Can We Break The 4 Minute Mile Running Downhill?

The legendary 4-minute mile! We are going to attempt something we've never done before. We found a mile-long hill & we’re going to try and run down it as fast as we can, in 4 minutes - Simple! Can Sam & Mark do it?

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[gtn]

If you enjoyed this video, make sure to give it a thumbs up and share it with your friends. 👍

[Jim-besj]

That caped runner in the old downhill mile is a hero of mine. I wasn't expecting to see him here when I clicked. Well done.

[lukereynolds]

Don't think my knees could handle this! 🙈😬

[chrismarkham]

You need to visit Meltham, near Huddersfield in West Yorkshire. Home of the "Maniac Mile" - all down hill, "Murder Mile" - all up hill and the "Murder, Maniac Mile" - both back to back. Loads of runners drop below 4 minutes on there!

[daskanguru]

How to break your knees in less than 5 minutes: Speedrun Tutorial and Walkthrough

[piish]

“A four minute mile is 19mph” (2:35)?
No, there 15 x 4 minutes in an hour, so it’s 15mph.
You got the 24kph right though.

[TeamSaundersTri]

Mark is a beast! No doubt he could get it with another attempt. Fun seeing this challenge. Keep up the great content!

[martinspiegl]

First, I was very sceptical, that anybody would get near fraser, but sam is gold for this channel.

[evilclowntje]

Great video! I'm eager to see your second attempt! I'd like to try the downhill mile myself, but I doubt there is a suitable hill in the Netherlands since we hardly have any hills to start with :)

[coldfootfun]

I would be loathe to give advise to pro runners but.... I did the Crater Lake Marathon over 20 years ago. My coach at the time had me spend one workout per week working on downhill running. Granted, this was not the terminal speed needed to do a sub 4 minute mile. We worked on leg speed ( turnover ) on relatively shallow gradient. My work was to keep my feet close to the ground and not over stride. One big help was hand positioning. My hands were held low and very much behind and low at my hips. I won’t describe the arm motion much more than flicking my wrists and a roll with the lower arm. The work proved very effective and improved my overall place at midway from 13th to 4th overall. My hamstrings didn’t lock up on the transition from downhill to flat and then another steep hill before the final descent. Not sure if this is at all transferable to a steep and very fast challenge like the one in the video. Cheers and good work mates.

[glenborch]

As a kid over 20 years ago, I used to run down sand dunes, and hills and once a Car 50km/h (Don't ask), and requires a technique, that is difficult to describe fully, but you do need to be relaxed, and land on you toes. If you heal strike, your quad's will hate you. Only starting running again 4 years ago, I am much slower with a 21 minute 5k Parkrun, but when I Trail run, I'm slow to go up the hills than others of a similar overall time, but down hills much quicker, nearly matching the fastest on the course. My mile is 6 minutes, but even with perfect conditions, I suspect the quickest I could go would be 3:15, but that pace was about the fastest I ever ran for any distance even as a kid. For most people however, I would be very careful, as Overspeed Training as it seems to be called now, as the impact if done incorrectly could cause injury. Still this is my favorite type of running, and is really the only way I can genuinely be faster than other much faster people with any other types, that I often term single speed runners. Thanks GTN, I'll have to find the perfect hill to give the 1 mile a go, around 5-7% for me, as anything more the brakes come on.

[careyprins]

That was so much FUN! You guys gotta give this another GO!

[TheoPhysics]

At 7:16 I forgot I had my video on x1.5 and for a moment I was bewildered at how fast they were going 😂

[MrBraindead]

Using a bike's the only way I'd get under 4 minutes for a mile. My target's 4 minutes for a km.

[aroundandround]

It’s so nice we have miles and kilometers so us recreationals can translate mile record times instead to aspirational kilometer time targets.

[themindgarage]

I could do a mile in 35 seconds... if I jumped off a mile-high cliff

[IanLoughead]

Our run club did this as a Christmas Fundraiser event. It was fun and super hard. I was happy to break 5 minutes. A 4:07 is awesome.

[graemesadd]

I doubt steeper would be better, I would think there is the perfect gradient, you've just got to find it! Well done though, impressive effort.

[andytaylor_music]

Great Vid guys. Ignore all the comments about knees from The Great Unwashed. It's the equivalent of "the camera steals your soul". If your knees hurt, strengthen your quads, run with good form and train smartly. Simples!

[garrettwallace]

I would like to see what you could do on the flat mile compared to the downhill mile. My best mile is a 4:28 on a track, and 4:41 on an open road, so I’d like to see how that would compare on a downhill road