Forums >Running 101>Running a Sub 4 Minute Mile: Help and Advice Needed
Are we there, yet?
When you were growing up was you faster than most kids your age? if you were slower than most kids on the playground you are not going to run a 4 minute mile
When you were growing up was you faster than most kids your age?
if you were slower than most kids on the playground you are not going to run a 4 minute mile
Could be a late bloomer. I was the slowest kid on my HS track team with a mile PB of 5:22. Six years later that was my 5K pace.
2024 Races:
03/09 - Livingston Oval Ultra 6-Hour, 22.88 miles
05/11 - D3 50K 05/25 - What the Duck 12-Hour
06/17 - 6 Days in the Dome 12-Hour.
Hi everyone, thanks for all the advice!
After reading your comments I felt inspired to go out and run a mile and well I am a bit disappointed to say the least. I ran it in 11:29, which is actually quite bad. I have run this same course before and have usually been at around 10 minutes. Granted this course does have about 100 feet of elevation gain, on a flat course I feel I could still break 10 minutes.
A lot of you have asked about my running experience and although I have no formal training or experience in the summer of 2018 I picked it up as a hobby and was running about 5 miles a day consistently.
My personal records were as follows during that time (keep in mind these were all in the course of traveling 5 miles):
400 M - 1:38
1 Mile - 7:04
2 Mile - 14:25
5k - 23:41
I also appreciate the advice of adding volume to my running first, then working on speed later. That is something I would not have thought to do. Running 70 mpw will be difficult but if I really force myself I think I’ll be able to do it. Do you all have any advice on how to build up to that volume? Or should I just try and start doing it?
Since it took you over 11 minutes to run one mile, I'd suggest starting with only 1-2 miles daily. Every couple weeks add 1/4 to 1/2 mile to each run. At some point in the next month pick a couple days, one mid-week and one on the weekend to make your medium long and long runs, then increase those more than the others. There is a 10% rule that a lot of runners use that says to add 10% each week to your weekly total. I think that is inadvisable for a couple reasons: 1) it can't be maintained for any length of time and 2) one week is not enough time to adjust to the added mileage. For those reasons I prefer increases every 2-3 weeks, but allow for slightly greater increases. It could easily take two years to safely increase your mileage to 70 mpw.
I agree with those that say this is a multi-year project if it even possible at all. The book Speed Runner by Pete McGill might be worth reading. Others have said it’s too soon for intervals and I agree, but I do t think it is too soon to develop your basic speed. 4:00 mile pace is very fast and you may not be able to run that fast right now for any distance. (I can’t)
Do NOT try to run 10 miles a day right off the bat. It will probably be several months before you can do that consistently.
Supposedly you're only supposed to increase mileage by 5% per week, and that "rule" might apply to your situation.
If you're doing 5 days of 3M runs, that's 15 miles a week, and a good start. After a couple weeks of that you can probably add a few miles to a couple of your runs and bump it up to 18-20.
We're getting into the weeds regarding specific training plans and ideologies, but the Long Run once a week does wonders for conditioning. For you, the Long Run would be 5-6 miles right now. No, you don't have to run the entire way, walk breaks are perfectly fine. That's another thing about weekly miles, you can run shorter runs twice a day and the training benefit is almost the same as doing the same amount of miles in a single run.
60-64 age group - University of Oregon alumni - Irreverent and Annoying
Hi all! So I have taken all of your advice and I have built a plan to get to 70 miles per week. Unfortunately it will take quite awhile to build it up. If I follow my plan I should hit the 70 Mile per Week mark on 9/27/2020. Does that sound reasonable? Using my calculations that's 36 weeks. I just want to make sure I'm not going too slow or too fast in building the mileage. Thanks!
3 months til Masters
That sounds fairly reasonable assuming no injuries. Just make sure lots of it is at a pace you can talk the whole time. Some workouts too, but lots on easy runs just to build endurance. Look at my log. I have a lot of running history (ran for my college), and it still took me 6 months to get up to 70 miles after starting running on 1/1/19 after not running for 3 years. I only got back quicker cause my dad actually was a 4 minute guy (4:01) which means I likely have a bit of an advantage. If you get injuries it may take a little longer but you seem to be getting the right idea.
2023 Goals
Marathon Sub 2:37 (CIM) 2:41:18
10k Sub 35:00 (Victory 10k 34:19)
5k Sub 16:00 (Hot Dash 5k in March (16:48), Brian Kraft in May (16:20), Twilight 5000 in July and August (16:20/16:25 Both heat index 102-103F)
Sub 1:16 Half Marathon City of Lakes Half Marathon 1:15:47)
Sub 56:30 in 10 mile (Twin Cities 10 mile, Canceled due to weather, 56:35 as a workout)
2024 Goals
Sub 2:37 Marathon
Sub 1:15 Half
Sub 34 10k
Sub 16 5k
Stay flexible and watch for signs of injury or chronic fatigue, both indications to back off.
