quote:<HR>Originally posted by tdelafe:
Sure, it would be great to have the luxury of working out 2-3 times a day, but what's harder: getting up at 5 a.m. to run, then going to work for an 8-10 hour day plus commuting, coming home to family responsibilities and having to prepare your own food, only to wake up the next day to do it all over again ... or ... running 3x a day with a personal trainer, dietician, speed coach, pacer and unlimited fitness equipment at my disposal and know that my only job when I got home was to get a good night's sleep? I think I'll take the latter, if you're offering ... =-)
I read my Runner's World religiously every month and use all the tips I can from the experts ... I'm just saying I'll never run a 7-minute mile or a sub-4 hour marathon.
<HR>
Well, you have some good points and it is well-written but I MUST add a few thoughts.
First of all, it's a little insulting to those of us who run fast AND work hard. I've got a 30:57 10K PR, you imply I'm talented so you are to be admired for working harder, gutting it out, and being out there longer. Well, you overlook the fact that my first official race was a 27-minute 2-mile and I was a solid back-of-the-packer for several years. SIX years after I started running, I managed to get good enough to walk onto a small, no-scholarship college team and again anchor the back of the pack. After college I DOUBLED my weekly mileage and ran many, many 100+ mile weeks to finally run that 30:57 and a 2:28 marathon at age 28.
To be told that I am just genetically gifted with a perfect body, instead of recognizing that my body has instead been conditioned and shaped by 16 years of increasingly intense and progressively higher volumes of training, is insulting. Quite honestly if you think that 1% of the 4hr+ marathoners out there put in anything approaching the amount or level of training that I did to get there you are fooling yourself.
I am not diminishing your accomplishments, I am glad you are out there and enjoy it. Just don't insult those faster than you to build up your opinion of your accomplishments.
Training 2-3 times a day is not "a luxury" at all. It's the result of hard choices in life and prioritization. I've left for 18-mile runs at 11pm...i've changed for runs in the most questionable of places to squeeze one in and stunk out my classmates in college because I HAD to fit a run in and couldn't shower. I won't even THINK about the sacrifices in time that my wonderful wife has made to allow me to pursue my running dreams.
I work 45-60 hrs/week, some weekends, lots of travel, and have a wife and kid. I'm slow right now but have been very fast with all these responsibilities, not because of magic genes but because I don't make excuses and make it a priority to get my butt out the door in any weather or circumstance.
If you start by saying you'll never run a 4-hr marathon or a 7-minute mile then you are right, you won't. Of course, at age 14 I never would have imagined a 17:00 5K, at age 18 a 16:00 5K, at 22 a 31:00 10K, or at 24 a 2:28 marathon. The difference is that while I couldn't imagine it, I didn't tell myself I couldn't do it, either. I just put my nose to the grindstone, didn't consider training time "a luxury", and did the work to see just how well I could do.
If you don't want to run for that reason, that's perfectly fine, just admit it. Making all the excuses just belittles those of us who know the sacrifices it takes and know what is possible when you don't put arbitrary limits on yourself.
My point is that it is easier to stereotype than to understand. I don't assume all slower people don't work hard. You shouldn't assume all faster runners are just more gifted, don't work as hard in some way because they are faster, or have a "luxury" that allows them to train like they do.
http://This message has been edited by AndyHass (edited Nov-26-2007).
