Clueless writing about our sport

[Chicago]

This is more of a dubious claim not challenged. I saw an interview with boxer Floyd Mayweather in which he stated that he would run 8.5 miles at 4 a.m. at 6-minute pace.

[Trickstat]

This is more of a dubious claim not challenged. I saw an interview with boxer Floyd Mayweather in which he stated that he would run 8.5 miles at 4 a.m. at 6-minute pace.

Seems unlikely. Maybe by 6 minutes pace he actually meant something like 6:50 or 6:55 pace.

[Conor Dary]

Seems unlikely. Maybe by 6 minutes pace he actually meant something like 6:50 or 6:55 pace.

I find even that hard to believe.

[scottmitchell74]

I find even that hard to believe.

Why? Boxers are famously fit via "road work."
Also, I work with a number of guys for whom this is within their abilities, some wrll within.

[lonewolf]

It's the 4 AM part that would discourage me.

[bambam1729]

Why? Boxers are famously fit via "road work."
Also, I work with a number of guys for whom this is within their abilities, some wrll within.

Hell, I was only a professional golfer and I could do 6-minute miles for a 10K - I'm sure a lot of boxers can do it. (Actually my best 10K circa 1981 was at 6:03 pace - just missed it by about 20 seconds)

[Halfmiler2]

Before Frank Shorter in 1972, the public was aware of boxers running on the roads but not much anybody else. A true story - in the fall of 1970, the town police chief told our high school cross country coach to get our team off the roads. Our school grounds had a perimeter of a mile and that is what we were stuck with.

[jc203]

...the town police chief told our high school cross country coach to get our team off the roads. Our school grounds had a perimeter of a mile and that is what we were stuck with.

I got a similar command from the principal of the high school where I coached/taught back in the day. Somehow he had discovered that my team regularly ran the roadsides and beaches and mountain trails in our semi-rural community... a practice that needed to stop immediately.
I kept the kids on campus for the rest of that week and then went back to normal routines. Principal never seemed to notice but was always eager to celebrate our successes :-)

[Conor Dary]

The pace people think they do in training is so far off it is comical.

[dukehjsteve]

I had a 55 year old work associate, that had no running background, insist to me that he had just run 4 miles in 21 minutes.

[lonewolf]

I had a female co-worker years ago who regularly reported on her walking prowess/progress. One morning she reported she had achieved her goal of walking a mile in 5 minutes. Investigation determined that around her block was a quarter of a mile, not a mile.

[scottmitchell74]

QUOTE=lonewolf;n1724872]I had a female co-worker years ago who regularly reported on her walking prowess/progress. One morning she reported she had achieved her goal of walking a mile in 5 minutes. Investigation determined that around her block was a quarter of a mile, not a mile.[/QUOTE]

Ha!!

That reminds me of an LT I had years ago. He went to the Y every morning and was so proud of swimming 2000m in X-amount of time. He'd post it in FB. One day the amount of laps came up - 40. I said, "please tell me you know that's not an Olympic size pool." He looked puzzled. Is said, "not only is that not 50 meters, it's not even 25 meters; it's a 25 yard pool!!"

Poor guy, we teased him pretty hard that he was only actually swimming 914 meters when he thought it was 2000. He stopped going, he was so heartbroken.

[Trickstat]

I had a female co-worker years ago who regularly reported on her walking prowess/progress. One morning she reported she had achieved her goal of walking a mile in 5 minutes. Investigation determined that around her block was a quarter of a mile, not a mile.

That works out at 3 miles per hour, which, in the UK at least, is often used as a benchmark for a reasonable, rather than fast, walking pace.

[Conor Dary]

That works out at 3 miles per hour, which, in the UK at least, is often used as a benchmark for a reasonable, rather than fast, walking pace.

Yes 3 miles an hour is a normal healthy pace.

20 years ago Dad did a 5k at 91 in 1:01 walking the whole way...he won his age group.

[Chicago]

In his book, Tale of the Ancient Marathoner, Jack Foster said that on his first run he was sure he had done at least six or seven miles, but his wife said he was only gone seven minutes.