Where is update from Valhalla? Just saw his Strava.

Thank you for starting this thread. Also one of my favorite races (Miracle Mile), and the interviews at the end are superb. Both Bannister and Landy are impressive. I've been running indoor meets all winter, several mile races in the 5:26-30 range (slower than I would like but I think age is catching up). I'm looking to go under 5:20 next weekend. Timetrialed 1200 yesterday (an idea from Bannister), went 4:02. We'll see how the race goes.

Perfect Mile was a great book, and don't forget "Once a Runner" by John L. Parker for a great story on what it takes to be a miler. And did I ever mention that I did a 4:30 in High School?

haha...still a bit wobbly.

it was a hoot. jumped a fence after school hours to access the closest track to my house, at a middle school built only six months ago. felt like a rebel, and way overcooked the first lap. knew after that first quarter things were going to get ugly. instead of the last one being the fast one, my pace really slowed with 300 to go. finished in 4:49 or 4:50. my strava is a bit wonky and said my pace was 4:36/mile (huh?). oh, also kind of funny that the quickest i was moving at any point of time was a 4:02/mile pace. next time i will try to have at least a step or two at sub-4 pace:)

i'd like to propose we extend this mile challenge out a bit, say another six weeks, say till May 1st. it would be fun to put some dedicated training towards it. see if (and by how much) we can lower our times. i'd be happy to turn it into a ST feature on the front page, with some athlete profiles, etc. anyone up for it?

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Lars Finanger
Odyssey SwimRun

6 more weeks works great for me. in the middle of TX HIM training, which is April 8th. after that I can see if I can get close to high school mile times :P. I was a 4:3x mile in high school and 4:1x 1500m in college the one year I ran track. The best I've been able to muster on streets targeting Strava segments lately is low 5s. amazing what 18 years does to slow you down :)

May 6th would be MOST appropriate

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Not pretty, and not fast - but it'll do for today...

410m: 1:30.5
810m: 3:00.2
1210m: 4:30.8
1610m: 5:54.7

Garmin usually makes every 400. 0.25 mi instead of .24.... if you run backwards on track it maybe as bad as .29. depends what hand your watch is on. I am down for the mile challenge. Let's make may 6 cut off (there is a road mile race here in SD that day)

I would def be game for a prolonged challenge! Mile workouts are fun and kind of fits with my regular schedule. May 1st I'll
go to the track with a friend to pace me for a 4:39.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

4:29...............................................................oh, you mean today? Nope , that was 36 years ago in high school, ...LOL! I worked today, but I did walk quickly to the bathroom once

Hit the track this morning. 800m warm up, which is way too short for me. I need a min 20 minutes just to open the pipes. Anyway took off on the mile & was in trouble pretty quick. Slowed to > 5min pace to recover then completed the the last 800. 7:20 ish. It was like one of those dreams where you are being chased but can't seem to run. I am sure Bannister could've taken me down if he was still here :(

In 2015 I did a mile on the same track 8:20 with 177strides/min so that is a 12% improvement. I am at my weakest now due to sun deprivation. I'll repeat the mile in July or August for comparison.

PS: We had that thread on stride rate - at the time I was making a effort to increase my rate. Obviously that worked, because 190 felt normal.




Also ran some 400's just to reset

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com

Well, normally I would be all up for it, so I will virtually watch you guys. I think that in the mean time, I will virtually do my own thing on the indoor rower as it seems that the paces there are similar to what my faster run paces were when I was last running. I am enjoying you guys getting a kick out of all this. Running the 1 mile test semi frequently is a blast. I always found it addictive. I had made the trip to Iffley road to run on the track at Oxford and glad I did it in my lifetime!

I was thinking swimmers could join by using a 1:4 ratio.

example
1600M run = 400M swim

400M run = 100M swim.

etc.

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com

The 400 to 100 ratio is a funny thing. When I was in my 30's and could run well but not swim, my 400 times destroyed my 100's. Now, in my 50's my swim times are faster than when I was 35 and destroy my run times - for example, the other day I swam a straight 1000 scy, trying to stay relaxed, averaged a little under 83's in an easy effort - I may be able to average 93's for 10 laps on the track, but it would be brutal.

I know, I know, but let's just keep the swim equivalent private and leave this thread to the runners to do their best mile running. But I don't think it is exactly 4:1 (albeit close). El Gherrouj's 1500m run world record is 3:26 and Sun Yang's swim is 14:31. So looks like at 4:1, the run is 47 seconds faster.

10K swim was 1:52.08 at Rio. 10000m at track was 27:05, so 4x was around 4 min faster pace running.

Having said that you'd have to compare swim times that are 1/4 the distance of a corresponding run, the problem is that you only get that at the shorter events (100m swim vs 400m run, 50m swim vs 200m run, 200m swim vs 800m run).

OK back to these guys running fast miles on the track!

