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Are you inspired by Alex Vero's ambitions, or slightly insulted?
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I've just come across this YouTube video - it's an update about Alex's film...
Road to Beijing - Trailer
This video seems to move away from the emphasis about Beijing, and re-focus on marathon running in general. The bits filmed in Ethiopia look intriguing. I'm not sure how he is getting on this spring, but London is obviously his big target. Anyone got any news?
Depends what you classify as the elite level and what you mean by "naturally good". In my opinion genetics have a huge part to play but so does hard work - the balance between the two is up for debate but I don't think anyone could qualify for the Olympics without the right genes.
Don't let popsider put you off RH. There are plenty of runners of average ability in there youth who have worked extremely hard with the same ethos show by Alex Vero and achieved the highest possible level in later life. Arguably our most famous Olympic track star - Seb Coe - is THE prime example of this.
Secondly, I admire this guy, he's got real balls, wish I had the strength of mind to do the intensity of work that he does, reason folk on this site are slaying him is that we all secretly want to make it to the Olympics, and would be gutted if Alex did, from a poor base but with complete committment and the volume of training we should all be doing to achive our goals.
The fear is that just maybe we ALL had the chance and didnt take it. Alex succeeding for most of the negative posters here is their worst nightmare come true as they realise that THEY forefitted there own dream ! !
GO ALEX !! (theres always 2012)
Documentary should be interesting.
I for one was encouraged to pick up my training as I thought if he could push himself harder then so could I.
I for one think it's great. I have followed his progress from the start and although I did think that the initial target was a tad over optimistic I was interested to see how far he would get. Especially considering I'm running the same sort of times now as he was just over 18 months ago. The idea for the documentary has evolved over time and has now become something that I think will be very interesting.
It seems too from his last installment of teaser trailer that he's managed to arrange for an unknown Ethiopian with 2:10 in his legs to toe the line at FLM this year. Well that's at least one persons life changed me thinks.
Finally - I must find it inspirational as whenever I don't feel like running and watch one of his vids, I'm re-energised and am out the door to train.
Don't let popsider put you off RH
Didn't think saying you need a combination of the right genes and hard work to make the Olympics was a controversial statement. You only have to look at some forumites - say someone like Barnsley Runner - he trains extremely hard and has good results but he's some way short of elite - not knocking him by the way I think he does well and is an example of what hard work can achieve.
Seb Coe was a talented runner - a quick google says he won the Junior GB 1500m champs and many other schools/junior champs for a start - when people say he wasn't talented they just mean he didn't show as much talent as a teenager as Steve Ovett did.
Didn't think saying you need a combination of the right genes and hard work to make the Olympics was a controversial statement. You only have to look at some forumites - say someone like Barnsley Runner - he trains extremely hard and has good results but he's some way short of elite - not knocking him by the way I think he does well and is an example of what hard work can achieve.
Seb Coe was a talented runner - a quick google says he won the Junior GB 1500m champs and many other schools/junior champs for a start - when people say he wasn't talented they just mean he didn't show as much talent as a teenager as Steve Ovett did.
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I have to disagree with this post.I don't think Coe was particularly talented.Hard work gave this guy his rewards!.
Id also like to point out,im aware of one guy I knew as a junior.He was not much use at all.He stuck at it,putting in miles and sessions,He is now a national chamion in his mid 20's!.
Go Alex Vero!
This Alex Vero chap is ambitious, and may have bitten off more than he can chew, but it will raise the profile of great quality marathon running if this documentary catches the public eye. It will inspire a few people to get out there and push themselves quite a bit harder. It would inspire me to aim for something a lot higher than I currently am capable of, if I hadn't already been inspired by some forumites' great achievements. I love to read about people making progress, even if it is from the couch of doom to a 5k!
I don't know if I ever will even run a sub 3 mara, but I could aim for it. The difference with Alex Vero is that I don't shout about the ambitions I harbour
Exactly - that's just the point Imski - for the Kenyans running is seen as a way out of the poverty, so you could argue that although they have a hardship in their lives that we cannot even imagine, to run for them is a way out of it, and where we restrict our runnig to improve our lives, they increase their running to better it.
That, and the altitude that they live at.
Although I do think that genetics has something to do with it, however, I don't believe that the genetic ability of say Kenyans/Ethiopeans/Other Africans is necessarily better suited than others, it's not that specific. If it was we wouldn't see the likes of Paula R, or the great depth of runners from Japan etc.
Genetics yes, genetics from areas around the world/race differences no.
Social status too imo, FINgers. If you train a lot here you're that freak that's always running, there they're just trying to be the next local hero...
yes - I was not suggesting that only the rich can afford to run: that is empirically false - as your Kenyan example confirms - but culture and opportunity matter...
And yes - people think you're "odd" - I have only been running just over a year - and am nearly 40 - and run a moderate amount, maybe 30miles a week - but lots of people (work and other) use the term 'obsessed' - as we live in a cultuere where passionate engagement with anything (a hobby, political view, religion) - except perhaps the passive consumption of sport - is distrusted as weird and freaky...
whoops - am leaving the topic...
ok - let me put it this way, hands up all of those who in there prime (19 to 29 lets say) who have run in 80-120 miles per week consistently over 2-3 years, with relevant quality and not made it to borderline international level ? Bet there arent many....tried and tested formula it works.
