What does one have to do to get some respect around here?!
I know this is hobby jogger mentality and I am one but I was talking to my roommate and he said: "nah, I can probably outrun you in a sprint" even though all he does it go to the gym. He is fat with low self-esteem because he is unhappy with his major. I'm a middle distance runner and I run a lot, eat healthy, and I'm pretty lean. He only goes to the gym and does upper body. I've been running at least 50 miles a week since last September.
What I'm trying to get to is - do people underestimate runners and their abilities? When I watch the NCAA championships I feel like I can run on par with them or you know, be in the standing. Honestly, I want to be like them and compete.
When it comes to looking the part, you know someone's a boxer or a rower just by looking at their body and it is aesthetic. But distance runners need to sacrifice muscle gains to be fast. If you win gold medals or events, then in my mind, it is totally worth it. But if you're not winning anything and you're just a back-of-the-pack runner, then what are you even doing to yourself? Why be lean as flank steak and have arms the size of chopsticks if you're not getting anything in return? All you are doing to yourself is making yourself look weak. Am I projecting? I actually don't think so.
If you go to the gym and have decent sized musculature, have you noticed whether or not you guys get heckled? Or you know, if people look at you, they know that in a race, they would lose?
Is running the only sport that doesn't have its players get taken seriously because it's an endurance sport to the extreme?
How many of you have sacrificed speed gains for muscle gains?