NLC COACH MATT LONG WHETS YOUR APPETITE FOR NEXT MONDAY’S BANNISTER MILES IN OXFORD WITH A FOCUS ON THE WOMENS MILE:
June 26th 2025: Paris. Stade Charléty
As a diminutive 5 feet 2 inches Kenyan enters the home straight, the Parisian crowd rise to their feet in anticipation that sporting history is about to be made. The 31 year old three time Olympic 1500m champion surges past the green wave light and romps home stopping the clock at 3m59.90 seconds and arms aloft with the crowd in raptures, this ‘Smiling Destroyer’ allows herself a well deserved grin before sinking to her knees in sobs of unadulterated jubilation. 71 years and 2 months since Sir Roger Bannister became the first human to go sub 4, Faith Kipyegon has delivered a truly transcendent moment in sport and a run ‘for the ages’ in becoming the first female in history to run a mile in under 4 minutes.
So could it actually happen?
Historical context
A few short weeks after Sir Roger’s aforementioned feat it was our own Diane Leather who similarly made history in that historic year of 1954 by becoming the first female to go ‘sub 5’ for the mile. Faith Kipyegon’s current world record of 4m07.64s set in Monaco two years ago is light years in advance of that fledgling performance but she still has the best part of 8 seconds to find between now and the end of June. This being said, unlike Leather she has what her sponsors Nike have framed as, “a holistic system of support”.
Nike Project 4
In addition to being coached by the highly touted Patrick Sang in her native Kenya, Kipyegon is being supported through collaborative work between the University of Exeter Medical School and the Nike Sports Research Lab in Beaverton, Oregon. Dr. Andrew Jones, who has done great work previously with our NLC coaching ambassador, Paula Radcliffe, is part of the team. These sports scientists have rightly pointed out that, “racing the mile requires a delicate integration of the mitochondrial, glycolytic and high-energy phosphate systems to meet the energy requirements of the event.” (Osborne et al. 2025: 5).
If Kipyegon is to achieve everlasting sporting immortality the stars will have to align on June 26th so that (1) her physiology, (2) her racing strategy and (3) what could be framed as ‘extraneous variables’ some of which are beyond her control, come together to allow her to produce that singular superlative performance.
Physiological variables
The four-lap race requires a significant glycolytic and high-energy phosphate contribution for the four minute duration. In old money this means Kipyegon must have a huge capacity for anaerobic energy. To facilitate this, due to what Osoborne et al. (2025) refer to as the ‘supramaximal’ energy requirement of the event, Kipyegon will be expected to record a V02 max of between 65-75 and be capable of going up to 115% of V02 max. The omens are good in so far as the four-time world champion has demonstrable evidence of her aerobic capacity by means of her global gold over 5000m in Budapest in 2023. Quite simply she is a world beater at three times the race distance of the mile. By having what sports scientists call superbly fast ‘V̇O2 kinetics’ this will help her over that critical last lap of the mile as it will reduce the requirement for glycolytic and high-energy phosphate energy supply in the opening laps of the four stanza race. Pure speed as well as speed endurance will need to be evident for her to execute and ‘bring it home’ in the last 60m where one final ‘alactic surge’ with her up on her toes and driving her arms will occur.
In order to help facilitate the above, she will have trained like most elite athletes at high altitude in order to facilitate what’s known in medical circles as ‘erythropoiesis’, which is where red blood cells are produced in the bone marrow. Training will have been coupled with an extensive focus on refuelling with her likely use of nutritional supplements such as inorganic nitrate, beta-alanine, sodium bicarbonate. (Osoborne et al. 2025).
Her biokinetic properties will need to match the exalted level of her bioenergetic qualities as esteemed Oregon coach, Peter Thompson (2021), has termed the former as ‘The fourth energy system’ as a nod to its all too often overlooked significance. The so called ‘super shoes’ will have their inevitable part to play with Nike themselves promising the provision of, “revolutionary footwear and apparel innovation to help her achieve a truly historic goal”. This being said, Kipyegon’s ability for force production off the track will have been facilitated by her daily runs over the Rift Valley trails and the fact that she has excelled over the country as evidenced by her World Cross Country Championship Team Gold over in Kampala back in 2017.
But the correct physiological make up does not mean she will automatically deliver on the night so to speak.
Race strategy
Before she lines her Nike adorned feet up beyond the curved white line, Kipyegon has to nail what Jeffreys (2007) framed as a RAMP warm up. The focus will be on potentiation and she will possibly run 200m-300m at her target mile race pace between 20-40 minutes before the gun goes in order to prime her system and make sure she goes off proverbially ‘firing on all cylinders’.
For sub 4 to be viable she needs to be aerodynamically efficient meaning that human as was as mechanical wave light pacemaking could gain her up to 4 seconds over those 1609.34 metres.
Extraneous variables
A key part of Nike Project 4 will be the support team attempting to drag the previously uncontrollable into the circle of control for Kipyegon as much as is practically feasible. Unlike the high-altitude experienced in her native Kenya, the race venue in Paris will have been selected due to its low altitude.
Forecasts aside, variables such as ambient temperature, humidity and wind speed, all of which can of course wreak havoc on athletic performance are less in the realms of the controllable.
Postscript
Should the preamble to this piece emerge from the realms of the fantastical and become a material reality on a midsummer’s night in the French capital, Faith Kipyegon will have made more of a contribution to the human race than a mere foot race. Her vision is about diversity in what is still very much a patriarchal world with women as a sex still being unwittingly stereotyped in societal as well as athletic contexts. Final word to the ‘Smiling Destroyer’ herself. “I want this attempt to say to women…why not dream outside the box?’
References
Jeffreys I (2007) Warm-up revisited: The ramp method of optimizing warm-ups.
Professional Strength and Conditioning. (6) 12-18
Osborne, R. J., Kirby, B. S., Black, M. I., Vanhatalo, A., & Jones, A. M. (2025). Seven (.65) Seconds Away: The Possibility and Physiology of a Women’s Sub-4 Minute Mile. Journal of Applied Physiology.
Thompson, P.J.L. (2021) ‘Biokinetic energy – identifying the fourth energy system for all track & field events’. Techniques for Track & Field and Cross Country, USTFCCCA, 14 (4): 8-13
NLC Coach Matt Long has coached 3 athletes to become world champions and will serve as an England Senior Team Coach at this weekend’s Anglo-Celtic plate event.
