Is An 8-Minute Mile Good? Physiology, Percentiles And The Honest Answer

You’ve just pushed yourself as hard as possible for a full four laps of the track. You hit your watch to stop your stopwatch and look down and see that you have run an 8 minute mile. You feel relieved that your mile time trial is over and proud that you pushed yourself and did your best.

As you start to slowly jog to catch your breath around the next curve of the track before heading off on your cool down, you are probably wondering, “Is an 8 minute mile good?“ or, if you are a woman, you might wonder more specifically, “Is an 8 minute mile good for a woman?“

In this article, we will discuss whether an 8 minute mile is good and what actually constitutes a “good mile time.”

We will look at: 

• Is An 8 Minute Mile Good?

• Good Mile Times By Age and Sex

Let’s jump in!

The Honest Truth About An 8-Minute Mile

An 8-minute mile (7.5 mph, or 4:58/km) is a milestone that means very different things to different runners. Age, sex, training history, body weight, altitude, surface and temperature all shift what 8:00 mile pace actually costs you physiologically — and what percentile you sit in against the running population. The short answer is: for most untrained adults it’s a real fitness achievement; for trained recreational runners it’s around easy-to-steady effort; for competitive club runners it’s warm-up pace.

The physiology: 8:00/mi costs about VO2 42-47 ml/kg/min at steady-state

The energy cost of running is remarkably linear with speed on flat terrain. Di Prampero’s classic work¹di Prampero PE, Atchou G, Bruckner JC, Moia C. The energetics of endurance running. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1986;55(3):259–266. and the Daniels-Gilbert equation²Daniels J, Gilbert J. Oxygen Power: Performance Tables for Distance Runners. 1979; updated in Daniels’ Running Formula, Human Kinetics, 2014. put the oxygen cost of 7.5 mph (~201 m/min) at roughly 42–47 ml O2/kg/min for an average-economy runner. That means a sustained 8:00/mi pace uses: ~75–85% of VO2max for someone with a VO2max of 50 ml/kg/min (moderately fit adult), ~60–70% for someone at 60 (trained recreational runner), and ~40–50% for someone at 70 (sub-elite). Running economy varies ±15% between individuals at the same VO2max — Jones’s review³Jones AM. The physiology of the world record holder for the women’s marathon. Int J Sports Sci Coach. 2006;1(2):101–116. documents elite runners with VO2 costs 10–15% lower than typical age-matched controls — so the same 8:00/mi can feel dramatically different depending on gait mechanics, limb length and muscle fibre composition.⁴Joyner MJ, Coyle EF. Endurance exercise performance: the physiology of champions. J Physiol. 2008;586(1):35–44.

Where 8:00 mile sits among actual runners (not the general population)

Running USA and parkrun aggregate datasets⁵Stevinson C, Hickson M. Exploring the public health potential of a mass community participation event. J Public Health (Oxf). 2014;36(2):268–274.Cleland V, Nash M, Sharman MJ, Claflin S. Exploring the Health-Promoting Potential of the “parkrun” Phenomenon: What Factors Are Associated With Higher Levels of Participation? Am J Health Promot. 2019;33(1):13–23. show a global parkrun median 5K of ~28 min — roughly 9:00/mi — so an 8:00/mi mile lands at approximately the 60th–75th percentile of active runners, meaning faster than most parkrunners but slower than the median competitive club runner. The percentile shifts dramatically by age and sex. ACSM normative VO2max tables⁶American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 11th ed. Wolters Kluwer. 2021. and Ganse’s masters-athlete analyses⁷Ganse B, Degens H. Current Insights in the Age-related Decline in Sports Performance of the Older Athlete. Int J Sports Med. 2021;42(10):879–888. put a sustained 8:00/mi pace at roughly the 75th percentile for women 30–39, the 90th percentile for women 50+, the 55th for men 30–39, and the 80th percentile for men 60+. Lepers’s meta-analyses⁸Lepers R, Maffiuletti NA. Age and gender interactions in ultraendurance performance: insight from the triathlon. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011;43(1):134–139. on sex differences in endurance performance add another wrinkle: the male-female gap narrows with age, so a 65-year-old woman running 8:00 miles is doing something statistically closer to elite than a 25-year-old man running the same time.