Sounds very reasonable and do-able.
Building from near-0 to 70 in 9 months without a running history has a high likelihood of causing an injury. You should not try to get to 70 miles per week by 9/27/2020. 9/27/2024 would be more reasonable. My first 70+ mile week was in 2008 after I started running in 2003. Maybe I could have reached that milestone more quickly but that's not what I was trying to do - I was trying to race fast.
Are you trying to run a sub-4:00 mile or 70 miles per week? 70 miles per week is not a magic number by any stretch of the imagination - one can definitely run 70 miles per week and not be anywhere close to 4:00. For example, there are about 50 weeks of 70 or more miles in my running log, with 8 of those greater than 80 and 1 above 90 - and my mile PR is 4:19.7, which is not even remotely close to under 4:00.
For perspective, the first known summit and return of Mt. Everest was 1953 and since then more than 4800 people have reached the top. The first known sub-4:00 mile was 1954 and somebody mentioned earlier that ~1400 people have achieved that since. It's a monumental task that will take years and years and years. You need to take your time. You say you can run a 10 minute mile and want to take 60% of that time off. As you train, improvements will come fast and furious at first but then they will slow down. Each successive minute will take longer and longer and be more and more difficult to take off. Becoming a great runner does not happen in a timeframe of weeks - it takes years - and you will have to be great to break 4.
Please make your log public and update this thread when you break your personal record. I don't mean to sound discouraging but this is not a trivial thing you are trying to do. That said, each minute off your personal record will be something to celebrate and whether you end with a sub 8, a sub 5, or a sub 4 you may find this journey to be very rewarding if you stick with it.
MoBramExam
Building from near-0 to 70 in 9 months without a running history has a high likelihood of causing an injury. You should not try to get to 70 miles per week by 9/27/2020. 9/27/2024 would be more reasonable.
THIS.
Step one in running a 4:00 minute mile (or running any time over any distance) is to become a "runner". Starting from scratch, like you are, the act of mentally and physically becoming a hobby jogger who can instinctively lace up their shoes and show up 6-7 days a week is probably at best a 2+ year endeavor. Can't rely on motivation. Have to tune out the "cheerleaders". For now, the focus is 100% on day-to-day discipline.
Counterpoint: If you're one of the lucky few with the talent to run a sub-4-minute mile, you probably have an uncommon ability to recover and going from 0 to 70 mpw in 8 months as an otherwise healthy 24-year-old is fine. As someone in some other thread pointed out, you're statistically much more likely to make an NBA or NFL roster than to run a sub-4, so going from 0 to 70 miles per week in 8 months is far from the most outlandish part of this quest.
Runners run
From the Internet.
FYI that is probably somewhere between somewhat unrealistic and guaranteed injury. Some people are lucky enough to ramp up quickly and stay in one piece, others not so much. Getting from zero to peaking at 70+ for a marathon - not staying at 70 consistently - took me 5 years. I'm on the more fragile/conservative side so it doesn't have to take you THAT long, but 8 months is a tall order.
Pick up some training books. Read everything you can get your hands on. Work in strength training. Consistency is king, you won't get very far if you're too injured to run at all from trying to ramp up too quickly. Find a club/team/coach once you have a year or two (or more) of solid mileage behind you.
Riman643 is in his mid 20's, not an old codger of 40+. Overweight but not morbidly obese. Working up to 70mpw in 9 months shouldn't cause any issues if training is consistent. It's not going to take over four years for him to get in shape to knock on the sub 4:00 club door. The likelihood is slim, but it's not impossible for someone in their mid 20's with a lot of determination. Going to miss out on a lot of other things in life in that time, though.
Genetics truly are the cheat code of running. I'm one of the people who benefitted from them (Dad 4:07 miler around 1950, I ran a 4:03 in practice in 1985). But everyone must make do with the genetic cards they are given. In HS I met a guy on another team that wanted to be a good runner SO BADLY, but no matter how much training and attention spent toward running he never was able to get under 17:00 for 5kXC. If the rest of us had concentrated on running like he did we would have been national HS standouts (my best HS 5kXC was only 15:34).
Those anecdotes about genetics shared, it will be very apparent to Riman643 one year from now if they are gifted or hampered by their unchangeable (as of now) DNA. Or neither. But he has to do the base work to get to the point of finding out, thus the mileage to get in good general running condition.
That's still a major challenge. I started running post HS at 21. It took me two months to run sub-5:00. After 4 months I had built up to 50 mpw and had to back off for several months because it was too much, too quickly. Granted I don't have great genetics, but it was two plus years before I could consistently run 70 mile weeks.