We are not meant to run. We evolved from tree hugging apes.
How Long does it Take you to Run a Mile?
- Thread starter Cellar_Door
- Start date
Humans are probably the best endurance athletes in Mammalia, actually. This is because our most direct ancestors were savannah dwellers, not tree climbers.
No, the best mammalian endurance athlete is definitely the American pronghorn, known as the second fastest mammal as well, but at lower speeds it is an endurance champion. Or maybe I will pick the red kangaroo. http://books.google.com/books?id=gD...4eSqDw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=3 Therefore humans are probably not the best endurance athletes in mammalia.
I think the fastest I did was probably around 6 minutes. This was a LONG time ago though and I'm primarily a short distance runner. Pretty sure I've always run 100 metres faster than average and I think I did 300 metres(we didn't have a full size track) in 47 seconds. I think for an 11 year old that was pretty good.
I'm now unfit and drive everywhere.
I'm now unfit and drive everywhere.
I don't think age plays that big of a part in running speed. I would have beat any average 14 or 15 year old in a sprint at 9 or 10 years old. Training makes most of the difference, I ran Olympic qualifying time at 12 years old. It can't be impossible for a 9 year old to beat a 15 year old in race.
Enmos
Valued Senior Member
No, but 1K in 3 min is incredibly fast for a 9 year old.
When I was in middle school track at age 12-13 I was doing 1 mile races in just slightly over 5 minutes. It would be about 3.3 minutes for a km at that pace. I imagine you could go significantly faster if you were only doing a 1 km (about .6 mile) run, since you're only going about half as far. I definitely wasn't sprinting full-out when I was running 5 minute miles, because I would have burnt out too quickly.
I was in pretty good shape, but I wasn't an especially great runner compared to some of the better people who would show up at the various meets. But of course, that was 3 years older than he's claiming...I'm not sure how that would change the plausibility.
I was in pretty good shape, but I wasn't an especially great runner compared to some of the better people who would show up at the various meets. But of course, that was 3 years older than he's claiming...I'm not sure how that would change the plausibility.
yeah thats me.
Silverfire
Registered Member
I've never timed my 1 mile, but I've timed my 3 mile and my fastest and slowest times were 18:39 and 23:53. So if I had to guess, I'd put my one mile around 6 minutes.
if one mile for you is in 6 minutes, you can do 1 km in 3.72 minutes
Really?
Fraggle Rocker
Staff member
If you haven't exercised in four months, a seven-minute mile is not bad at all, and a six-minute mile is pretty good.
That's the pace of a military march and it's considered a very good walking speed for the average person who is not a serious athlete. You might consider just walking farther instead of trying to go faster. If you haven't been physically active for ten years but within a few months you develop the ability to cover four miles in an hour, you can be proud of yourself. For most people building up endurance and aerobics is just as important as strength, if not more so.
Another thing that's very important is flexibility. Loss of ability to stretch is a big problem for a lot of people as they grow older. Can you get up off the floor without using your hands?
But quite a bit of that evolution focused specifically on our legs, with the result that we most certainly are, now, built for running. Compare the musculature in the thighs and pelvis of a human to any other ape and you'll see profound differences. Several key muscles have actually been re-routed. This supported three distinct changes:
- Bipedal locomotion. We are the only ape who never reverts to a quadrupedal stance, and in fact we're now incapable of it.
- Locking knees. Our gluteus maximus was rerouted to pull our thighs perpendicular to the ground and hold them there, while our kneecaps were also modified to lock. The powerful gluteus maximus forms the familiar double-hemisphere shape that defines the unique human buttocks.
- Wider stance. The human brain is qualitatively larger than any other mammal. Even though we're born at a less advanced stage of development than other mammals, allowing our brains to finish growing after birth, nonetheless the human birth canal still has to be enormously larger than other mammals, and therefore our pelvis is enormously wider. This required still more rerouting of muscles because our bipedal gait now involves a major shifting of weight over a large distance, from one leg to the other.
Oh I guess I have to answer the question.
At 65 with a torn knee cartilage I don't run any more. I can walk two miles in half an hour but I seldom keep it up for longer than that. In the gym I go 3.5mph on an 8% grade on the treadmill, but I usually stop after 15-20 minutes.I never much liked running. I was more of a bicycle guy when I was younger. I used to ride ten miles to work through L.A.'s hilly terrain, and a couple of times a week I rode up to the crest of the Hollywood Hills.
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Silverfire
Registered Member
Just wondering, how did you get to that? Convert the mile to km and then what?
Enmos
Valued Senior Member