"growing up on the farm has been a huge asset to my career" - Elle Purrier

more "blue collar" bs. Having excellent genes helps most of all.

TMADDDHASFNE wrote:

If you read between the lines of the article below then you have a general idea why the fitness of Americans have been on decline for the past several decades. The author obviously is a Lefty and is part of the mindset that everyone deserves a participation medal as standards have been lowered and the consequences are clear to see — a population that is obese and physically incapable of performing basic exercises.

https://www.vox.com/2015/4/24/8489501/presidential-fitness-test

Yes. That article was written by a snowflake. Those kinds of exercises were typical in British schools too and we didn't find them sadistic. We would compete just like normal kids do, even if we knew that we were lousy at pull ups or whatever. It was fun.

The finisher medal thing was introduced in UK schools too a few years ago and swiftly abandoned and recognised as ridiculous snowflakery.

Summer laboring was my training secret. I woke up early, ran as much as I could muster, and then go work all day. I was running significantly slower than I normally would, but as soon as I got back to school and reduced the physical stress I was ready to rip. Compared to my teammates my running load was smaller but my overall physical load was much larger.

TMADDDHASFNE wrote:

If you read between the lines of the article below then you have a general idea why the fitness of Americans have been on decline for the past several decades. The author obviously is a Lefty and is part of the mindset that everyone deserves a participation medal as standards have been lowered and the consequences are clear to see — a population that is obese and physically incapable of performing basic exercises.

https://www.vox.com/2015/4/24/8489501/presidential-fitness-test

"Tortuous Exercises" - I suppose Phil Edwards has never experienced real torture or hardship as he writes from his safe space bubble.

I live in a community with a relatively large and recent East African immigrant population. The kids and young adults are always playing pickup soccer games. The native suburban kids rarely play on their own, but rather are driven the few miles in the family SUV to the structured soccer practice with the paid coaches. So far, the immigrant population is too new to the area to have an effect on the high school sports scene, which has always been rather cliquey, but it will be interesting to see if it does and the playground kids kick the butts of the coached kids for roster spots.

Harambe wrote:

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/04/health/dust-asthma-children.html

How’s her respiratory system?

Yep. Funny how a lot of modern medical issues are actually caused by the over sanitized environments kids grow up in.

CrispyChicken wrote:

"[I]f we had our children playing outside & doing outdoor labor (preferably barefoot or with minimal shoe covering as much as possible) for a few hours every day I think we would see a healthier population and more elite athletes such as Elle popping up."

You'd also see your neighbors ratting you out to Children and Youth Services, or whatever your local child protective agency is called. The modern world what it is.

Wrong. There are protections in place for farmers that allow their kids to work such as described. Ever see a 10 year old drive a $250k tractor? It's commonplace in iowa

Ever see a barefoot kid tending the family vegetable garden in the hot sun and humidity of Suburban Washington, DC?

I would say not only running success, but all athletic success. Our wrestling coach had two athletes working out during the summer. One was dedicated to the weight room and the other was working on a farm. He was excited about the kid’s dedication to the weight room and upset with the kid working on the farm because he didn’t “lift”. At the end of the summer, he was shocked that the kid that worked on the farm dominated the kid that was dedicated to the weight room.

Most workouts are pretty easy compared to hard farm work.

Tom Riddle wrote:

I would say not only running success, but all athletic success. Our wrestling coach had two athletes working out during the summer. One was dedicated to the weight room and the other was working on a farm. He was excited about the kid’s dedication to the weight room and upset with the kid working on the farm because he didn’t “lift”. At the end of the summer, he was shocked that the kid that worked on the farm dominated the kid that was dedicated to the weight room.

The fact that guy is a coach is #sad.

Worked as a hod carrier (brick-masons laborer) between 10 and 11th grade and 4 hours/day during 11th grade and summer after 11th grade. Smoked cigs also. 1st day senior year ran 2-miles with cross country team (right after smoking a cig). About died after a mile. Quite smoking and ran with the team. #4 guy at end of cross country. Ran a 4:48-mile, 2:04 880, and 54-440 during track (without much speedwork). Did ok for little training and think stenghth helped. Was very strong upper body wise (could carry a 94-lb sack of cement on each shoulder for short distances while weighing 155lbs). Next year in college could run about 3 of those mile times with a 5-min break in between. Which I would have run track all through high school and not smoked. Never did much in college, got sick a lot and injured.

