Quote Originally Posted by Mike T View Post
" Not sure its genes.. I always find the mention of genes a tad of a cop out.. sorry :-) "

The trouble with the "running genes" is that we cannot directly see their effects, unlike, for example, height in basketball players ..... but our VO2 max, it's trainability, our running economy, and the % of VO2 max that we can sustain for a given distance are all mainly inherited. Sure, training is required to make the most of our genetic endowment - just like basketball players, no matter how tall, still need to train.
But how big a difference do genes make? Is it the difference between running a 2.30 marathon and running a 2.04?

My old cycling coach was an international track sprinter and ran a 2.30 something marathon. He's not genetically gifted for running believe me!

He worked hard and fulfilled his potential. Would you agree that genetically there's probably a bigger difference between my old coach and those running 2.04 than most marathon runners?