I'm not at the bar with these guys, nor am I training with them. When they are at the bar, I'm sitting home reading a book about written by Seb Coe and I'm on the chapter about how he had a fierce rivalry with Steve Ovett. I'm gleaning training tips, ideas, etc., from the book.
The next day, I release my training plan on LRC and mostly everyone (hungover) shoots it down because it is 80 mpw below the requisite 100 mpw for any training plan to be deemed adequate.
I defend my post saying that I read Seb's bio and that while he was at Loughborough he only put in 30 mpw and trained with the sprinters, including circuit training, and others respond that Peter Coe lied about Seb's times even though Peter Coe did not coach Seb while he was ta Loughborough.
A young runner reads the rebuttals to my posts, believes malmo and the others because they are/were Olympians and I was not, and that runner who races 6:15 in the mile begins on his 100 mpw training program and ends up injured most of the time for the remaining years of his HS, but is able to pop out a 5:15 his senior year and makes varsity for the conference meet for the first time. This same young runner, had he seen my plan being supported would have gotten his time down to 4:10 in high school and added mileage between his senior yr of HS and his freshman year on scholarship at a D1 school, but since my plan was not supported, US distance running goes down in a flame of injuries and/or slow runners running high mileage before ever developing their basic speed.
I sigh, and think I should've gone to the bar with the others to drink away my sorrows, wallowing in my feelings of helplessness and frustration.