I have been told that running is addictive, unhealthy, and dangerous. That it can lead to injury and death. This observation came from overweight smokers. I was impressed yet unswayed.
I have been told that running is addictive, unhealthy, and dangerous. That it can lead to injury and death. This observation came from overweight smokers. I was impressed yet unswayed.
redux wrote:
I have been told that running is addictive, unhealthy, and dangerous. That it can lead to injury and death. This observation came from overweight smokers. I was impressed yet unswayed.
A not-so-serious kid on my cross-country team told me that it was unhealthy and dangerous to run as much as I was (60mpw). I simply said "I don't give a damn. I got some punks to beat." And left on an easy 9.
My friends mom once got into running/walking. When i asked her how it was going she said great. "I can run/walk 4 miles in 16 minutes".... I got a good laugh but felt bad when i had to explain to her that 1 lap is not a mile but only a quarter of a mile and that she as only been running/walking a mile
A former co-worker of mine that weighed close to 300 pounds said that when he was in high school he ran a 4:30 mile. This was right after the football season where he was a quarterback. The wrestling coach had them do a mile time trial at the start of the season and that is where he supposedly ran his 4:30. He also said he was the fastest guy on the football team. I tried to explain to him that speed and ability to run the mile don't usually correlate and that running 4:30 is very hard to do even for someone who is training hard. My guess is he ran 5:30 and just forgot over the years what he really ran.
* OK- I once ran by the place I work in a snowstorm with heavy winds. One of my co-workers was out there smoking a cigarette. The next day he actually said, "That's no good for your lungs to run in cold weather like that."
I asked him if I should take up smoking outside in bad weather to help my lungs.
* Another one- really bad track athletes join the military and come back and tell us that they ran a 4:44 mile in the military in boot camp. It's always 4:44 and it's NEVER true.
Top hockey player: roughly 105mph at the super skills competition.QB rushing yards: this is harder to estimate, about 30 yards in a normal game. If you talk about running QB's, obviously it is much more.Soccer player bouncing: I don't think many people would get this: I say 35 for a pro.Adding to the thread: A swimmer guy told me that he ran 5:40 for the mile in HS and that "if he trained", he could get 4:40. Keep in mind that he may not have truly run a 5:40 mile.
question of words wrote:
t94bell wrote:I do understand track is not a popular sport, but I do wish some people would take care of their ignorance and at least understand what professional times look like and the effort required to run said time.
I totally understand. Off the top of your head, do you know how fast a top hockey player can hit the puck? Or the average number of yards a quarterback runs the ball? or how long a soccer player should be able to bounce the ball without it touching the ground?
question of words wrote:
t94bell wrote:I do understand track is not a popular sport, but I do wish some people would take care of their ignorance and at least understand what professional times look like and the effort required to run said time.
I totally understand. Off the top of your head, do you know how fast a top hockey player can hit the puck? Or the average number of yards a quarterback runs the ball? or how long a soccer player should be able to bounce the ball without it touching the ground?
I think you're missing the point. It's not so much that he didn't know the exact world record, it's that he thought that him "trying really hard" one day could get close to the record. I don't know how fast a hockey player can hit a puck, but I sure as hell know that it's taken years of effort for them to him that mark and I wouldn't be close no matter how "really hard" I tried on a single day.
Whoops, actually the average yards rushing by a QB is about 15. I just checked the stats of our QB and its ~100 yards rushing over FIFTEEN games! Tebow runs a lot, though.
chinocochino wrote:
Top hockey player: roughly 105mph at the super skills competition.
QB rushing yards: this is harder to estimate, about 30 yards in a normal game. If you talk about running QB's, obviously it is much more.
Soccer player bouncing: I don't think many people would get this: I say 35 for a pro.
Adding to the thread: A swimmer guy told me that he ran 5:40 for the mile in HS and that "if he trained", he could get 4:40. Keep in mind that he may not have truly run a 5:40 mile.
question of words wrote:I totally understand. Off the top of your head, do you know how fast a top hockey player can hit the puck? Or the average number of yards a quarterback runs the ball? or how long a soccer player should be able to bounce the ball without it touching the ground?
A former goalkeeper from a soccer club told me he and his teammates used to run a 2k time trial around a lake in 4:40. I said to him that it was not possible, but he insisted.
After a week or so I remembered that there is another lake nearby with a perimeter of a mile.
Also, the main point would be that since I don't know squat about how hockey, cricket, or rugby work, I would never, ever spout off about how I THINK it works, and I sure as shit would never claim that I could outperform serious athletes in those sports.
