natural talent vs. eventual PR's

justwondering wrote:

natural talent vs. eventual PR's

Why are natural talent and eventual PR's battling each other? How does one win? And what is the ownership that PR's is taking?

I've always considered myself to be pretty athletic, but I wouldn't say that makes me a naturally gifted runner. For example, I am way better than the average runner at sports that require any hand-eye coordination (basketball, baseball, etc.). My natural running ability isn't anything too special. I got into running after not making the HS basketball team as a freshman (5'2", 100 lbs.).

- First HS 1600 (as a freshman): 6:18 off maybe one month of 15-20 miles/week

- First HS 5k (as a sophomore): 22:25 off 20 miles/week for about a month. I didn't train at all over the summer.

College PRs:

- 1500: 4:10

- steeple: 9:33

- 5k: 15:23

Serious training of multiple 3000+ mile years. Probably averaged 80 miles/week in season.

ran 2:25 for an 800 freshman year of HS during a baseball tryout

sadly that was the only good part of the tryout. Ran 2:22 in track that year, got it down to 2:03 a few years later

dontflushwhileyousit wrote:

justwondering wrote:

natural talent vs. eventual PR's

Why are natural talent and eventual PR's battling each other? How does one win? And what is the ownership that PR's is taking?

If you're trying to be a grammar nazi, you're failing. If you're trying to be a troll, please just go away.

ver·sus   [vur-suhs, -suhz] Show IPA

preposition

2. as compared to or as one of two choices; in contrast with: traveling by plane versus traveling by train. Abbreviation: v., vs.

No training - 28 min 5K

Training - 20 min 5K

cool question, but the measurement of the baseline will vary so much. For example, the OP baseline 5K was a respectable 22 while just in middle school. His improvment over the years I guess was "normal" but it's hard to compare such things.

I ran a 3-mile race in 7th grade also off of zero training. I don't remember the time but it was surely > 30 as I recall running for ~200 meters followed by recovery walking for ~100 meters and continuing. In other words I had no idea how to run such a race. When I got to HS I joined XC/Track and learned how to run and kept doing it after school. My eventual 5K PR is 16:45, similar to the OP.

So our endpoint was the same, but I improved more vs. baseline? But what did the baseline measure? If both me and the OP now stopped running for a year and then ran a 5K, probably we'd both run something like the 22 that the OP had as his baseline as my baseline measurement was not verty meaningful which is surely the case with many young runners in their first race (while other young runners make more legit attempts in their first race).