No. I wouldn't even know what kind of training the people I race at the local 5k is doing. I don't follow anyone on Strava and my profile is totally private.
I got irritated back in middle school when a teammate whom I had buried in training and meets for 12-16 months suddenly began stealing the shovel from me and knocked me out cold. Turns out that his nature and nurture and build were way more conducive to speed at that time, and probably always for endurance, compared to mine. When he hit his late puberty in late 8th grade, it was lights-out and yours truly here couldn’t deal with the ego blow. Now it’s an instructive story
Mileage total is only one variable in play. You can run 120 miles/week and suck at distance running, and you can run 30-60 miles/week and do surprisingly well locally and regionally, sometimes nationally.
The reason is that training pace matters as well, as does the work/rest/recovery pattern. Putting in 5-7 mile/day at 4:50-5:50 pace is going to get you past a lot of runners, speed work not required -- at least up to the national level.
The best 5000m runners in the world can also run 100m 10.5 - 11s given a running start. Even at the national level you need <50 < 1:50 800m and <3:56 mile speed to be competitive, or to even hope to make a 5000 or 10000m team.
Look at worlds: fastest 5000m runner in the field won the 10000m, fastest 1500 runner in the field won the 5000m, fastest 800m runner in the field won the 1500m, and fastest 400m runner in the field won the 800m.
i remember a 100m race a bunch of pro 800m (sub 1:46 ) guys did a long time ago and i remember them not breaking 11, or barely breaking 11. that makes me question how accurate of a statement it is to say a 5k guy can split a 10.5 100m w/ a running start lol. sure, maybe one can, somewhere.
A running start is worth over a second for 100m. That said the fastest 5000m runner at WCs could probably break 11 with a running start. None of them could run under 12.2 from the blocks
There is shallow talent, and there is deep talent. Shallow talent can get away with low mileage. Deep talent requires volume to show itself. I ran 34:18 10K on my college coach's 50mpw plan, but sub-31 and much better marathon equivalents once I was on my own 100-120mpw plan.
Why would I get upset because someone lucked out and ended up with better biology?
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