Brian Sell's Swan Song

[quote]as;fdkjsa;flj wrote:

Isn't Sell gonna be a Dentist or something?

quote]

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Yes. He's going to : P-I-T-T

Pitt, Pitt, Pitt!!!

Goooooooo Pitt!

After 1 response, the thread devolves into garbage. Here are the facts: Brian is an inspiration. He works hard. He runs hard. He made it to the Olympics. He's run years and years of 100-mile weeks. He is tired and ready to move on. This is is his swan song. He deserves the spotlight. He motivates people.

Good for him.

It should have been obvious that I was referring to Sell's story as a great success to be admired and possibly emulated. How is that not giving him credit???

I suppose it is fair enough to say that I could have left out that specific comment. The reference was meant to relate my situation to the hypothetical kid, it was NOT meant to disparage Brian's ability in any way. He has tons of talent and has had a great career.

It is funny that I am sitting here getting ready to watch Brett Favre return from retirement on Monday Night Football. Brett Favre is a gritty blue collar guy that has played the same story so long that people got tired of hearing it. Brett has claimed he was going to retire for the last 5 years because no one was interested any longer in the blue collar story. It was all he had left to remain in the spotlight..............Oh yeah, good luck to Brian Sell in New York

My favorite part of the interview is where he calls out Clint Verran by calling PT a scam. He refers to it as guess work as compared to dentistry which is an exact science.

I picked up on that too. I loved that part.

Retiring at 31 after having made an Olympic team and put in a gazillion miles is "selling out?" Bodies wear out, dude. So do teeth. THOSE he can fix.

Some people are dunderheads.

it's prissy to say 44, just as it annoys people who ask you the time to say 7:23 and it annoys people who ask you what kind of work you did as a teenager to say that you did manual labor for one year of junior high and four years of high school. so, in conversation, you round things out or go to the next number that doesn't sound over-exact or you say you worked five years in hs. Blue collar runners doan lahk to sound prissy.

i'm surprised that he never mentioned going to Messiah College before Saint Francis

little shop wrote:

A DENTIST IS A SADIST.

You're an anti-dentite!!

clam chowdah!

1. Mileage Progression

Sell says 40 mpw in hs, 80 in college, and 100+ as a pro. He did not burn out from hs and college but developed for higher mileage later on. How many kids run 80 in hs, dip under 9 minutes, and are never hear of again?

2. Sacrifice

Sell could of went to dental school after college or worked some job back in his hometown in PA. However, he re-arranged his life to make training a priority. At some point you have to not care about what people think about what your doing and go after your dream.

3. Support

Most importantly his wife is most likely his main support. I am sure most women would say "quit your stupid running that pays no bills and get a real job" Also, the Hansons have provided support in numerous ways. One,in the form of accountability in a group of guys to meet with and knock out a 10 to 20 miler every morning. Two, coaching. Three, financial benefits in bonuses for performance, part-time job, running gear, and transportation, room, and board for training and racing.

4. Consistency in training

This guy ran every day in his buildup to a race (15 to 22 miles as day!). He doubled nearly every day except for a long run. This dedication and consistency is probably the biggest reason why he has been successful and run in the Olympics.

5. Toughness

The guy doesn't make excuses but TRAINS and races tough. Running 15 to 22 miles everyday takes a tough person.

*American distance running needs more Brian Sells. We need more kids to come out of high school and college not burned about by their training/over racing. So many athletes seem to think that either college is the end of their racing career or if their not running world class times immediately after college they have to hang them up. We need training groups all over the country that provide similar support (training accountablity, smart coaching, financial benefits). We need to not care about how much money we make but weather or not we are chasing our dream. The job will always be there but the dream of elite running only has a small window. Chase your dreams.

We can learn from his career wrote:

1. Mileage Progression

Sell says 40 mpw in hs, 80 in college, and 100+ as a pro. He did not burn out from hs and college but developed for higher mileage later on. How many kids run 80 in hs, dip under 9 minutes, and are never hear of again?

Good on all points. I do think that mileage is not the end-all-be-all, though. It is a very, VERY crude measurement of how you structure your training. 80 miles a week could very well be a reasonable peak mileage for a high school senior who has been in training since his freshman year. But it matters how he runs it. In singles, at 6:30 pace? No way. Spread out over 10 runs, with plenty of runs at a nice, easy pace? Now that's not so crazy. But good point though.

We can learn from his career wrote:

1. Mileage Progression

Sell says 40 mpw in hs, 80 in college, and 100+ as a pro. He did not burn out from hs and college but developed for higher mileage later on.

High intensity/Low mileage will injure/burn out people more than Lydiard style training. Sell was an underperformer in HS off of 40mpw.

We can learn from his career wrote:

How many kids run 80 in hs, dip under 9 minutes, and are never hear of again?

How many socially slow to develop runners first get a girlfriend, or least serious on, in college?

Not the mileage wrote:

High intensity/Low mileage will injure/burn out people more than Lydiard style training.

How does running the same intensity but less volume injure/burn out someone? Please, explain...