If you think you have no talent, you are right. If you think you have lots of talent you are also right.

Belief wrote:

Running talent is extremely common. The coaching to develop it is extremely rare.

Talent for running a 5k in about 22 min is common. But talent for running a 5k faster than than 16 min is not so common.

Can you explain why only a few hundred runners have run a 5k faster than 13: 05?

The usual reply about lack of trying and coaching simply does not satisfactorily answer the question.

While I'm not the slowest runner on my team (18:50 5k pr), I can safely say I have zero natural talent. No one in my family is athletic, and although skinny, I ran a 9:40 1 mile at full effort in eighth grade. ( I'm in sophomore year)

cool kid wrote:

While I'm not the slowest runner on my team (18:50 5k pr), I can safely say I have zero natural talent. No one in my family is athletic, and although skinny, I ran a 9:40 1 mile at full effort in eighth grade. ( I'm in sophomore year)

So any high school sophomore slower than 18:50 has "negative" talent? Or are they just incredibly lazy?

Just Another Hobby Jogger wrote:

cool kid wrote:

While I'm not the slowest runner on my team (18:50 5k pr), I can safely say I have zero natural talent. No one in my family is athletic, and although skinny, I ran a 9:40 1 mile at full effort in eighth grade. ( I'm in sophomore year)

So any high school sophomore slower than 18:50 has "negative" talent? Or are they just incredibly lazy?

A lot of people just don't have "talent" for running. You get guys doing everything right running 18s-20+ in high school. Maybe they go on and run for a d3 and pop off a decent marathon after college, maybe even qualify for the trials. Maybe they improve a lot in college and make all conference or something. But for the most part these guys end up 2:20-2:45 marathoners, even on 150 miles a week, the perfect diet, getting enough sleep, smartly planned training. Its not fair, but its true. Not even coaching by Alberto Salazar and living in the Rift Valley would make these nontalented people world beaters. That doesn't mean they should quit, but they need to find some way to derive joy from running other than just from their times. For every one of these people who make it to the elite level, and there are a few, there are 5000 training just as well and just as long past college who don't.

Responses on this thread just comfirm the lack of self belief of the typical letsrunner and the self fulfilling prophecy.

You are only as good as your fitness level. Why is that so hard for you people to accept? Why do you so deperately need an excuse for failure; that your body is letting you down? I bet that in every case on this thread, that is not true, it's your lack of self belief and your lack of what constitutes good training.

Belief wrote:

Responses on this thread just comfirm the lack of self belief of the typical letsrunner and the self fulfilling prophecy.

You are only as good as your fitness level. Why is that so hard for you people to accept? Why do you so deperately need an excuse for failure; that your body is letting you down? I bet that in every case on this thread, that is not true, it's your lack of self belief and your lack of what constitutes good training.

Like I said before:

You're intellect is like a Unicorn.

By that, I mean that it is non-existent.

Talent is just a word the people like you apply after the fact. When I was slow, idiots like you would have said, "you obviousl have no talent" when I started winning races, you would have had to change your view.

You would be unable to coach a young person who thought like me wouldn't you?

Belief wrote:

Talent is just a word the people like you apply after the fact. When I was slow, idiots like you would have said, "you obviousl have no talent" when I started winning races, you would have had to change your view.

You would be unable to coach a young person who thought like me wouldn't you?

You are very delusional.

Answer my questions posed earlier about height/deformities/enlarged organs/leg length differences/whatever physical attribute you want (even penis/breast size).

Do you think those are due to genetics? If so then you are also a hypocrite.

Belief wrote:

Talent is just a word the people like you apply after the fact. When I was slow, idiots like you would have said, "you obviousl have no talent" when I started winning races, you would have had to change your view.

You would be unable to coach a young person who thought like me wouldn't you?

No.

Maximizing even a relatively low level of talent can get a kid fairly far in distance running since a such great deal depends on fitness level. Low talent kid could probably be the #1 kid on many CC teams if he works his ass off. That same kid just won't be a stud in college and the Oly dream won't happen.

Pretending that talent is just a matter of belief is plain ignorant or, at best, motivational pablum for the not so sharp.

Belief wrote:

Talent is just a word the people like you apply after the fact. When I was slow, idiots like you would have said, "you obviousl have no talent" when I started winning races, you would have had to change your view.

You would be unable to coach a young person who thought like me wouldn't you?

1. You have never won a race.

2. You can't believe yourself into being a Boston winner, Olympian, etc..

Nope wrote:

Belief wrote:

Talent is just a word the people like you apply after the fact. When I was slow, idiots like you would have said, "you obviousl have no talent" when I started winning races, you would have had to change your view.

You would be unable to coach a young person who thought like me wouldn't you?

You are very delusional.

Answer my questions posed earlier about height/deformities/enlarged organs/leg length differences/whatever physical attribute you want (even penis/breast size).

Do you think those are due to genetics? If so then you are also a hypocrite.

You are not very intelligent. You give me inane straw man arguments.

zohan wrote:

Belief wrote:

Talent is just a word the people like you apply after the fact. When I was slow, idiots like you would have said, "you obviousl have no talent" when I started winning races, you would have had to change your view.

You would be unable to coach a young person who thought like me wouldn't you?

1. You have never won a race.

2. You can't believe yourself into being a Boston winner, Olympian, etc..

1. I have won lots of races.

2. All of the Boston winners and Olympians believed in themselves.

Do you really think otherwise?

genuine random a hole wrote:

Belief wrote:

Talent is just a word the people like you apply after the fact. When I was slow, idiots like you would have said, "you obviousl have no talent" when I started winning races, you would have had to change your view.

You would be unable to coach a young person who thought like me wouldn't you?

No.

Maximizing even a relatively low level of talent can get a kid fairly far in distance running since a such great deal depends on fitness level. Low talent kid could probably be the #1 kid on many CC teams if he works his ass off. That same kid just won't be a stud in college and the Oly dream won't happen.

Pretending that talent is just a matter of belief is plain ignorant or, at best, motivational pablum for the not so sharp.

The faster I ran, the more talented I became.

This thread reminds me of the extremely relevant movie Gattaca.

Great film.

Belief wrote:

When I was slow, idiots like you would have said, "you obviousl have no talent" when I started winning races, you would have had to change your view.

You would be unable to coach a young person who thought like me wouldn't you?

So you make a statement like this and then accuse OTHERS of straw man fallacy? That's rich.

You are offering up an opinion. Geneticists disagree with you based on scientific studies. I know which side I am on.

The genetics arguement always attracts a host of straw men. You are on their side?

I suppose most of them work in an office and have no idea what hard physical work really is?

Belief wrote:

The genetics arguement always attracts a host of straw men. You are on their side?

I suppose most of them work in an office and have no idea what hard physical work really is?

How are these straw men arguments? You are a lunatic.

Read your own posts. Google straw man argument. Engage brain and think about it. Then say something intelligent about psychology.

You can't do it can you? Too much work involved.

Belief wrote:

The genetics arguement always attracts a host of straw men. You are on their side?

I suppose most of them work in an office and have no idea what hard physical work really is?

Alright, 8/10. You had me going for a while.