"I'm not going to say I don't have talent, but compared to Matt or Evan, I don't have the talent they have."
Chris Solinsky does not sound like somebody who plans on setting a world record, but he wants to medal at 5000 in 2011 and 10,000 in 2012. Good luck to him. Nice article.
Ooops. I forgot to link the article:
Every runner ever thinks they have less talent than their peers.
P.Whelan wrote:
Every runner ever thinks they have less talent than their peers.
Don't forget that in 2007 Teg missed the bronze by one step. Solinsky probably doesn't have quite the same 1500 speed, but at 10000....
That sort of comment seems like a way to pay himself on the back for being such a hard worker.
But what is talent? I recall a quote from Bill Dellinger saying the Prefontaine's greatest talent was simply staying healthy. Solinsky is doing a lot of mileage and so far staying healthy. He is certainly doing more mileage than Rupp and pretty sure more than Teg. I'm out of touch with what Teg has been doing. But of course Jagr and Ritz have been injured. If Solinsky can keep up his training routine, that in itself tells you he has major talent.
The stupid thing is that CS has given a lot of credit to his success to his natural ability to stay healthy. So I don't know what he is talking about here.
everbody has different talents. bottom line speed, endurance, durability, pain tolerance.
world champs have most, if not all of them.
Chris has always been a good runner, but Chris did not run sub 4:00 and 13:22 or whatever at 20 years of age like Jager. Both ran similar times in high school, but Chris was running 90mpw while Jager was running 50mpw or less. Chris' times have steadily dropped over many years of consistent hard work, whereas Jager ran very well after only about two years of high level training and Teg came out and ran well his first and second years being pro after having a lot of training interruptions the past several years.
I think the difference is Teg and Jager can run faster off of less training, but Chris has more talent (if you want to call it that) in staying healthy and continually increasing his fitness year after year.
No doubt all elite distance runners work very hard though.
Ryan Foreman wrote:
But what is talent? I recall a quote from Bill Dellinger saying the Prefontaine's greatest talent was simply staying healthy. Solinsky is doing a lot of mileage and so far staying healthy. He is certainly doing more mileage than Rupp and pretty sure more than Teg. I'm out of touch with what Teg has been doing. But of course Jagr and Ritz have been injured. If Solinsky can keep up his training routine, that in itself tells you he has major talent.
The stupid thing is that CS has given a lot of credit to his success to his natural ability to stay healthy. So I don't know what he is talking about here.
That's pretty much exactly what Solinsky says. Here is a little more of the quote for context rather than the two sentences the OP gave:
"My talent is my durability. I'm not going to say I don't have talent, but compared to Matt or Evan, I don't have the talent they have. But I can put in the work, stay healthy, and see a steady progression."
So Solinsky is just saying his talent is his durability and that he is less talented that Jager or Teg in regards to the more generally used definition of talent (i.e. the ability to run fast off of little or no training). So when he says he "doesn't [sic] have the talent they have" he probably just means that he doesn't have the same ability to run fast off of limited training that they do, but he very clearly acknowledges that he does have a greater capacity for training volume and is better at staying healthy while undertaking that training.
Exactly. He is probably referring to bottom line speed or aerobic ability, but whatever. Everyone at that level has some sort of freakish talent set. I also agree that my friends who say they never had any talent, are usually just trying to pat themselves on the back for their hard work ethic. "Look at me, I just beat guys way more talented than me, and all because I am a tougher, harder working person." Even then, I think Gretzky once said that maybe his greatest athletic gift was the passion he had for the game.What counts more than all false humility is the ability to recognize the talents that you DO have, and then find intelligent ways of capitalizing upon them, rather than pretending that they aren't there or that your teammates just have a better set.
Ryan Foreman wrote:
But what is talent? I recall a quote from Bill Dellinger saying the Prefontaine's greatest talent was simply staying healthy. Solinsky is doing a lot of mileage and so far staying healthy. He is certainly doing more mileage than Rupp and pretty sure more than Teg. I'm out of touch with what Teg has been doing. But of course Jagr and Ritz have been injured. If Solinsky can keep up his training routine, that in itself tells you he has major talent.
The stupid thing is that CS has given a lot of credit to his success to his natural ability to stay healthy. So I don't know what he is talking about here.
yes he probably notices that they might be able to get in shape faster than him or race faster when they were running less.
Also Solinsky really crafted a nice last 1200 starting in college when he needed that to win NCAA titles. His flat 400 speed probably isn't as good as Jagers and Tegenkamp.
Poor Chris only ran 7:34 this year. Time to hang up his spikes and try to qualify for Boston. He doesn't have much talent.
