Ryan Trebon: Elite Runner or Over-Confident Cyclist?

Does Ryan Trebon have a five minute mile in him? We’ll all find out tonight. Photo: Wounded Warrior Regiment on flickr

We recently got word that Ryan Trebon, in a show of confidence or perhaps bravado, was planning to knock out a five-minute mile running on what would be ten days of training.

The idea came about as part of an on-going conversation with his girlfriend, Karlee Coffey.

“[Trebon] and I have had endless conversations about the difference between running efforts and cycling efforts. Somehow the five-minute mile became the number that [he] threw out saying he could just go out and run a five-minute mile,” says Coffey, herself an elite runner.

“My point was that even though a five-minute mile isn’t an impressive mile time for a grown ass man, it still would require training.”

“[Trebon] argued that due to being a world class cyclist he ‘isn’t just anybody.’ We had discussions about talent, physiological differences between the two sports and it kept coming back to an over-confident response [with Trebon] clearly lacking understanding for the difficulty of running,” Coffey told us.

What would come of it if he could pull it off? Coffey says she told Trebon that if he could do it, she’d “stop defending my point of view and respect [his] awesomeness,” before adding that over the 10-day training cycle Trebon put in “four bike rides and five days of running prepping him for this attempt.”

“I’m hoping that there will be some respect given on the difference between the two sports and even though [he is] a world class athlete in one sport it doesn’t mean you can just transfer it to another sport,” said Coffey ahead of Trebon’s attempt.

There have, of course, been athletes who easily master two or more sports, some successfully, like Bo Jackson or Beth Heiden and Eric Heiden, some less so, like Michael Jordan. But none of them did it on just ten days of training. Which camp will Trebon fall into?

Trebon’s attempt was supposed to take place yesterday, but was delayed to this evening due to weather. How do you think it will go? Take our poll below.

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