What sustained 8:00 pace actually costs you: HR zone + RPE

For the recreational runner who can hold 8:00/mi for a 5K, that pace usually lands at 80–88% of HRmax with an RPE of 5–7/10 on Foster’s session-RPE scale⁹Foster C, Florhaug JA, Franklin J, et al. A new approach to monitoring exercise training. J Strength Cond Res. 2001;15(1):109–115. — tempo-zone territory, not conversational pace. Seiler’s polarised-training work¹⁰Seiler S. What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes? Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2010;5(3):276–291. shows that sustaining tempo-zone work for 30–45 min is the upper limit for most trained recreational runners, and that 75–80% of weekly training for distance runners should actually sit well below this intensity (in Zone 1, roughly 10:30–11:30/mi for someone whose race pace is 8:00) to maximise adaptation while minimising injury risk¹¹Esteve-Lanao J, Foster C, Seiler S, Lucia A. Impact of training intensity distribution on performance in endurance athletes. J Strength Cond Res. 2007;21(3):943–949.Billat V. Interval training for performance: a scientific and empirical practice. Sports Med. 2001;31(1):13–31.. Translation: if you can just hit 8:00 for a mile and it’s maximal effort, 8:00 is a threshold benchmark, not a daily pace. If 8:00 feels like a chat — with heart rate staying in Zone 2 — you’re in a very different training population.

When 8:00/mi is “good” and when the label stops being useful

“Good” depends entirely on what 8:00/mi is serving. For a beginner coming off the couch who hits an 8:00 mile at 6 months, the pace represents genuinely impressive cardiovascular and neuromuscular development — measured against a realistic progression curve for a first-year runner¹²Kluitenberg B, van Middelkoop M, Diercks R, van der Worp H. What are the Differences in Injury Proportions Between Different Populations of Runners? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2015;45(8):1143–1161.. For a postpartum runner, a 55-year-old returning from injury, or anyone running at altitude/in heat (where pace should slow 10–20% just to maintain equivalent physiological stress¹³Péronnet F, Thibault G, Cousineau DL. A theoretical analysis of the effect of altitude on running performance. J Appl Physiol. 1991;70(1):399–404.), 8:00 is potentially exceptional. Conversely, for a lifelong club runner targeting a sub-3-hour marathon (which requires averaging ~6:52/mi for 26.2 miles¹⁴Tanda G, Knechtle B. Marathon performance in relation to body fat percentage and training indices in recreational male runners. Open Access J Sports Med. 2013;4:141–149.), 8:00 is recovery-run pace. The more useful benchmark is progression: 8:00/mi today versus 8:00/mi 6 months ago, held at what heart rate, with what perceived effort, over what distance. That comparison tells you whether training is working. “Is 8:00 good?” asked in isolation rarely does.

Is an 8 Minute Mile Good?

Although it is always important to focus most on your own personal journey and your own personal improvements and progress as a runner, we can’t help but wonder how our running times compare with those of other runners.

So, if you have run an 8 minute mile, and this is your best mile time yet, the first step is to be proud of yourself and congratulate yourself on a great time for you.

In this scenario, running an 8 minute mile is good—or even amazing—because it is your own personal best (PB) or personal record (PR), which inherently means that it is a good performance for you.

Then, as almost all runners are inclined (we are a competitive bunch by nature!), you might wonder, “Is an 8 minute mile good for a man or is an 8 minute mile good for a woman?”

Here, the question becomes a little trickier to answer. Now, we are asking if running a 8 minute mile is good compared to other runners.

Comparing your mile time to others is really not a straightforward process. 

Firstly, there isn’t a ton of data about average mile times, and secondly, there are many factors that play into whether or not an 8 minute mile is good. 

Is an 8 minute mile good for a beginner? Is an 8 minute mile good for a 65-year-old?

With all that said, Running Level reports that a good mile time is 7:04 across all genders, and a good mile time for a male is 6:37, and a good mile time for a female is 7:44. These times are based on an intermediate-level runner.

Therefore, running an 8 minute mile is approaching a good time for the average runner, but let’s look more specifically at how good an 8 minute mile is based on your age, sex, and experience level as a runner.

Good Mile Times By Age and Sex

There’s not actually much official data about what constitutes a good mile time.

Running Level has data about mile times for men and women of different ages and experience levels.

According to Running Level, the experience level categories laid out are often used to describe your experience level, yet they also can provide insight into your relative percentile ranking compared to other runners.

In terms of experience level, the category “beginner“ refers to runners who have just started running and have been running for about a month. 

