Sub 4 minutes

[Adam R Wende]

I saw this on Letsrun and thought it was interesting. http://www.trackandfieldnews.com/archive/us_sub-4s.pdf
I understand that this is a very difficult barrier however it still surprises me how few people have actually accomplished it.
The other thing that amazes me is how thin some years are i.e. 77, 96...

[Jon Allen]

I think one reason very few people has accomplished it is in the statements on the page that they only counted true miles, not 1500 or 1600 m.  Even in the US, most races are 1600 m, not 1 miles.  I think if you included any sub-4 1600 m, the list would be much, much larger.

[Adam R Wende]

Jon agreed. Does anyone know of such a list? Also, what is the fasted "mile" time run by a blogger? Do we have anyone under 4:20? 4:15? 4:10?

[Paul Petersen]

Jon agreed. Does anyone know of such a list? Also, what is the fasted "mile" time run by a blogger? Do we have anyone under 4:20? 4:15? 4:10?

Our fastest blogger milers are all "inactive". Ryan Woods ran a 3:47 1500 and a 4:06 mile while on the blog. Out of these, the 3:47 is probably the better performance. Considering he was struggling with plantar fasciitis at the time, I imagine he's gone faster in the past. He hasn't blogged since May.

Sam Mackenzie lists his mile PR as 4:08. He ran a 3:50 1500 and a couple 4:10-4:11 miles while on the blog. He hasn't blogged since June.

"Slimslowslider" doesn't list a mile PR, but lists a 5K PR of 14:12. I would speculate he's run in the 4:10 range as well. He hasn't blogged since January 2007.

My own best 1500 time was 3:58, which is equivalent to a 4:17 mile. I haven't blogged since yesterday.

On a different topic, why does the Blog lose all of its speedsters? (mile/5K/10K specialists) Is it because we all emphasize the marathon so much?

[jtshad]

"Karl" lists a 4:29 1600m and hopes to break 4:00 (and just ran a 15:30 5K last weekend).

I am not sure why we "lose" the speedsters, but I think your observation about the emphasis on the racing distance, training mileage, etc. may be true.    We also seem to lose a few other folks or see people bop in and out, such as Katie Danner. 

[Superfly]

Sometimes Paul's humor just kills me. "and I haven't blogged since yesterday". Too funny. I ran a 4:15 1600M my Jr. year in high school. But that speed has left my legs and went to my calorie intake which is now off the charts. I'd be lucky to run a 4:50 now-a-days.

[Jon Allen]

I laughed at Paul's humor, too.

I am impressed with how fast some of the bloggers are (4:15 Clyde, 4:17 Paul).  Amazing to me- my mile PR is around 4:50 in college, and I couldn't touch that today.  To a large degree, marathon training is so different from mile training that it is hard to run both at the same time.

[Paul Petersen]

I ran a 4:15 1600M my Jr. year in high school. But that speed has left my legs and went to my calorie intake which is now off the charts. I'd be lucky to run a 4:50 now-a-days.

Well, I can barely run a 12-minute mile these days...

Let's see, a 4:15 1600m (which is awesome in high school) is equivalent to a 4:17 mile...BUT you probably did it at altitude, so maybe we're back to 4:15 or so.

[Superfly]

Not high altitude. Somewhere in the ballpark of 4,000 ft I'd guess. However I trained at 7,200 ft back then year around. So going down to 4,000 or so felt good.

[Jon Allen]

Anything above 3000 ft gets altitude adjusted, per the NCAA.  So we'll say your 4:15 is equivalent to a... let's see... 3:59   Let's get your name on Adam's list!

[Paul Petersen]

Anything above 3000 ft gets altitude adjusted, per the NCAA.  So we'll say your 4:15 is equivalent to a... let's see... 3:59   Let's get your name on Adam's list!

Yeah, I know when it comes to qualifying for events (conference, regionals, etc.), Utah State runners get to take off something like 17 seconds for a 5K if they run it at the USU track, which is only about 4400'. I think altitude affects shorter distances less relative to longer ones, but a few seconds seems reasonable. I haven't seen the tables though.

[Jon Allen]

We had the altitude adjusted tables posted right on our training board, since our track was at about 5800 ft.  Of course, we were competing against Adams State and Western, both of whom were between 7500 and 8000 ft.  Training high and competing low is the way to go!

[Sasha Pachev]

I've checked with Sam McKenzie. He's just been so busy with medical school that he has not been training much. Ryan Woods probably something similar - injuries, life gets busy, etc. Our retention rate is actually very good, better than I expected - about 50%. Higher for Utah runners, lower outside of Utah for fairly obvious reasons - we know each other, train/race together, etc.

[Adam R Wende]

All of that is amazing. I'm someone who didn't even break 5-min in high school. In fact I didn't "officially" break it in college until my senior year either. At a dumpy dual meet I few of us entered the 1500 and before the race marked out the additional 109 meters and had our teammates wait there for the finish (me in 4:55). I've only broken it a hand full of times since but would love to do a single mile at the new marathon WR pace (4:45) before I'm too old and wasted...

[Dave Holt]

One thing that I noticed about the list is how many of the sub 4:00's came in the same races.  It says something about running with quality competition and the effects of racing fast races.  And I bet that not too many of those athletes that didn't win 1st ever looked back upset that they didn't win that particular race.