The 5th fastest guy on my HS's soccer team ran 9:40 for their "2 mile" time trial. On grass and rough sidewalks.
We got him to show us the course, and it was 1.5 miles.
That made me laugh out loud. Hope someone else got it.
Tom Clancy wrote in one of his novels that the men in this elite unit could run faster in the distances than people in the Olympics. Shows you how ignorant people can be.
My wife's cousin is a newly-trained Navy SEAL.
He surprised us all by showing up at the family holiday party and was receiving adulation all around. In reponse to questions about his physical condition he started detailing at-length his weight-lifting (he's about 5'8, 195) and running abilities.
Among his claims were 3-miles in 17 minutes and running 6 minute miles wearing boots, a uniform, and fully-loaded with gear and weapons. No one doubted him for an instant. I had no desire to embarrass him and said nothing except to invite him out for my early morning 9 miler the next day to share company. "How fast do you want to run?" he asked. I said that I normally did the run averaging 6:45 miles but that I'd be happy to run faster or slower depending upon his preference. He said (loudly), "Lets do 11 miles in an hour." I said, "Ok!" We agreed to meet at my house at 6:30AM.
Needless to say I ran alone.
This summer while vacationing in Canon City Colorado at a KOA camp this guy said when he was younger(he was about 50 now) that he used to race quarter horses for a living. 100m at a time and not one ever beat him. I asked are you sure? He looked at me, like I was stupid so of course I was like, why wouldn't I believe him with his cigarette hanging out of his mouth. The audacity of me to discredit his story. Man do I feel like an idiot. Hasn't everybody raced a horse and won?
This was this show about a flying nun but I don't know if she was a nun runner or had made any claims.
kinvara wrote:
One of my friends form college will not let go of how in highschool he states he ran 1:55 and 48 in the 800/400 but when i looked his districts race from his senior year his team ran a 8:20 in the 4x8 and he wasn't on the 4x4 team and ran no individual events.... he also says he had a 40inch vertical despite not being able to touch rim now....
This could very well be true. Maybe you just didn't see results of him running individual races. And maybe he didn't run the 4x4 in the races that you saw the results. And you can definitely run 1:55 and have your team only do 8:20.
When I was a senior in high school, my teammate ran 1:55, and I ran 2:00, and our best 4x800 time was only 8:17. What's so impossible to believe about that? So our other 2 guys weren't that fast, is that so hard to believe? In addition, I am positive my 1:55 high school teammate (who is still my friend now)...I'm certain he has never touched the rim in his entire life.
question of words wrote:
chinocochino wrote:I didn't believe you until I saw the results online. You seriously did a 6 minute mile walking? I usually go 15 minutes/mile when walking at a brisk pace. The fastest I think I could go is like 10 minutes for a mile.
http://usatf.org/statistics/topMarks/2006/indoormen.aspx#3000%20race%20walkhaha yeah it is HARD. requires you to really not tense up in the legs or else you can't move them fast enough. it's a very interesting feeling. super exhausting too.
Ya, I guess you're right about the elite race walkers going that fast. That's crazy walking that fast. The guy I'm talking about was nowhere near elite at anything, except eating, maybe.
bluemt95 wrote:
question of words wrote:haha yeah it is HARD. requires you to really not tense up in the legs or else you can't move them fast enough. it's a very interesting feeling. super exhausting too.
Ya, I guess you're right about the elite race walkers going that fast. That's crazy walking that fast. The guy I'm talking about was nowhere near elite at anything, except eating, maybe.
Gotcha, but it's still entirely possible that he did it. "About 6 minutes" is as slow as 6:30 maybe. Which is slower than an elite time for walking.
Surely it doesn't take an elite athlete to complete a mile that is 0-30 seconds slower than an elite 5k mile split?
A rugby player told me he'd done 8 x 400m in 60 secs with 1 minute recovery
I pointed out the only runners I'd seen do that were from Ethiopia
I've heard plenty of others as well
Woodstock wrote:
For example I heard a girl you doesn't do any form of running say that she ran a 11.6 on grass in PE in bare feet for the 100m. I think she was also about 14. Any others?
the thing is, she probably *was* timed in 11.6 for the distance she ran, but the distance was probably measured only casually, if at all, and the teacher didn't start and stop the watch accurately. She was told she ran 100m in 11.6; she has no true frame of reference so she accepts it as true.
Most non-runners live in a "close enough" world of imprecise measurements of time and distance - They simply don't know the difference, nor do they really care... it's close enough. Kind of like how, even among some runners, people interchange 1600m and mile times as equal.