What are the big differences between fast and slow people?

This thread is a prime example of the genetically gifted not realising how gifted they are compared to the majority.

Net superiority of all the physiological attributes that comprise performance:

-efficiency of the nervous system

-number of muscle fibers present in the various key muscle groups, and also the number of secomeres in thre fibers; the proportions of different muscle fiber types; and the capacity of the those muscle cells to generate energy through all the metabolic pathways.

-the stiffness of the tendons and how advantageously they attach to the skeleton

-the mechanic efficiency of the skeleton, including hip width and other key proportions, and the lengths of the long bones

What is the biggest difference???

One word: Parents

Training, work ethic, diet, coaching, all help, but the fact is genetics matter most, period.

(100 miles events are for those who are tough but suck at racing track & road. Ultras. THAT, is something that genetics doesn't factor in)

SlowIsSlow wrote:

What is the biggest difference???

One word: Parents

Training, work ethic, diet, coaching, all help, but the fact is genetics matter most, period.

(100 miles events are for those who are tough but suck at racing track & road. Ultras. THAT, is something that genetics doesn't factor in)

So Mike King is Slow?

PereX wrote:

This thread is a prime example of the genetically gifted not realising how gifted they are compared to the majority.

Nah everyone here got where they are by hard work alone. It is the other people that have genetic advantages.:)

Seriously things like this have been studied a lot. People reac to training in radically different ways even if they do the same training.

There are trends about what fast people look like but there are tons of exceptions where guys that don't look like runners do decent at nonWorld class levels (exceptions up there get a lot rarer).

People like to talk about pain tolerance and the like but it isn't clear to me how much that remotely matters for most athletes. People like the idea because it makes them feel better about themselves.

getreal77 wrote:

Jimmy21 wrote:

The ones that baffle me are the 30 minute 5kers that do speed work at 9 minute pace and look like they are going to die. It baffles me how some people that might even look like runners could have such poor speed

Someday, even if you keep running, you will long for the day when you could run even a single mile in seven minutes. You're probably young and can't imagine such a thing. You will find out.

And he'll probably find this out by the time he reaches age 40.

It's about being able to transmit force through the ground well. Also nervous system efficiency from years of training.

PereX wrote:

This thread is a prime example of the genetically gifted not realising how gifted they are compared to the majority.

Yes.

I recall on my XC team a teammate who was about 2:00 faster in the 8K offhandedly said something about that if try harder I should be able to run close to as fast as him. Note that everyone on the team had pretty similar training. So I asked why he couldn't run close to as fast as the fastest guy on the team (about 2:00 faster than he was). He responded that he didn't have the ability. He still seemed a skeptical when I retorted that was the same reason I couldn't keep up with him in a race.

In summary, for many runners: If someone is faster they have superior genetics, if someone is slower they are lazy/inferior training.

adsfasdfasdfdsafdsaaf wrote:

People like to talk about pain tolerance and the like but it isn't clear to me how much that remotely matters for most athletes. People like the idea because it makes them feel better about themselves.

People like to talk about genetics because it makes them feel better to blame their slow time on something beyond their control.

Woot wrote:

PereX wrote:

This thread is a prime example of the genetically gifted not realising how gifted they are compared to the majority.

Yes.

I recall on my XC team a teammate who was about 2:00 faster in the 8K offhandedly said something about that if try harder I should be able to run close to as fast as him. Note that everyone on the team had pretty similar training. So I asked why he couldn't run close to as fast as the fastest guy on the team (about 2:00 faster than he was). He responded that he didn't have the ability. He still seemed a skeptical when I retorted that was the same reason I couldn't keep up with him in a race.

In summary, for many runners: If someone is faster they have superior genetics, if someone is slower they are lazy/inferior training.

No, no, no. If someone is faster than me they are on PEDs. If they are slower than me they are a hobby jogger.

Self limiting beliefs make people slower than they could otherwise become.

One such self limiting belief is embedded within the interest, obsession, and tracking of the fastest non-African born performers, or first non-African born finishers for distance events.

Sadly, LRC supports this self limiting belief.

What are the big differences between fast and slow people?

The fast person willl be faster than the slow person?.🙄

I can't believe you ask wrote:

What are the big differences between fast and slow people?

The fast person willl be faster than the slow person?.🙄

In general.

Call me what you want to wrote:

Net superiority of all the physiological attributes that comprise performance:

-efficiency of the nervous system

-number of muscle fibers present in the various key muscle groups, and also the number of secomeres in thre fibers; the proportions of different muscle fiber types; and the capacity of the those muscle cells to generate energy through all the metabolic pathways.

-the stiffness of the tendons and how advantageously they attach to the skeleton

-the mechanic efficiency of the skeleton, including hip width and other key proportions, and the lengths of the long bones

Thanks for the good response. Is there a way to measure these qualities in a particular person and use this information and the latest in sports science to design the optimal training program? I understand that some sports authorities are able to identify talented athletes, but I don't know what information they use. Thanks.

All this PLUS Before all this is Genetics

Woot wrote:

PereX wrote:

This thread is a prime example of the genetically gifted not realising how gifted they are compared to the majority.

Yes.

I recall on my XC team a teammate who was about 2:00 faster in the 8K offhandedly said something about that if try harder I should be able to run close to as fast as him. Note that everyone on the team had pretty similar training. So I asked why he couldn't run close to as fast as the fastest guy on the team (about 2:00 faster than he was). He responded that he didn't have the ability. He still seemed a skeptical when I retorted that was the same reason I couldn't keep up with him in a race.

In summary, for many runners: If someone is faster they have superior genetics, if someone is slower they are lazy/inferior training.

+1

There are different qualities (that were mentioned previously) that make up "giftedness" and there are different levels of "giftedness". As well as the XC teammate who wonders why you can't keep up (even if you both are doing the same training), there is the XC teammate that runs 2 minutes faster for 8k (say 26 minutes) and are "only running 40 miles a week". If they got to the stage of running 100 miles a week they might run 24 minutes for 8k yet no matter how perfect their training is or how strong their desire, they will be 1 or 2 minutes slower than an even more gifted runner who is running the perfect 100 miles of weekly training.

You are talking about me! Except I'm 71 and used to run 17 min. However, I don't look like I'm going to die when I do speed work at a 9 min. mile pace. My legs just don't go any faster!

Gifted can mean many things. You can have a guy mostly fast twitch who adapts to sprint training brilliantly and gets absolutely nowhere with endurance=biomechanics. A guy who has a high capacity to handle milage but has terrible aerobic response, adversely somebody with a super high/trainable vo2 who gets injured off 30+ mile weeks and would probably benefit from changing sport. There are even people out there who have terrible everything and hardly adapt at all.

As much as we would all like to think the most hard work gets the most results, the truth is this is not a fair sport. There will always be people worse than me, and people better than me. As a guy who runs a 19:30-20:30 5k I'd like to think of myself as average in terms of genetics. I know dudes who thrive off training and atrted out as 19 guys and ended up 15/16 minute guys within a year or two, adversely I know guys who train consistently with milage and speed work and are around 22 minute guys.

The truth is, I know this is letsrun where any guy who can't run under 18 minutes "isn't trying" but I really do know some slow ass folks who work their butts off harder than you'd think for their 20+ minute 5ks.

Biggest difference in most cases is running seriously and training hard vs running to run because you just enjoy running