Team mate doesn’t do anything and runs 15:19

you know how the old saying goes

talent beats hard work when talent does a little work

Yeah true

But what makes that happen how come he runs fast while doing nothing while other guys do it all and can’t

Allegedly the first time Justyn Knight ran a 5k was in high school gym class where he went low 15's in Air Jordans. Some people are born with abilities the rest of the world doesn't have. That goes for all aspects of life, not just running

To be fair, lifting doesn’t at all correlate to success in the 5k. 40 mpw is plenty of volume to run a 5k if you have talent. Missing 30% of workouts is bad, but maybe your team does too many workouts… not saying that this athlete is a model teammate, but certainly makes sense to me.

Yeah he doesn’t not work hard but can definitely do a lot more he also had a sickness and took 3 and a half weeks off in the season

I had a teammate who was similar - 40 mpw and missing workouts but ran 15:45 coming through in about 9:50 for the 3200. I also had a teammate who ran 65 mpw and hit every workout but peaked in the upper 17s.

As the #2 poster said, talent beats hard work when talent works a little

Actually, he came through 2 miles at 9:50 so that’ probably 9:46-9:47 for the 3200

You can't beat genetics.

Some of you don't realize that running is 95% talent. I ran 4:15 in HS doing 15-20 MPW. I went to a crappy college with a coach who knew nothing. I ran 30 MPW and hit 4:05.

Really, no one knows and probably never will. Bowerman had a guy at Oregon who ran under 4:00 for the mile on 25 or so miles a week which is about what Bannister did.

In sports & entertainment, talent represents 80% of success, maybe more

In life, talent is a 20% of success, maybe less

There are so many factors impacting "life success" that talent in one particular area isn't typically going to carry you that far. In sports, where the objective is honed down and isolated to one or two things, talent is nearly everything.

That said, most people have some talent at something

Clearly a 2.5 mile course

Welcome to reality.

In cases like this, the guy 1) has probably been active in multiple sports, including aerobic sports like swimming and cycling, throughout his childhood, 2) has excellent basic speed, 3) runs tempos and other workouts from home in the mornings and evenings, 4) avoids coach's damaging 3-4 times a week hard interval workouts, and 5) as a result shows up fresh to races.

Doubtful. Jakob would run 14:00 on not training.

A kid in my high school did absolutely nothing, and I mean nothing for training. Smoked weed all day and got hammered every weekend and ran 22 mid for 200m. My coach wanted to kick him off the team but he won the 100, 200 and anchored the 4x1 and the points were too valuable. Lol

Coached a kid in HS who ran sub-4.04 mile equivalent off that volume of training, but could also run 48 for 400 and sub-1.48 for 800m. He only ran one outdoor 1500 in HS (that race) as well. Knew he was ready for it when he ran a solo 1200TT in 3.00 (going 60/63/57). Some kids (but not many) just have that ability - played basketball and football in HS as well.

Now is a serious 1500m guy trying to make it to the Olympics.

Yep, life isn't fair. Just do the best with what you have.