I think a person's mindset and mental makeup would have the most influence on how well they do in running or any other goal that requires dedication and hard work to excel.

and mindset and personality are formed by genetics at some levels but mostly by exposure and experience with others, imho ... A person's ability and willingness to work through pain would effect effort and training ... some people train no matter how bad something hurts and get 'broken' early on ... others train through pain but never get serious injury because they seem to have better body awareness naturally, without needing (as much) outside advice or an injury to be a sign for them to change something or make an adjustment ...

Their willingness to dedicate time to training and make it a priority would effect every aspect of their life, which may or may not appeal to them (let's say for instance; Ghandi was a phenomenal genetic runner, I seriously doubt any amount of physical talent he may have posessed would have drawn him into training as an elite athlete rather than his chosen path) Some of the most talented people in their hobby/field never choose to pursue the gifts they seem to have been handed on a silver platter even when others would give an organ to have that very same gift ... maybe if they'd met the right person at the right time in their life they'd have pursued things, but priorities and mental mindsets are very powerful and not easily changed.

The mental aspects that are fulfilled for a person from running will also greatly determine how much they enjoy it, how competitive they are with it, and what type of obstacles life throws at them that might change their course ... If a person with a natural love and talent for running is discovered and then pushed to be competitive when they loved running because of the freedom and serenity they felt while doing it that person would probably never reach their potential and instead would burn out mentally or get injured, imho ...

Anyways .. my personal thoughts on this are that genetics play a huge role in whether somebody can be an elite quality runner but that their brain is the biggest determining factor and that can be trained to some extent but it greatly determined by exposure to others ... a determined person of slightly inferior genetics could become the best athlete in their field because they have the mental makeup that allows them to optimize what they have ... I think the pressure to meet their potential stops many genetically superior talents from getting to the top and that pressure is not their for those told they don't have quite what it takes ... the pressure is gone for them and they can set goals and go for them and every time they exceed others' expectations they have a great victory whereas somebody deemed superior will feel failure even with victories if they have been influenced by the wrong sort of people in their life and training; for they will always feel they aren't meeting their potential and therefore have failed ...


I'm a strong believe that the mind is the most important factor in any pursuit

quote:<HR>Originally posted by pendulum:
100 percent genetic. To even like running to want to train that much is 100 percent genetic. We like what we are good at. To have the personality to want to be elite at running is genetic too.<HR>

I just dont believe it is 100% genetics. Not all 6ft 8in people play NBA basketball for example. Why is that? Perhaps they do not have the desire or dedication. Now there have been people who have played NBA basketball who are under 6ft. They certaintly were not gentic freaks.

i absolutely LOVE this post topic. this situation has boggled me for YEARS!

please allow me to explain my history:

i ran high school cross country. when I went out for the team, I was expected to be the number one runner. why? i had tons of mileage under my belt. as a high school freshman i was running 4 miles a day 6 times per week then 8 miles i jogged with my mother. i had a very very solid running base of distance. on our first practice run i totally huffed and puffed at the pace of the run, but i out ran the whole team, basically running up front with the coaches.

as the season progressed, i went from being the expected varsity runner to getting my *** kicked by everyone. i went from the number 2 seat before our first varisity race to the number 17th seat (#2 on j.v.) for the entire year. it was very depressing for me, i took it horribly and cried and cried about it. i just remember watching girls who at one time ran a 3 mile with a time of 30 minutes bring their times down to 20 minutes.

my schedule during cross country involved running a great deal outside of our regular schedule. i never took days off and put in a ton of extra time. i was also anorexic and anemic but i was recovering and ate a lot in fear that my nutrition would hold me back.

i tried EVERYTHING.

i took expensive oxygen pills, tried caffiene, and i still couldn't get a x-country race time below 22:32 or whatever it was at the time. i never ran a 21 minute race and never ran a sub 20 race.

right now i'm even debating on why i'm getting back into running about 12 years later. i am hoping that because i now eat more and weigh more and have more muscle that i can finally guarantee success.

but who knows.....

it is a sensitive topic for me just like my standardized test scores. i am competative at heart but i guess i'll just never score competatively?

food for thought i guess.

I can say that in my opinion it is definately mostly genetics. But that dosen't mean that people can't make great improvements in their own personal endeavors, or shouldn't! I don't have any running background as far as high school or college. I played many sports though and played tennis for a Big Ten university. I have the kind of personality that has to master everything I take up. During my 20's and early 30's I was an avid weightlifter bench pressing 350 lbs. During this time I also loved golf and got to where I could sometimes shoot 78-79. At 36 I had one of the worse things happen that could happen to a weightlifter: torn biceps tendon. So I decided to be a runner, and that's where my quest has begun. In the 4 years I have been running, I have had many injuries, but I'm putting them behind me thru orthotics, better training, weight loss, etc. I have run several 10K's, a HM and my first full marathon in 4:16. My goal is to run Boston in 2-4 years and I have absolutely no doubt I will make it. But will I ever break 3 hours? Probably not, but that's o.k. Having played many sports one realizes that you simply cannot deny genetics. Having played baseball in high school I've batted against 95 mph fastballs and I'm telling you you simply cannot teach that! Watching guys in a local 10k come in at 29:30 cannot be taught either. The whole key is about maximizing what you got!

quote:<HR>Originally posted by Phoenix72:
Ok, here is something I stumbled across that actually answers my original question. It's in, "The Competitive Runner's Handbook" by Bob Glover and Shelly-lynn Florence Glover.

"Aerobic capacity (VO2 max)

The higher your aerobic capacity, the faster you can run long distances with less effort.
......
Aerobic capacity is largely inherited. Once you reach around 20 miles per week of training, no matter how much more you train, it can only be increased by 5 to 15 percent. Since the average person's aerobic capacity is only around 30.0 to 50.0, they'll never catch up to the scores of the genetically endowed Elites."

That's exactly what I was looking for.<HR>

That's pretty much how I feel. Good book by the way, even though I tend to disagree with the author on a few key points. Regardless, talent of ANY kind simply comes from genetics, but I don't mean inherited genetics, but genetics in the sense of whatever God gave you when you were born, because some people have talent that none of their parents or siblings seem to have. You can't really develop talent, you either have it or you don't.

Now, as for overall ability, I think genetics can still factor in, but to me hard work makes up the vast majority. It's not like Paul Tergat just woke up running a 5-minute mile. No one has ever competed at the highest level of anything simply based off of talent.