THIS MAKES NO SENSE

There was either a thread on here or an article I read about a woman who was slightly overweight, but meticulous about her diet and couldn't drop weight like she wanted to, worked out all the time, etc. Apparently she ended up just eating whatever the hell she wanted most of the time and lost all the weight she intended and then some. The thesis basically stated that the mental pressure you put on yourself to achieve something hard can reach a point where you need an adjustment in order to break a new barrier. I think this relates.

I drank a fair amount, smoked a lot, and was mainly concentrated on music in high school (and in life), but also earned 4 varsity letters my senior year, placed 5th in my conference in the 4x100 (a result I was not expecting), and was one of the best sprinters on my team. There was a guy on my team who had run every season since 8th grade on distance, was supposed to be the next great runner at your school, only managed to drop his PRs from (freshman->senior) 4:50->4:30, 2:1x->2:01, split roughly the same time on a 4x400 as I did, but was eventually eclipsed by a younger guy. Dude never went out, got straight As, was accepted ED to Harvard, but remains a straight shooter, a little too straight if you ask me.

The lesson I learned from him was that even though he was a far better runner and person than I, the amount of pressure he put on himself to become a state caliber athlete ultimately stunted his improvement. Whenever we asked him to hang out he always had something to do, I think the only time he went to bed after 12:30 in high school was our prom. He had very little fun and while I was not nearly as dedicated as he, I went from not being able to crack 65 for a quarter to hitting high 54s on relays and run under 24.5 in the 200 a couple times, an improvement I considered substantial and was proud to leave my high school running career with.

The reason I included the story about the woman above and my high school story is that it's not about what other people are or aren't doing, or even what you're doing necessarily. Asking yourself why you are running slower than your teammates who are performing better than you (and realistically, while you should not take this to mean that you should drink or smoke ever: who knows how much impact it has) is what's keeping you back. Your attitude of "they do bad stuff to their body but they're better than me" has nothing to do with you. NOTHING. It's all about your attitude toward the sport and my guess is you feel like they shouldn't allowed to run as fast as you because they don't take super good care of themselves. And that's bull. You need to relax, focus on supporting your teammates when they achieve success both on and off the track, but expect the same of them. Having teammates is a blessing no matter what they do as long as they compete fairly and work hard. Doing all the little things you may not be doing could have a huge effect, but if you continue to ask yourself why people who are supposed to be helping you get better aren't doing what you think is right, you will continue to build up resentment and not improve.

Not saying that wrote:

once a respodner wrote:

Oh my freaking gosh. Do you think the idea that smoking causes cancer is all from one scientist who may have fudged his results?

I'm not saying smoking doesn't cause cancer, just the risks have been greatly exaggerated.

Everyone knows some chain-smoking old timer who lived to 90. They forget that from that generation (where smoking was common) 70 was considered a decent innings and 80 was really old. These days 90+ is pretty much expected unless something goes wrong. Smoking was a significant direct and indirect cause of those 70 something deaths back in the day.

Are you 13 too?

Anyways aren't they lying too you? It can't be true.

You’re confused? wrote:

Smoking and vaping is guaranteed to improve your time by 4%, come on man you didn’t know this?

Don't make him smoke. This is bullcrap smoking makes you way slower.

Drinking's for losers. It'll bring you to a bad place. Same with smoking. Just stay away.

You’re confused? wrote:

Smoking and vaping is guaranteed to improve your time by 4%, come on man you didn’t know this?

You should see this...

cofusedguy4 wrote:

Troll potential wrote:

Eh, this has been done before. You’ll still get a few bites though.

2/10

Good thing I’m trolling....

Glad to hear your trolling

Cathy loves to run 13 wrote:

You’re confused? wrote:

Smoking and vaping is guaranteed to improve your time by 4%, come on man you didn’t know this?

Don't make him smoke. This is bullcrap smoking makes you way slower.

You tell ‘em, Cathy! ?

confusedrunned6 wrote:

stateroftheoblivious wrote:

It could be that smoking and a bad diet are helping to keep their weight down.

But more miles could do that, too.

Or it could be all genetics, especially if you all are doing the same workload.

But they don’t run a lot of miles either. Ever since they started smoking and drinking they’ve just kinda quit running and practices, but still run in weights. I work 20x as hard as they do and so do most kids on my team, but we’re all still nearly as good as those guys.

Maybe it is genetics

I also work 20 x harder than the girl who nearly beat me. She only goes to meets and does one 5k a week but I do a lot more training. She beats me in 800s and 400s and when I beat her she says she wasn't trying or some other excuse.

ppl like you and me have no natural talent but some ppl have very good natural talent and it scares us.

Kvothe wrote:

LMAO at core work wrote:

What number of US sub 2:11 times have came from the last few decades:

70s: 4

80s: 17

90s: 4

00s: 5

10s: 8

those sub 2:11s in the 80s and 80s were world class, competing with the world's best. Besides Rupp and maybe someone else getting lucky on a good day, our sub 2:11s are a mile back.

Irrelevant. Americans can't just train like 2:05 runners because the world has moved on.

Back in the day runners tended to work their times down methodically. Look at the progression of Rodgers and Beardlsey.