Great thread, intriguing stuff. And favourite thought from it so far is the above. Definitely food for thought.Originally Posted by A.P.E Knott
I've got an out of work friend whose plan is taking him to four weeks of this at the moment.
That's one thing that's been missed so far: good genes, amazing will-power, redundant!
careful what you wish for in the pursuit of something. One V55+ DP runner recently said to me that at the age he is, that he is no mans land and needed to turn 60 to start placing in vet catergories again, seems like there are two reasons to wish your life away, one to get to retirement and the other to get into the next vet catergory!
I think categries should be based around weight then i might win something :w00t:
Still too heavy to run
A couple of month ago i trained for 8 consecutive days, ive never did this before. I had 1 day recovery then trained for another 5 days. I had 2 days off before a race I had pencilled in. I have done this race over the exact same course 7 times now. On this occasion, i was the fastest I have ever ran the course, by nearly a minute, and i beat some top top runners who I had never done before. To me that proved everything, if you train correctly and consistently you will improve.
some good thoughts on this thread
I was searching for something on here last night, and tripped across this thread again. Certainly interesting reading....
On a "hard work = success" perspective....look at the results Daz h is knocking out at the moment.
Everyone know's Daz has always been good, but over these last few months (since he stopped posting on here) he has been climbing up the ladder of race positions race by race. Daz isnt getting any younger, but he's getting better and better.
On his blog he puts it simply....you have to put the effort it. Daz cycles and he runs.....alot! And I know for sure that he will always be training at a high intensity and suffer alot to get to where he has to be.
We all have our weaknesses. I came 2nd at a local race last week out of 100 or so which seems good. But had the top boys turned up (Darren Kay turned up and won, and he's right up there with the fast lads) I wouldnt even of got a look in.
My weakness is my head. I used to be a right soft arse and Id moan, but Im getting better now. But I still have to force myself to push and to suffer that bit more sometimes. People talk about "enjoying" races, but I think thats nonsense. I race is only to be enjoyed when its over and your talking about it with everyone in the pub! During the race is all about absolutely hating the sport you do ha!
Im also crap at flat speed and I have to work on this as much as I hate doing it, to be able to stand a chance at getting near the top of the results page for bigger race. If I had decent flat speed I might even have won the local race last week. I died on my arse and lost alot of time running along the top because I didnt have another gear to kick into. I only managed to bag 2nd because of a slightly mental descent which gained me 2 places just before the finish.
I do believe you have to be born with some sort of talent though. My mum and all her family we all good runners at school, but my dad's family have never been known for physical activites other than planting potatoes and building houses. Im ok at running and I think Ive got my mum's side of the family to thank, but I'll be having words with my grandma for not playing sport when she was younger, otherwise I might of been a top class runner!
(Ps....ive written so much because Im on my dinner hour and the news is boring today)
Last edited by Al Fowler; 19-06-2012 at 01:27 PM.
it WAS a mental but very exciting to watch descent!
Al you need to brush up on your evolutionary theory. Most people subscribe to Darwin and not Lamarck. Great running though.
Tao begets one. One begets two. Two begets all things.
An increase in training does lead to an improvement in performance in most cases. As long as you don't get to the point of overtraining. However just increasing one aspect doesn't improve everything. You need to do speed work to improve your mile times, hill work to improve your climbing & descending and long sessions to improve your endurance. The art is in balance the right amount of each and eating and resting well too.
The sad fact is that that we are limited by the potential we are born with, VO2 max, vital capacity, bodytype and as a number of people have said - willpower. Training will release the potential we have but can't make us somethign we are not.
When I used to race short distance (5-10miles) my speed training and hill work did pay off. My placings got better but after a point i had to settle for mid teens as my spot. I couldn't do any faster than 5min 30s mile reps. I moved to long distance trainign for my BG and my placings got better. Maybe long distance suits me more.
As I understand the inherited side of endurance sports ability, your mitochondrial DNA (relevant, I think, to our ability to metabolise fuel and generate energy efficiently) is entirely from your mother's side. So those of us men can thank/curse our mothers but can be absolved from blame if our children are no good. Other factors are obviously highly significant, but this is a key factor in middle and long distance running.
I'm happy for this to be disputed but I picked it up from Barry Fudge who's one of the physiologists who works with the UK's olympic athletes and has carried out a major study into the factors influencing East African domination of middle and long distance events. His conclusion was that there was no "east african" gene, as DNA is now so widely spread around the global gene pool. The biggest influences were running being the No1 sport (massive base of the pyramid of potential superstars), the volume and intensity of training, the highly competitive environment, recovery from training and (probably) the effects of training at altitude.
if I can't see blencathra it's raining
if I can see blencathra it's going to rain
That's the key. there is too much defeatism. too many excuses.
Look at Rich Roberts, 6 years ago he was 15+ stone and a right big guy, now he's a top runner.
DazH as Al says, year on year he's improved, he just keeps going.
Run more, train smarter, avoid injuries, drink less, get lighter, you'll run quicker. Ok there are a few genetic freaks but TBH I don't worry about them, I don't think most of us will learn much from them, but we will learn from the likes of Tim Davies, who well and systematically.
Running is pretty simple really. Its just about dedication and desire. I train fairly hard, but need to drop a good stone or two, drink less, up my intensity, work on my flexibility and did less enjoyable running in the fells. I don't think many of us can honestly say we've hit our genetic potential so I don't see why its mentioned to be honest..
But we run as amatuers because we enjoy it so you need to strike a balance that works for you. If you don't enjoy the training then you won't do it.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