A “novice“ runner has been running regularly for at least six months and is faster than 20% of runners.

An “intermediate” runner has been running for at least two years and is faster than 50% of runners. 

“Advanced” and “elite” runners have been running for over five years and are faster than 80% and 95% of runners, respectively.

Mile Times for Men

As can be seen, an 8 minute mile is a good time for novice and intermediate men, depending on your age.

Mile Times for Women

For women, an 8 minute mile time is a good time for an intermediate or advanced runner, depending on age.

Again, we can also use those categories to give a general percentile ranking for your mile performance as well.

Mile times in the “intermediate” column are better than 50% of age- and sex-matched peers, whereas “advanced” times surpass 85% of runners.

One final thing to note is that although most people who are wondering if an 8 minute mile is good are referring to running an 8 minute mile as a standalone time mile at maximal effort. It is possible that you might instead be wondering, “Is an 8 minute mile good as a training pace or as a race pace in a 5k or longer race?”

Although running an 8 minute mile is good in many cases, even as a standalone timed mile on the track when you are trying your hardest or even racing other people, running an 8 minute mile in the middle of a longer run or running an 8 minute mile pace for a longer race is even more impressive.

For example, another source for determining “good mile times” is the Army Physical Fitness Test (APFT), which outlines standards for 2-mile run times for biological males and females of different age groups. 

Here, we see that maintaining an 8 minute mile pace for two miles is quite good for women and slightly above the 50th percentile for men.

Overall, an 8 minute mile is a great time for many newer runners, as well as older runners. 

No matter what your age or experience level is, you should be able to improve your mile time with some dedicated speed work.

Good luck!

References

• 1
  di Prampero PE, Atchou G, Bruckner JC, Moia C. The energetics of endurance running. Eur J Appl Physiol Occup Physiol. 1986;55(3):259–266.
• 2
  Daniels J, Gilbert J. Oxygen Power: Performance Tables for Distance Runners. 1979; updated in Daniels’ Running Formula, Human Kinetics, 2014.
• 3
  Jones AM. The physiology of the world record holder for the women’s marathon. Int J Sports Sci Coach. 2006;1(2):101–116.
• 4
  Joyner MJ, Coyle EF. Endurance exercise performance: the physiology of champions. J Physiol. 2008;586(1):35–44.
• 5
  Stevinson C, Hickson M. Exploring the public health potential of a mass community participation event. J Public Health (Oxf). 2014;36(2):268–274.Cleland V, Nash M, Sharman MJ, Claflin S. Exploring the Health-Promoting Potential of the “parkrun” Phenomenon: What Factors Are Associated With Higher Levels of Participation? Am J Health Promot. 2019;33(1):13–23.
• 6
  American College of Sports Medicine. ACSM’s Guidelines for Exercise Testing and Prescription, 11th ed. Wolters Kluwer. 2021.
• 7
  Ganse B, Degens H. Current Insights in the Age-related Decline in Sports Performance of the Older Athlete. Int J Sports Med. 2021;42(10):879–888.
• 8
  Lepers R, Maffiuletti NA. Age and gender interactions in ultraendurance performance: insight from the triathlon. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 2011;43(1):134–139.
• 9
  Foster C, Florhaug JA, Franklin J, et al. A new approach to monitoring exercise training. J Strength Cond Res. 2001;15(1):109–115.
• 10
  Seiler S. What is best practice for training intensity and duration distribution in endurance athletes? Int J Sports Physiol Perform. 2010;5(3):276–291.
• 11
  Esteve-Lanao J, Foster C, Seiler S, Lucia A. Impact of training intensity distribution on performance in endurance athletes. J Strength Cond Res. 2007;21(3):943–949.Billat V. Interval training for performance: a scientific and empirical practice. Sports Med. 2001;31(1):13–31.
• 12
  Kluitenberg B, van Middelkoop M, Diercks R, van der Worp H. What are the Differences in Injury Proportions Between Different Populations of Runners? A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis. Sports Med. 2015;45(8):1143–1161.
• 13
  Péronnet F, Thibault G, Cousineau DL. A theoretical analysis of the effect of altitude on running performance. J Appl Physiol. 1991;70(1):399–404.
• 14
  Tanda G, Knechtle B. Marathon performance in relation to body fat percentage and training indices in recreational male runners. Open Access J Sports Med. 2013;4:141–149.