The secret to running fast (Read 2999 times)


Prince of Fatness

    That's interesting!  I didn't see even a hint of resentment.

     

    Dude, this is the internet, a place where words are misinterpreted and seemingly benign conversations turn in to giant flame balls of hell.

     

    You didn't know that?

    Not at it at all. 

    JimR


      it's also ridiculous to dismiss genetic potential and assume times come down just to training. 

       

      I kinda missed this one.  lesseee..non-training factors that contribute to improved times:

       

       - changes in body weight (i.e. diet)
       - tactical changes (i.e. pacing, handling effort, etc.)

       

      Do genetics cause a person to become faster?  I don't see how, except when vehicled through training, diet, tactics and so on.  I don't think it would do me much good sitting around waiting for my genetics to make me faster.

      AmoresPerros


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        beating a dead horse

         

        Secretariat ran 2:24 for 1.5 miles.  That's pretty quick.

         But that was all genetic advantage.

        It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.

        MrH


           But that was all genetic advantage.

           

          Genetics is science talk for oats.

          And we know horses thrive on lots of good oats.

          The process is the goal.

          Men heap together the mistakes of their lives, and create a monster they call Destiny.

            genetics - don't you think it can control number of mitochondria you will make, oxygen transport in lungs, other microscopic changes that would increase your aerobic capacity?  It certainly controls not so meaningless things like how much cholesterol you are likely have in your body putting the same people on the same diet.

            "During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."

              point granted, but those guys would never do that. 

              "If you have the fire, run..." -John Climacus

              Scout7


                Is this still going on?  Christ in a race car.

                 

                If you want to believe that you are hamstrung by your genetics, then that's your business.  If you want to believe that you are limited solely by the amount of time you have to devote to your training, then that's your business.

                 

                Does it really matter what plays the biggest part in training?  Or does it only matter what you as an individual can control?  If you feel your running is out of your control, then that's that.

                AmoresPerros


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                    Christ in a race car.

                   

                   

                  Pay attention. Christ in a race car. We're on HORSES, not race cars.

                  It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.

                    what was the original question again? I'm pretty sure it wasn't about horses' genetics...
                      I like to run fast.

                      Runners run

                      AmoresPerros


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                        what was the original question again?

                         

                        Which is more important - the sire or the dam?

                         

                        Please support your answer with evidence, beliefs, or assertions.

                        It's a 5k. It hurt like hell...then I tried to pick it up. The end.


                        Why is it sideways?

                          From George Sheehan. It's a cool passage. I think it's relevant and maybe works to deflate some of the debate. 


                          ...most of us should be educated in the good life and how to attain it.


                          In that, the athlete provides a much better model than the scholar. The athlete restores our common sense about the common man. He revitalizes old truths and instructs us in new virtues. However modest his intellectual attainments, he is a whole person, integrated and fully functioning. And in his highly visible pursuit of a highly visible perfection, he illustrates the age-old advice to become the person you are. Simply by being totally himself, the athlete makes a statement that has profound philosophical, psychological, physiological, and spiritual implications.


                          Philosophically, the athlete gives us back our bodies. No matter what the Cartesians say in the classrooms, the playing fields tell us that we do not have bodies, we are our bodies. "I run, therefore I am," says the distance runner. Man is a totality, says the athlete, and forces us to deal with that truth.


                          Psychologically, the athlete affirms the necessity of play. I should say reaffirms. We already knew the necessity of play. We knew it from the Scriptures and Plato and the Renaissance educators who gave athletes an equal share of the curriculum. with the classics and ethics.


                          But somehow we forgot about play and sacrificed it and sport to the demands of our overgrown material civilization. We made play an means, not an end. Athletes show us that sport and play are essential to the the good life. To consider their function as simply the cultivation of bodily vigor with a view to longevity is, as Santayana said, "to be a barbarian."


                          Physiologically, however, the athlete's vigor and longevity are immediately apparent. The athlete provides us with a new normal man. He shows us that those we previously considered normal were spectators headed for premature old age. Normal man is man at the top of his powers, man reaching his maximal metabolic and cardiopulmonary steady state.


                          From the athlete we learn that health is not merely the absence of disease, any more than sanctity is the absence of sin. Health, the athlete tells us, is a positive quality, a life force, a vital characteristic clearly recognizable in those who have it. 


                          The athletes then can be a tremendous force for good. We may not be able to teach virtue, but it is no small thing to demonstrate it. Nor is it inconsequential to have excellence in any form in clear view. Education, said William James, is a process by which we are able to distinguish what is first rate from what is not. Sport, more often than not, shows us the elements of what is first rate.


                          It does this because it is the long sought moral equivalent of war, not as an outlet of aggression and violence,. but as an arena where man finds the best that is in him, a theater that reveals courage and endurance and dedication to a purpose, our love for our fellows and levels of energies we never knew we possessed. And where we see, if only for moments, man as he is supposed to be.


                          In these moments, the athlete makes a contribution to the community. Because then, in these great spectator events, he provides celebration and adds to the myths that help us survive. 


                          And the greatest of these is that man is born to be a success. We believe that only when we see him at play.

                          JimR


                            genetics - don't you think it can control number of mitochondria you will make, oxygen transport in lungs, other microscopic changes that would increase your aerobic capacity?  

                             

                             

                            What number of mitochondria will your genetics allow you to make?

                              Exactly, I wish I knew.  There are differences.  There are differences in transcription rates of different genes in different people.  WE ARE NOT CLONES NOR IDENTICAL TWINS.  But it would be cool if we were, because then we could really figure out the best way to train, and stop beating THAT dead horse.

                              "During a marathon, I run about two-thirds of the time. That's plenty." - Margaret Davis, 85 Ed Whitlock regarding his 2:54:48 marathon at age 73, "That was a good day. It was never a struggle."


                              Why is it sideways?

                                Exactly, I wish I knew.  There are differences.  There are differences in transcription rates of different genes in different people.  WE ARE NOT CLONES NOR IDENTICAL TWINS.  But it would be cool if we were, because then we could really figure out the best way to train, and stop beating THAT dead horse.

                                 

                                Actually, we couldn't. Not even then. Because we all have different jobs. Different lives. Different family cultures. We read different books. We eat different things. We love different people, admire different things. Some of us sprain our ankles or get in car wrecks. Mudslides hit our houses. These things bear much more weight on how fast we run than genetics.

                                Your genetic determinism only shows a misunderstanding of the way in which genetics--and really life itself--works.