In the late 70's the University of Toledo had an olympian 400 hurdler. He was always hurt, sick, class obligations,... and never seemed to run a meet. This went on for over two years. The coach finally called his bluff and he ran :56. Turns out he was the olympian's (Kenyan)cousin and milked two years of education out of the school before being caught. The coach was immediately fired. On the flip side: I coached at a small Div. I school in NC. It was our first year moving up from Div. II. I was hired late and all athletes were walk-ons. I recruited joggers from campus to simply field teams. One NC country boy, who had never run, took to the sport. He was into it. He asked if a spoonful of coffee helped (RW article). He asked about fartleks, anaerobic capacity, ... You get the picture. 1/3 of the season passed and he had not improved. He was not talented at all, but still should've gotten faster. I kept backing him off as he looked so tired all the time. Finally, in a van on the way to a meet, he said "Hey, there is my traffic light I turn around at for morning run." The odometer said 8 1/2 miles from campus. Instead of the 2-3 mile morning runs prescribed after hard workouts, he was daily running 17 mile mornings without knowing they were not 3 mile runs. We said he wondered how people could put in so many hours into training, but I never put two and two together until then. I pulled the van over not knowing to laugh or cry.