Am I too bulky to run a fast mile?

what are you considering to be a fast mile?

I'm 43 years young, so I'm looking to run sub 5.

Runnin It wrote:

5.9 170 pounds. 12% body fat. Lots of muscle.

Too bulky to run a good mile? Too much body fat?

Paul?

what time are you at now?

Yeah how far are you now? I would say if you're within 5:20 then you could have a pretty good shot.

speed demon 19 wrote:

what time are you at now?

Aw man, I knew someone was going to ask that.

I'm doing about 20 miles a week now. I took several years off from racing and did some fitness running. I lifted weights mainly during that time.

I don't know right now. Probably around a 8 minute mile.

Peter Snell: 5ft 10 1/2in, 177lb.

If you decide to lose *a few* pounds, just make sure it's fat and not lean that you're losing.

Shit, that's a long way to go.

It's not impossible... but unlikely. How many Masters runners break 5 minutes? Only a few, and those guys have been running all their lives usually. Sorry, just being realistic.

You would really have to focus on running mileage. Your strength will help you out some, but not as much as developing yourself aerobically.

AdamLocked wrote:

Shit, that's a long way to go.

It's not impossible... but unlikely. How many Masters runners break 5 minutes? Only a few, and those guys have been running all their lives usually. Sorry, just being realistic.

You would really have to focus on running mileage. Your strength will help you out some, but not as much as developing yourself aerobically.

Yeah, I know, a long way. But, I was running 18 minute 5k's a couple of years ago. So, I can get down to close to 6 pretty quickly. I hope. I wasn't this bulky back then.

i have more body fat percent than you and i'm under 5.

my point - your weight is not holding you back, it's your engine. work on that.

Runnin It wrote:

Yeah, I know, a long way. But, I was running 18 minute 5k's a couple of years ago. So, I can get down to close to 6 pretty quickly. I hope. I wasn't this bulky back then.

I'm not trying to be a smart ass here: but that was a COUPLE of YEARS ago. To runners two years is a real long time! Most runners at any level are either significantly faster or slower than they were two years ago.

Like I said, it's not impossible by any means, especially if you were in 18 5K range at some point. But it's going to take a lot of training to get there. I recommend finding a coach or training team. Good luck!

As a small token of encouragement: If you have been working out on weights for all those years, you are probably much stronger than you were two years ago. Which means you can probably train at a higher level without risking injury. Also your ceiling for running potential has probably also increased with your increased leg power/overall fitness.

So you do have that going for you. I would say get back on the mileage and scale down on the weights (maybe only 2-3 times a week).

daaaaaah

depends on how fast you are

fgfg wrote:

daaaaaah

depends on how fast you are

Sub 14 100m. Just timed it yesterday.

I am 43. It has been about a year since I raced but I hit the track meets for a couple of years and broke 5 regularly.

I was 6 foot and 155-160. I suggest not worrying too much about body weight. Just train and your body will find its best weight. The main thing is the training not the body weight.

Breaking 5 was my goal after about a 5 year layoff. It actually was much harder to do then I thought but I was real proud of myself. When I first started training again I couldn't even do 1 lap at 75!

Your bulkiness won't prevent you from running under 5. But the fact that you are currently running 20 miles a week but could only manage an 8 min mile is pretty telling. You have a long way to go. But it's definitely not impossible. Just bump up your mileage a little and do some faster track work. My favorite workout for mile training is:

8x400 @ goal mile pace (rest: 200m jog), 3 min break, 4x200 @ slightly faster than goal mile pace (rest: 100m jog)

Of course, if your goal is 5:00 you won't be able to complete the above workout at 5min pace right away. Start slower, maybe 1:35-1:40 for the 400s, and work your way down to 1:15.

I would also recommend throwing in some shorter, faster sprints (anywhere from 30m-100m) once a week after a run to work on raw speed. At 43 years old I'm guessing your speed is not great, and you'll need a little speed to break 5 min.

That's encouraging!

What kind of mileage and workouts were you doing to go sub 5?

I'm 42 nearly 43 and I race 1500/mile from time to time. My recent 1500 is the rough equivalent of 4:30 for the mile. My BMI is 22.7, compared with yours of 25.1 (BMI = weight in kg divided by height in cm squared). I generally consider myself a little stocky to be a distance runner, so you must be quite stocky (for a runner, not in general). I'm not convinced that's necessarily a bad thing though.

If you want to hit sub-5, first off I think you'll need to be in better than 18-flat 5k pace - probably more like 17:30, or faster.

Work hard. And have fun.

Runnin It wrote:

That's encouraging!

What kind of mileage and workouts were you doing to go sub 5?

I was "retired" from running for about 15 years. I came back and followed the Daniels Running Formula and got within 8%+/- of my 1500M PR.

I followed it to the letter. PR at age 21 for 1500M was 3:57 at age 41 ran 4:24.

I was nothing great and there are a lot of masters way faster then me but I trained 100% alone in a rural area and was very happy with my comeback and weight loss etc.