Yeah, right. BTW, that 7:34 made him the 10th fastest in the world and faster than Bekele was 2 years before he took down the 10000 WR.
I've never understood some of the comments made by the OTC. Matt Tegenkamp also said that Jager has the most speed out of the trio of him, Jager, and Solinsky but Tegenkamp has the faster 1500m PB by 4 seconds, so what does he mean? Jager also doesn't beat them in workouts because Jager admits he is always in the back at workouts. So what did Matt mean by that comment, and what did Solinsky mean by this one?
The Waterboy wrote:
I've never understood some of the comments made by the OTC. Matt Tegenkamp also said that Jager has the most speed out of the trio of him, Jager, and Solinsky but Tegenkamp has the faster 1500m PB by 4 seconds, so what does he mean? Jager also doesn't beat them in workouts because Jager admits he is always in the back at workouts. So what did Matt mean by that comment, and what did Solinsky mean by this one?
When someone says the most speed, I think they generally are referring to raw sprinting speed, the kind of thing a distance man would measure in 200 or 400 meters, not 1500. I can think of lots of guys who have way more speed than me who I could beat by more than 4 seconds in a 1500.
It's very possible that Jager hangs off the back of their interval workouts of 8x800 or whatever, but when it comes time to throw in a sharpening set of 200s at the end, he cruises right on by. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that Jager might have 49.0 speed, Teg might have 50.0 speed and Solinsky might have 51.0 speed. And that all adds up to match their statements. I'm not sure where the confusion comes from.
People forget that training WITHOUT injury is a HUUUUUUUUUUGE talent. My HS rival and his team used to love to talk about how he was comparable with me (which he was) and that he did it with no talent. I had more speed and looked more like a stereotypical runner, which people usually consider the basis for talent BUT he could run 70-100 miles a week in HS mean while I was often injured running no more than 40. Durability is one of the biggest talents.Solinsky has the talent of being able to train without getting hurt and being able to respond to that training.
giffypop17 wrote:
The Waterboy wrote:I've never understood some of the comments made by the OTC. Matt Tegenkamp also said that Jager has the most speed out of the trio of him, Jager, and Solinsky but Tegenkamp has the faster 1500m PB by 4 seconds, so what does he mean? Jager also doesn't beat them in workouts because Jager admits he is always in the back at workouts. So what did Matt mean by that comment, and what did Solinsky mean by this one?
When someone says the most speed, I think they generally are referring to raw sprinting speed, the kind of thing a distance man would measure in 200 or 400 meters, not 1500. I can think of lots of guys who have way more speed than me who I could beat by more than 4 seconds in a 1500.
It's very possible that Jager hangs off the back of their interval workouts of 8x800 or whatever, but when it comes time to throw in a sharpening set of 200s at the end, he cruises right on by. It doesn't seem unreasonable to me that Jager might have 49.0 speed, Teg might have 50.0 speed and Solinsky might have 51.0 speed. And that all adds up to match their statements. I'm not sure where the confusion comes from.
Bekele ran 7:30 for 3k in 2001
chet wrote:
"I'm not going to say I don't have talent, but compared to Matt or Evan, I don't have the talent they have."
Chris Solinsky does not sound like somebody who plans on setting a world record, but he wants to medal at 5000 in 2011 and 10,000 in 2012. Good luck to him. Nice article.
You left out this part:
My talent is my durability.
So, maybe he's not saying he is not as talented. He's saying he has different talents. All running related.
So your topic is false. He never said he was not as talented. He said they have different talents than him.
UsedToBeKnowItAll wrote:
You left out this part:
My talent is my durability.
So, maybe he's not saying he is not as talented. He's saying he has different talents. All running related.
So your topic is false. He never said he was not as talented. He said they have different talents than him.
chet has been known to leave out certain parts of certain quotes in order to "make the case."
UsedToBeKnowItAll wrote:
You left out this part:
My talent is my durability.
So, maybe he's not saying he is not as talented. He's saying he has different talents. All running related.
So your topic is false. He never said he was not as talented. He said they have different talents than him.
He said he does not have the talent that Matt and Evan have. You must really be stupid if you don't understand that this statement is meant to convey the idea that he (Solinsky) is not as talented as Tegenkamp and Jager.
You're just stupid. I mean, you might be more durable than Tegenkamp and Jager. So what? This does not mean you're as talented as they are...
deleuze wrote:
chet has been known to leave out certain parts of certain quotes in order to "make the case."
I'm not trying to "make the case." You are truly dense...There is no case to be made. I was quoting Solinsky, and I guess it is true that I did not quote the entire article...