Why Running A Sub 3:40 MILE is ALMOST IMPOSSIBLE

[Music] can any athlete run one mile in under three minutes and 40 seconds currently the world record stands at three minutes forty three point one three seconds this staggering time was accomplished by Moroccan runner Hisham L gurus on July 7 1999 this time is the equivalent to running each lap of the track in fifty five point four six seconds or running at an average speed of sixteen point one three miles an hour many consider L gurus to be the greatest miler to ever live as his running stride his raw power his elite endurance and his superior work ethic were all the absolute elite of the elite when it came to middle distance running but even the greatest miler of all time could not break this barrier so what exactly would it take to reach the elusive three-minute and thirty-nine second mile in order to break 340 a runner would need to average fifty four point six seconds per lap this pace is zero point seven eight seconds faster than the world-record pace and while this doesn't seem like much of a difference given that it's less than one second per lap improving the world record by over three seconds would be one of the greatest sporting achievements of all time and here's why on May 6 1954 Roger Bannister became the first athlete to ever run under four minutes for the mile this time was considered a revolutionary achievement however soon after Bannister many runners quickly began breaking the four-minute mile in total over 1500 athletes have run under four minutes since Bannister however is mild times get faster and faster it becomes much more difficult to see improvements in comparison to the four-minute mile only 337 runners have ever run under three minutes and 55 seconds this seemingly insignificant five-second improvement excludes over 1,000 additional athletes who have all run under four however as times get quicker and quicker the runner count continues to decrease following 355 if we go down below the three minute and fifty second mark only 63 athletes have ever managed to accomplish this time this is certainly an elite club of runners however there's still one more barrier that we haven't looked at and that's the three minute and 45 seconds merrier take a second and make an educated guess on how many athletes have run this time maybe ten perhaps fifteen well the actual number is only three athletes each of these runners have all been Olympic gold medalists as well as world record holders but even for them a 339 was never a possibility in stark contrast to the mile world record the men's marathon has been exploding with great performances over the previous two years during this timeframe five of the fastest marathons in history were recorded many contribute these giant leaps and performance to the new Nike Vapor Fly shoes however in tandem with new shoe technology International training and competition have been greatly improving in the men's marathon so why are we not seeing these improvements in other distance events including the men's mile is it dwindling international talent is it the lack of motivation or is it that three minutes forty three point one three seconds is in fact close to the hypothetical fastest mile that's humanly possible if we look at a mathematical model of all world records ranging from the 400 meters up to the 3,000 we begin to see an interesting pattern if we apply a 60 second per lap pace to each of these racing distances we can see that all world records barely fail to reach a time that is 20 seconds faster than one minute per lap pace for the 400 meters this theoretical time would be 40 seconds flat for the 800 it would be 1 minute and 40 seconds and for the mile it would be just over 3 minutes and 40 seconds the closest any record has been to achieving this pace was David Rhodesia's amazing 800 meter record when he ran a time of 1 minute 40 point 911 seconds this time brought him nineteen point zero nine seconds ahead of the sixty second per lap pace and while other world records have gotten close to this barrier there has never been a single performance that has ever achieved this time difference perhaps the twenty second differential is the barrier for athletic performance and if it is that would make a three minute and thirty nine second mile a seemingly impossible task however running these speeds for a certain amount of time would also require an incredible vo2 max as well as a lactate threshold level that is through the roof first let's take a look at the vo2 max or the maximum oxygen uptake this is essentially the amount of oxygen you can get out of the air and into your body generally this is expressed in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute the typical vo2 max is around thirty to forty but for elite runners it can be anywhere from fifty to sixty however for the greatest distance runners of all time it can even reach a huge value of eighty for an athlete like Hisham L guru his vo2 max was right at eighty which is a clear indicator of elite endurance next let's take a look at lactate threshold levels which is the speed with which lactate begins to accumulate exponentially in the bloodstream for late milers having a high lactate threshold is crucial as runners often achieve speeds of well over 25 kilometres per hour to improve in this category athletes frequently do speed work where they run at paces much faster than the race pace for mileage this often means running 400 meter intervals at close to 50 seconds per lap lastly let's take a look at running economy or the amount of effort required to run a certain speed for a certain distance now there's no single way to analytically describe running economy but for the world's greatest runners it's easy to see why they're so successful a few key factors to this high efficiency include stride patterns foot landing muscle composition and flexibility for any of the world's fastest milers they all somehow look effortless during the runs even when they're running faster than 56 seconds per lap if one athlete could somehow combine each of these categories at elite levels who knows perhaps a three-minute and thirty nine second mile is possible but based on all of the performances for the past 20 years breaking the three minute and forty seconds almost impossible thanks for watching everyone and we'll see you all in the next video [Music]

Channel: Total Running Productions

Views: 978,842

Keywords: Mile World Record, Track and Field, Track World Record, Hicham El Guerrouj, Mile Record, 2020 Olympics, 2020 Track and Field, Bernard Lagat, Track and Field Cancelled, Kenya Running, How to run a faster mile, Running Tips

Id: t4eeibcUfY4

Length: 6min 55sec (415 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 16 2020