What It Really Takes To Run A Sub 4-Minute Mile

Running a sub-4-minute mile was once deemed physically impossible. It requires a pace of 2.29 per kilometer. That's 24 kilometers an hour or 15 miles an hour. Very few people have achieved this elusive goal. In fact, to put it in perspective, more than three times as many people have summited Everest than run a sub-4-minute mile. What makes it so tough? Can I run one? In 1954, Roger Bannister did the impossible, clocking an eye-watering 3.59.4 over the mile. The sub-4-minute mile is, in fact, physically possible, but 70 years on, and only around 1,800 people have actually managed this incredible feat, which, really, in the grand scheme of things, it's very few. It's basically a 15-second, 100-meter sprint 16 times over. Some of the best runners in the world have yet to actually run a sub-4-minute mile, partly because they've never specifically trained for it, but even if they had, it's not a given. The physiological demands are quite unique and brutal. To run a sub-4-minute mile requires you to run 60 seconds per 400-meter lap of an athletics track. To put that into context, for an intermediate runner running all-out maximum effort, on average, they'll run around 71 seconds for a lap, let alone four laps back-to-back. It really is an insane turn of pace. The mile event is considered a 50% aerobic and 50% anaerobic activity. When your body goes from this aerobic to anaerobic state, your body will start to fatigue with this onset of lactic acid, a rather disgusting sensation, which actually happens very early on in the mile. You just have to deal with it as long as possible. It's also likely no surprise that to run a sub-4-minute mile, you require a rather high VO2 max, research suggesting a VO2 in the 70s. It's probably no surprise that I do not have a VO2 max in the 70s, nor have I spent months or years diligently training for this, so I won't be running a sub-4-minute mile any time soon, or will I? Welcome to the tumble in Wales, with one mile of nicely paved tarmac, and most importantly, downhill. Oh, yes, I'm about to attempt a sub-4-minute mile downhill. Some of you might remember, actually, a few years ago, I did try this along with Sam. We'll say yes to any ridiculous challenge at short notice, Pictor. We got close, but we did fail, which I partly blame on the hill choice. Well, we're back for round two with Sam. What do you think? Well, Mark, I'm not feeling any fitter, but, well, we've got a bigger hill, so what more can we do? Exactly, and the weather is markably better. The hill is a 10% average gradient, which I'm hopeful is better, and also, most notably, we didn't have 200 meters of flat running at the start. I think we got this, mate. No problem. Three, two, one, let's go. Go, go, go, go, go, go. We did it. We bloody did it. I went off way too hard there. I didn't think that was supposed to happen. All right, so you guys know that we have gone sub-4-minutes. Now, for the time reveal. What did you go, Sam? Yes, so I'm pleased to say I ran a 3.43. I was just slightly ahead, 3.37. Flipper, it was hard, wasn't it? It hurt a lot more than I thought it was going to. I remember warming up at the beginning. I thought, four minutes, how bad can it be? We're usually used to running a lot further and probably don't give credit enough to the people running for four minutes. I probably didn't make it easy for myself either by going off so damn hard. No, so I was looking at the splits, and you started, well, we both started with, we were running 2.02 per kilometer pace. I actually didn't even realize my body could go that quick. It was about 12.5 seconds for 100 meters for the first 400 meters. I felt that about 500 meters in and was watching every 100 meters go by. It was so painful. Now, what is also nuts, I mean, this is just such an insane turn of speed. It's hard to wrap my head around. The actual world record sits at 3.43. The time you did today, set by Hicham El Gourou back in 1999. That's 2.19 per kilometer on the flat. Also, what is quite interesting is that a month after Roger Bannister breaking that four-minute mile, Diane Leather became the first woman to run a sub-five-minute mile, which is a moment in athletics history which isn't really noted very well, partly due to the fact that it was deemed unhealthy for women to run around that time, which is mad. I'd imagine it would inspire a lot of women. Now, the women's world record sits at 4.07, set by Faith Kipyagong, which is mad. Seriously impressive. While it did really hurt, I don't know if I mentioned it, it really did hurt. Legs and lungs, I'm still coughing now. I do see the appeal. Four laps of the track, the simplicity of it is you just have to hit 60 seconds per lap. I say just 60 seconds per lap is incredibly hard. You're against the clock and go as hard as you can and see where you end up. It's absolutely nuts, that pace. We've done it. We did our downhill mile. We broke that four minutes. I guess all there's to do now, Sam, is Summit Everest. I reckon we could do that. How hard could that be? Everest.