kochevnik wrote:
Was just thinking about this yesterday - I started track almost 50 years ago - our 'training' was 2 to 3 weeks of half-assed laps around a gym until the snow was gone - then about 4 to 5 weeks of races until the school year was done (Minnesota). We NEVER ran more than 15 miles a week at best and in most cases closer to 10 including races. And the shoes were horrible from a TRAINING STANDPOINT - the quality and weight of the shoes radically improved about 20 years ago not just recently.. From 14 to 24 when I stopped racing I had continuous shin splints that never went away ever. So training was based on how much pain I could take from that. We basically ran in gym/tennis shoes with leather spikes (no padding on the bottom) for races.
Now in my mid-60s I run/walk 55+ miles a week with no shin splints and only minor niggles I have to deal with.
It has to be some kind of nurture thing too - because most kids in modern day are overweight to a much greater extent than before. So where did all these lightweight dudes come from ? It might be from other sports - soccer and football have documented head trauma issues and I would bet most parents pushed their kids away from that towards something safer like running.
And a genetic thing as well : Lots more immigrants in the USA now - less than 50% white only now among young people - immigrants are generally thinner than original Americans. Nuguse for example. And unions of athletes as well - look at Kessler's parents - both are as thin as he is and were excellent runners when younger. Lots more of those types of unions among parents of high achieving young middle distance runners.
So IMO - LOTS of things coming together at the same point in time is responsible for this.
Isn't that only East Africans though? I can't think of any Asian or Hispanic truly elite milers. Or any west Africans / west African descent for that matter either. I know Minneapolis had a few Somali descent very good athletes in the early 2000s