Around the time of the summer Olympics, people turn their attention to athleticism and begin to ask questions like, "What is the fastest mile possible?" In the early 1950's doctors believed it to be physically impossible to run under a 4 minute mile without one's heart exploding. Yet, Roger Bannister accomplished this feat in 1954. Once news about his feat got to Europe, there were at least 3 others who also broke the 4 minute barrier within a few weeks of his historic run. Today the projected limit is based on a graph that plots the world record times over the last 100 years. The curve of the line suggests that mankind will max out his potential near 3:39, just 4 seconds faster than the current world record. Is it possible to go faster? And I mean significantly faster. Like under 3:30, or even under 3:20!
There are three main factors that limit a person's maximum speed for the mile. They are technique, conditioning, and body type - which consists of things such as height and leg length.
Since body type is genetic and unable to be changed intentionally, we'll disregard it for now. That leaves us with technique, and conditioning. For the most part, the technique runners have used over the last 100 years has remained the same. Use the core to stabilize, the hips and legs to mobilize, and the arms to counterbalance. So taking that out of the equation as well, we have only conditioning to consider. And this is where 99% of our effort has been focused as athletes, coaches, and trainers. The question nearly every strength and conditioning coach and researcher has asked, and the one that is taking millions of dollars in research every year at major universities as well as Olympic training facilities is in regards to conditioning is, "How can we train our bodies to become faster, stronger, and utilize oxygen better?"
But, with advances in technology and the greatest athletic minds coming together on this subject over the last few decades, I believe we are reaching the limit of physical conditioning as well as is indicated by the fact that we are so close to the projected fastest possible mile.
So here are the facts.
1.With Olympics being held every four years since 1896, we have attracted the greatest athletes and most genetically diverse athletes together to find the best the world has to offer. We are probably not going to find a better suited miler without going to another planet since we currently have access to all the nations of the world.
2. With the best technology for optimizing training and recovery, we're near the limit of human physical conditioning.
3. We have been using essentially the same running technique for the last 100 years.
It is my belief that if we are to achieve a world record mile that is significantly faster than what we project to be the limit of human potential, it will be by focusing our efforts to a running style that is fundamentally different than the current paradigm; legs to mobilize, core to stabilize, arms to counterbalance.
It is my intent to discover a better technique that is not just a refinement of an old one, but is actually brand new and essentially different than the formula we use now... Core to stabilize, Hips and legs to mobilize, Arms to counterbalance.