If someone wants to do some sort of swim challenge, Duke Kahanamoku's birthday is August 24th

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"What's your claim?" - Ben Gravy
"Your best work is the work you're excited about" - Rick Rubin

Yeah just happened to be swimming and biking this weekend, after the mile attempt. think too much in pool....such as

I believe Bannister NEVER set the record on the day. It was a bogus stunt. I mean seriously, his track club timing and they didn't want to waste news reel back in those days. Get your clock on the Youtube clip of the complete race. I got ample margin over 4 minutes from start to finish. hmmm...

Perhaps the day both Landy and Bannister went Sub 4 in Vancouver was the real deal. On that note, exit the office on 4th in Kits, I went looking for a track and ended up at UBC. My quads chronically sore, w/a latte in me jumped on the track and went for it. "My legs were so full of running (not)" .. w/GPS I went 7:00 shaving 20 seconds off my first attempt. Solid run this time, not even gassed. I didn't even have to stop 1/2 way:)

This mile is good. 800M is just one more than a 400. But 1600M you gotta gut it out, keep holding the pace. It's a cool distance. Pix on my twitter.

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com

800 is way worse than both the mile and the 400. If you don’t know that, you haven’t raced a 800 correctly. I legitimately believed I was dying at the end of my 800 and didn’t feel good for a long time afterwards. That feeling when you’ve basically sprinted 300, do the turn and realize you have more than a lap to go is brutal.
The mile, although tough is not as stressing on the body and the lungs.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Are you saying appropriate authentication of the run did not take place?
First time I've heard that suggested. Is there any consensus that this is a legitimate suspicion or is it just your own assertion?

I have personally wondered about the hand timing as well as Bannister's lead out crew and to some extent, I feel his first 4 min mile was a bit of a stunt just like the Nike sub 2 event. I still respect what he did, on that day at Iffly road, but I don't really view it is a competition achievement and I would have questioned the legitimacy of him being the first had he never done it again in competition as Landy went a legit 3:58 in Turku Finland in a real competition slightly after Bannister. But at the Empire Games later than year, he beat Landy fair and square. Bannister's equivalent of the Nike Sub 2 event showed the world (and him) that if it the pacing and company was right, sub 4 was possible....then they went and did it in competition. You can hand time the Empire games sub 4 mile on the video here (assuming you believe that nothing is cut out and I think you can see the entire race):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jP_NzZP_LK0

The reason the story even has relevance today, is (imo) fueled by "white" pride. There are far greater achievements in athletics, then an emo kid running a publicity stunt for the British flag back in the day. He's like some war hero, to same effect.

Looking at the two I think Landy was the better runner. However, in Vancouver Bannister ran an unbelieveable race. To close the gap like that, use the draft and kick it was amazing. And the distance these two put on the field was huge. To do that these days you'd need to be doping.

Que the drama at the finish :)

The Nike stunt was a stacked affair. I am surprised they didn't engineer rolling sections asphalt to secure the deal. "He's falling behind, engage the track drives". It did answer the question about shoes - It doesn't really matter what shoe you wear.

Or bike frame you ride.

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com

It almost feels like Bannister read about Tenzing hauling Hillary through the now famous "Hillary Step" (no one really knows who hauled who, but I am thinking the Nepalese local was likely not the "haulee") the year before and thinking, "hey, I am close to the running Everest summit let me get some dudes to draft off of who will behave themselves and stay on pace (vs trying to draft Landy who would do everything stupid to not let Hillary draft, but would overcook himself in the process) and do on the track what Hillary did on Everest and then we can use the British media to market this to death!!!

Dev

I haven't tried to run fast in a couple years. I have this completely unreasonable fear that I will have a heart attack racing/ training at max . Just been doing ultras. Because that's not stressful on your heart; I know. Maybe I will take the kids up to the track and see what they can do too.

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Brian

I never really understood interval training until last night at the UBC track (3 runners there incl me):

1600m warm-up ~8 mins
2x400m High knees, skips, butt kicks, cross overs, backwards, lunges
4x 400m on 1:30 with ~60s rest
400m easy
2x100m Fast as I can go @ 3min/km

I'm certainly a track novice. I've done so-called intervals swimming, hills biking etc. but didn't feel it like this set. The track attacks your core being like none other. I'm hooked.

For me to actually run "fast" at this advanced age will require dedicated gym work (ideally with a trainer) and I put my PT on speed dial....keep that defibrillator close by as well :)

Time to get the project started!

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Training Tweets: https://twitter.com/Jagersport_com
FM Sports: http://fluidmotionsports.com

I would make the rest on the 400s a lot longer. Since this is a speed session you want to get sufficient rest to be able to run fast. I did some 400s yesterday and did 6x400 with 3 min rest, and for you I would at least do 1:1 rest but even better would be 1:2.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon