Is an 8 minute mile good

For women of all ages, an 8 minute mile is considered good, but for men under 50, it's considered average at best.

Introduction

How good is an 8 minute mile when running?

In this blog post, I'll answer this question based on a research paper that evaluated running pace for use as an indicator of sports performance for regular individuals (i.e., recreational athletes).

Based on that research paper, you'll also be able to check how well you're doing even if you have a different pace and account for your age and gender.

So let's get started!

What is running pace?

First of all, let's describe what running pace is.

Running pace is a measure of the speed at which you're running and is defined as the time (in seconds) it takes to run 1 kilometer (or approx. 0,62 miles).

We can also define running pace as a function of the time it takes to complete 1 mile (in metric terms, we would then measure the time it takes to complete 1.609344 kilometers, which equals 1 mile).

A high running pace means a slower rate of running, as the time needed to run 1 mile (or 1 kilometer, if using the metric system) will be longer.

How fast are recreational, amateur runners?

As mentioned in the introduction, I've found a research paper that evaluated the running pace of non-professional runners. We're going to see how well a population of recreational runners does in the running performance, and we'll use that data to determine whether an 8 minute mile is good.

Below, you'll see tables (one for men, one for women) of the values found by the researchers. The values for the running pace are grouped by age groups and 25th, 50th, and 75th percentiles. The 25th percentile contains the best paces, while the 50th and 75th percentiles are the average and below-average paces, respectively.

Note that the original data was provided in seconds for the running pace, where the running pace was defined as the time (in seconds) it requires to complete 1 kilometer. I converted those values to show the running pace in minutes to complete 1 mile (i.e., 1.609344 kilometers).

Is an 8 minute mile good

As you can see from the above section, whether you're a man or a woman determines how good an 8 minute mile is.

Women

If you're a woman, no matter your age, having an 8 minute mile is actually pretty good, and you'll be in the top 25th percentile of non-professional runners.

If you're not even a regular runner at all, then having an 8 minute mile as a woman makes it even better!

Men

On the other hand if you're a man, depending on your age, an 8 minute mile can be pretty good or below average!. Let's see how this relates to age:

• For men above 50, having an 8 minute mile can be regarded as very good, and they'll belong to the top 25th percentile of (non-professional) runners.
• If you're a man of medium age (i.e., 30-50 years old), then having an 8 minute mile makes your running pace average.
• For young men (men under 30), an 8 minute mile is considered below average.

Conclusion

So, to conclude, for men above 50 and women of all ages, an 8 minute mile is pretty good. But if you're a man under 50, you need to perform better if you want a running pace above average.

Note that the running pace and whether an 8 minute mile is considered good or not are based on a research paper that evaluated the running pace of a population of non-professional, recreational runners. Based on that research, you check the tables in this blog post to see how well you're doing in your running pace.

Take note that if you're not a reqular runner yet still have an 8 minute mile, then that alone can be considered pretty decent, as the data in the tables is based on a population of regular runners (i.e., people who have some experience in running). So if you're entirely inexperienced or haven't gone for a run in years, and you decide to go for a run all of a sudden and clock an 8 minute mile, that's considered very good, actually.

In general, whether your 8 minute mile is good or not isn't crucial, as long as you're going for a run regularly and exercise frequently (and combined with a good meal plan).

But it's always good to know how well you perform if you want to take matters seriously by setting and working towards your goals. Knowing how well your current performance is can be handy for determining whether you're on track or if you need to adjust your workouts.

I hope you found this blog post helpful. If you've got any questions, feel free to contact me!