Natural talent vs. hard work

don't do your steady runs at 10 min pace.

train fast --> race faster.

run hard, run lots, and screw everyone else.

that is all you need to know.

/thread

About 99%. You might get some genetic mutations from your environment.

Hard work CAN take you as far as hell if you are lucky enough to be able to recover & adapt well (smart body???).

dude that sucks.

the exception wrote:

don't do your steady runs at 10 min pace.

train fast --> race faster.

run hard, run lots, and screw everyone else.

that is all you need to know.

/thread

1) I train as fast as I can

2) You didn't answer my question

What is your 100/200/400 time?

RichWhiteNigerian wrote:

What is your 100/200/400 time?

100: 13 seconds

200: don't know

400: 1:05 (tried it once at the end of a practice just screwing around, so I don't know how accurate it is)

You guys got trolled!

Several things: 6'1" and 145lbs is far from an ideal build for a runner. This alone makes me think you're trolling. Running ability is highly dependent on genetics (just like many things in life). Unless you tell us about your training we have no way of determining if 5:30 for the mile is really slow for what you should be running. Hard work will help you to improve, but it wont overcome poor genetics.

Talent is pretty much all of it, but for some people their talent won't show until they've put in a lot lot of work. Talent isn't just how fast you can run with little training, for some people their talent manifests as the ability to handle and adapt to a large amount of training or a large amount of hard fast work. Some of the runners with that first type of natural talent won't be able to handle the mileage or intensity the second type can and won't be able to achieve the same results that seem to all come out of hard work. But it's really all talent.

Dr. Know wrote:

You guys got trolled!

Whether or not this is a troll, I think its a valuable debate. Personally, I think Anyone can run fast is they work hard enough. For somepeople, this might entail working harder than others, but overall, if enough effort is put in, you can run fast

Yams wrote:

Dr. Know wrote:

You guys got trolled!

Whether or not this is a troll, I think its a valuable debate. Personally, I think Anyone can run fast is they work hard enough. For somepeople, this might entail working harder than others, but overall, if enough effort is put in, you can run fast

I appreciate it Yams. And why would you call me a troll? Because I'm a slow(er) runner? Or because I thought being tall and skinny was helpful to a runner? Please tell me where I went wrong.

The last few posters are actually being helpful, and for that I thank you.

90% talent

you can train to reach your potential, but your potential may not be very high. By, now with normal HS training you should have run faster, if you had real talent

tutsi wrote:

90% talent

you can train to reach your potential, but your potential may not be very high. By, now with normal HS training you should have run faster, if you had real talent

Ouch. At least you're honest

"Smart Body"=talent. Talent is not just being able to run fast naturally, but also able to respond to training and handle training loads. There are some exceptionally gifted athletes like German Fernandez and Ritz who are just injury prone, whereas some are more durable.

Back to the OP: I don't like when people believe "hard work" can take you anywhere. Far from the truth. I personally can run a sub 5 mile without any training now whereas 3 years ago as a Freshman it took me 3 weeks to run 4:55. Now it takes about one week to hit that time. I can also run 53 without training with spikes and 2:03 with about a week's worth of training without base. Last year I split 49.5 on the 4x400 as the first leg, and I'm only 5'10" and 127. Another kid on my team, who is 5'11" and 165 only split 51.8 despite the fact that he worked much harder than me all season and pre-season (I did not train at all before season started). Bottom line: There is a limit to what we can all do, the only thing YOU can do is to keep training and push your own personal limit rather than comparing yourself to elite athletes whose abilities far surpass our own.

Didn't read this; my post got ninja'd. It's like Ritz and Fernandez vs. Lindgren. First two are like glass cannons and can run very fast only if everything is right, but one hitch and they get injured. Lindgren (can't think of any other runners who did as much volume as him) was immensely talented in that he could handle such great training loads. He ran 240-380 mile weeks; 380 might be under scrutiny but I believe 240. His times don't lie, aside from that "sub 2 hour marathon". He essentially ran himself into the ground, but the fact that he could even have handled those years shows how talented he is.

^^ Yes. I read your other thread and it looks like you've got some serious talent. I wish I was that fast.

What you say makes sense, thank you

Oh, and my highest week of training was 35 miles (after a long summer of slowly building up). I was promptly injured.

Genetics is by far the biggest factor in running performance.

Lindgren succeeded in spite of his massive training volume (if you even believe the figures he claims), not because of it. He was just a gifted runner.

The Real Slim Shady wrote:

Why can't I run under faster for the mile after all this time? I'm now 6'1" and 145lbs, which is an ideal build for a runner. I train just as much if not more than everyone on my team. Yet there are other kids who, off of the same amount of training, are way faster than me. Now, I'm not out of shape or anything.

There are a lot of factors involved besides doing the same training. Diet, sleep, and muscular strength are huge factors. I seriously doubt that you eat just like and sleep just like and are exactly as strong as your teammates.

And it's not "hard" work. It's the "right" work. Any idiot can pound his legs into the ground.