Obviously it helps somewhat but maybe not specialising in running/athletics at an early age helps too. With Elle it looks like a good portion of her training/background work was farm stuff rather than running when she was growing up. Those who devote themselves solely to running at an early age don't tend to turn out too well in terms of athletic success as adults.
Grew up in Iowa in the 90s…and I didn’t know any girls who ran sub5 or guys who broke 4:20. BS all the way around. I had numerous friends who lived on farms and most of them were slow.
I spent 10 years working on a commercial seafood dock fish pier during my teens 20’s
Im absolutely convinced it helped my running…was working 12 hour days 6-6 with run at lunch and 2nd run after.
my tasks
Lifting bags of clams
loading trucks with fish boxes
shoveling ice
cleaning fish
Unloading boats loading boats with ice
plus running 60-85 miles per week
for Xc indoor and outdoor
thst kind of work builds wirey strength im An ectomorph but strong as an ox
never stepped into a gym in those years
recently squatted 505 lifetime best
ran 4:21 mile
low 30:00 10km
sub. 9:00 3000
elle purrier farm strong works
DanM wrote:
Growing up on the farm means an earlier death.
My grand father and his father who were farmers live to be 92 years old. Outliers I suppose?