Purrier VO2MAX and her super foot speed along with a great work ethic is the reason she is a awesome. Working on a farm is brutal work at it might make for the next " story " the TV meets are always looking for , but it is all of the above

Running Fits wrote:

Purrier VO2MAX and her super foot speed along with a great work ethic is the reason she is a awesome. Working on a farm is brutal work at it might make for the next " story " the TV meets are always looking for , but it is all of the above

Agree 100%. She is a genetic freak. Farm has nothing to do with it.

I grew up on a dairy farm and it definitely helps mentally and physically.

During the summers, the easiest part of my days were my four mile run at 6am and my six mile run at 6pm.

Many days I had to hurry through unloading wagon loads of hay bales to get that evening run in.

high school coach 756325 wrote:

Running Fits wrote:

Purrier VO2MAX and her super foot speed along with a great work ethic is the reason she is a awesome. Working on a farm is brutal work at it might make for the next " story " the TV meets are always looking for , but it is all of the above

Agree 100%. She is a genetic freak. Farm has nothing to do with it.

I also agree. All this anecdotal talk about good athletes who worked on farms or did construction work is just that: anecdotes. How about mentioning all the elite runners who grew up nowhere near a farm? Galen Rupp grew up goofing off in the suburbs as far as I can tell. Should we therefore conclude that hours spent on an Xbox is what makes a great runner? The Ingebrigtsen's grew up running, not farming. Jenny Simpson, Emma Coburn, Evan Jager, etc, - did they all grown up on farms?

I think it's just ingrained in us through our society's acceptance of the Protestant work ethic that hard physical labor (especially on a farm) is inherently noble, and is thus bound to pay off. Don't get me wrong - I can perfectly well believe that some kind of hard physical work in one's youth can certainly be an asset. But Elle Purrier isn't a great runner because she threw some bales of hay and milked some cows. That's just a tiny factor at most.'

I did plenty of hard physical work growing up, but I was mediocre as a competitive runner. I'm sure that's common. I also never had a problem getting up at 5 a.m. for morning runs, but that self-discipline didn't seem to improve my VO2 max.

Had Enough wrote:

more "blue collar" bs. Having excellent genes helps most of all.

No doubt this is true, but there may just be some merit to the unorthodox, blue collar complementary training. The other thing that stuck out is Purrier didn’t run more than 30 mpw in high school. That likely seeded her long term development. Most of the elite high school girls are probably running twice that much.

In high school, I worked a long, hot, hard construction job over the summer. Barely ran, maybe three days per week, because I was just wasted from the job. But, by the end of that xc season, I went from fairly mediocre 1600/3200 guy to top ten at state in a deep state. Then top three in track the following spring. I always wondered about the unorthodox workload, like it carried over somehow without overdoing the running aspect.

Then you should be thanking her high school coach for being patient. Not the farm. Most top high school athletes are extremely overtrained and have eating disorders.

Everyone claiming they had massive improvements in high school after doing manual labor over the summer - you are forgetting one key thing....puberty. All boys improve a lot between 14 and 18 years old.

If farming is the best training, why do 99% of farmers look like the pigs on on their farm as opposed to looking like runners?

I work a manual labor job in the summer when I'm away from school and I totally think it helps. There's something about waking up early and working in the sun all day and then hitting some mileage that makes you tough.

CrispyChicken wrote:

"[I]f we had our children playing outside & doing outdoor labor (preferably barefoot or with minimal shoe covering as much as possible) for a few hours every day I think we would see a healthier population and more elite athletes such as Elle popping up."

You'd also see your neighbors ratting you out to Children and Youth Services, or whatever your local child protective agency is called. The modern world what it is.

Is this an actual stereotype? It's a bad one if it is.