can break 5 in high school, if they trained seriously. the other 92% would be injury prone, have health issues, or just have non-distance genes.

The Predictor wrote:

id say 3-4 other people could have done it who were on the team, only if they were willing to seriously train. (im talking even just 30 miles per week).

other than that, and the people who havent realized they have running talent in our school or just dont want to be runners, i dont think anybody else has the genes to do it.

i would say estimate that ~7% of boys can break 5 in high school, if they trained seriously. the other 92% would be injury prone, have health issues, or just have non-distance genes.

So I am in the 92%

david, find some other things to obsess over please. if you keep running without getting injured you'll improve. if you keep posting on this site asking these types of questions you'll become depressed, bitter, and angry and your running will suffer because you'll be hopped up on stress hormones all day.

it's not as common as people are saying on here. on a team of 200 each year with runners who ran nationals we had 6 people who broke 5 over a 4 year period, but broke 5 by a lot (4:10s-4:30s). that being said we carried 400 800 and 1600 to win conference and make states and nationals so not many were very serious about being the best but there were a lot who ran nonstop who could not break mid 5s. one thing coaches can do is communicate to athletes that they can have much bigger vision and improvement than they would ever have dreamed of, and some coaches never do that and end up with only 6 runners out of 200 that break 5. coaches can also break up cliques, include everyone, but also they need to be realistic to athletes desires, some just don't care to get better or their parents just made them join a sports team so they could get into yale.