ThatAverageRunner wrote:
celery wrote:
Because 12 mph is not sprinting. The sprinter football players were at the front of the race for about 4 seconds. I have no doubt that they could probably beat most of us at a 40 yard dash. But their muscles tire quickly, and they start slowing down after 6 seconds.
You can't just blindly exclaim 12mph is not sprinting. It is sprinting to some, easy to some, and faster than top speed for others.
Okay, so those two could hold 12mph for say, 10-20 seconds, and maybe go a little faster for 40 yards. You say they are sprinter, fast twitch type. So someone who is slower twitch than them, but still considered an average person (these football players are not average, because they played football. Many more people don't play sports than do, but this is not the current point I am trying to make) might not even be able to reach 12mph for their sprint. Sure, maybe they can hold closer to their max speed for longer than the football players, but they are slow twitch, and therefore cant sprint as fast as the football players, and many of which probably can't even reach 12 mph.
Your logic seems flawed imo.
It all boils down to what we consider an "average" person. It's basically impossible to define "average" person when it comes to running speed because the trait is so variable between body type, muscle type, sex, and age. Trying to include these disparate groups makes the question so difficult to answer, it's basically meaningless. It's like asking "what is the average eye color of a human?" Should we consider the running speed of an 18 month old in trying to answer this question? How about 90 year old women, should they be included in the data set? Are we talking median or mean? Or, are we talking about a subset of people that you could think are relevant to the question. To me, taking a subset of people with any modicum of athletic proficiency who would even being capable of sprinting , is the only interesting way to answer this question.
So, when I think of "average" in the context of this question, I immediately discount the very young, very old, women, and overweight, and the completely un-athletic people that have no interest in running for any reason. The question is only interesting when you think of generally health guys who are not complete couch potatoes, and that is how I answered.
After all, its only interesting to compare the semi talented distance runner male to other athletically capable males (you could do the same thing comparing distance runner females running 10 mph to the 'average" female and get a similar comparison). There's nothing interesting about comparing a distance runner to my 20 month old daughter, or my 72 year old father who has a knee replacement.