WhyNotGoForIt wrote:
Running is an interesting sport in the sense that a lot of the fans are training along side the athletes they watch and have dreams of one day breaking through. What's stopping you from becoming a sponsored athlete, and what training would you do in order to maximize your chances of becoming a professional runner?
There is a common believe that you must sacrifice yourself and train fulltime to reach international topclass. When I first started coaching 2 years ago I went out with a question at a running social media : " Is it possible to reach world top of running with just 6 workouts per week? ". The first comment was : "Do you believe in Santa as well? "
There are some "living proof" out there who shows it`s possible to succeed in just single workouts per day. Yuki Kawauchi,the marathoner,is the most famous example. Mike Mysioki , a former medalist and top roadracer, is another. I once trained with Suleiman Nyambui, silver OG Moskva 5000m 1980, and he told me he mostly just trained once per day. He said his body didn`t like to do the easy morning runs,he was to tired mostly. Another great runner is Nick Willis who before many years did high mileage but last years mostly do single workouts to get time for family and other interests.