Kenyans and Ethiopians dominate because western socirty has more alternatives, more money and less enthusiasm. The few in the UK who get close to kenyan standards struggle because the depth of opposition here is poor making it harder to improve standards nationally (some exceptions ie Paula)
The rise of kenyan athletics - like any sport anywhere in the world - is primarily based on the number of people who participate, not fabulous genetics. The country was poverty stricken and looking for a hero and Kip Keino came along, suddenly everyone is running !
Basically, the more participants the better the standard, the odds say that there will be more high performers, lending to improved levels, a classic example is the running boom of the early 80s, lots of participants, and according to Alex Veros short movie, 105 sub 220 marathoners in 1985. What a gene pool !
That's a good point about commitment. As a female runner in their mid-late twenties - I am surprised by how few people my age seem to run. Whenever I race, I'm more likely to be pitting myself against people in their forties and fifties than my own peer group. All my friends identify me as the nutter who likes to run - it mystifies most of them. But although I'm committed to my running - i'm not prepared to run 80miles a week (25-35 is my max) so I have already drawn a line in terms of how much I will do to improve. The fact is, I do it for fun. Maybe in the 1980s there were more people prepared to fully commit to training - and they did it to be competitive in races. Perhaps the atmosphere of competition is what has changed since then.
But I don't think you can understate the significance of genetics either. My VO2 max is only 48 ml/kg/min when I'm fully fit. If I trained more, it would probably improve - but only to a point. I was tested at Loughborough when I was a student there - and the sports scientist I was guinea-pigging for commented (in a suitably dodgy Romanian accenet!) "you are never going to run a marathon under 2.45" - I could have told her that beforehand! Under 4hrs would be a start....
Yet whilst a genetic advantage is an undoubted help (e.g. Lance Armstrong with his higher than normal lactate threshold and extraordinary VO2 max ) , other factors are vital too. Kelly Holmes certainly had the talent - but without the amazing mindset and will to win, we wouldn't have seen her at Athens in 2004, never mind winning double gold. It's that indefinable mix of factors - some physiological, some psychological, and some environmental. I guess that's what makes it interesting.
I admire Alex Vero for his determination and commitment to being the best athlete he can. I don't see him as any different from anyone else on this forum - just that he is a bit more public about his aims and ambitions.
I have done well with relatively little work, so I'm convinced genes dominate. Shame I've been out of action for the past 7 weeks!
Ran at the world vets champs last year in Riccione; 10 k : 35:17 & 5k : 17:04 Vet 50. Run around 45 miles a week when able.
Still, have to admire those who can clock up such huge weekly mileages posted on this thread. Envy.... ..
Alex Vero? I don't think he will ever achieve his goal(s).
well - I started running at 38, now 39 - so even if I had the genes/talent - and I seem so slooooow - I think my chance to compete is long gone: I compete against the only person I know I an beat - myself ('cos he's rubbish - I know I can take him - etc...)
Firstly, I think what Alex Vero is doing is excellent; he's turned himself from a self professed 16stone lazy fella into a potentially elite (by British standards) athlete.
There are British records from the 60s, 70s and 80s that people are struggling to beat now. These guys ran on cinder tracks with poor shoes and not the greatest insight into nutrition, training technique etc. The differnece between those guys and the present is that they put in some damn hard work (and yes I agree they were genetically correct for running). There were still west-African athletes around then but it was the North-Europeans that dominated the long distances.
My father ran a 2:22 marathon in the mid-eightees and was not even a top 100 athlete at the time nor particularly considered Elite. If he was doing that now he could rank in the top. He worked hard for that, having a full-time job and two children, running to and from work. If he had too much work to do he would sometimes put his training run in at the midnight hours.
I think previous posts have knocked it on the head when mentioning soceity - people don't want to put 'undue' stress on their bodies, they don't like how uncomfortable running can be and find it too easy to make excuses for not running. This is evident in articles you see like 'running made easy'. To run at your full potential it will never be easy because you will always push your limits outside of the comfort zone.
Alex Vero has got there by some serious hard work so good luck to him. On a psychological level he should be an inspiration to all runners no matter what their ability. I really hope his documentary gets aired as it will be very interesting.
Forget trying to be an Elite athlete - the man should concentrate on making a documentary about weight loss!!!!!!!
Quote - "January 2006 - 102kg / December 2007 - 78kg
<!-- ############## COMMENTS -->24kg weight loss - next time you are in a gym pick up a 24kg dumbbell and you will understand why I can now run faster! "
Interesting post.My opinion of Alex Vero has changed for the better recently,although I think he invited ridicule by publicly stating that he was aiming for Olympic selection.Starting from where he was,that was never remotely possible and must have been as ridiculous to an elite UK runner as a Sunday pub footballer declaring that he was going to play in the next World Cup.
I must challenge Nelson's comment that Seb Coe "wasn't particularly talented".Even 25 + years on,only one man has run faster than he did over 800 metres.Even if I (or any one else on these forums) had dedicated myself 100% to running in my teens and '20's,I would still never in a million years have run 800 in 1.41.As well as hard work and intelligent training,that required a phenomenal level of natural ability.
Hey, if we didn't believe or have hope, nothing would be possible. If anyone had told Jack Foster he didn't have it in him, maybe he wouldn't have been an Olympian at 40. Don't know if this guy has the goods - don't know much about him, but to do anything, we have to know it is possible.
Just read "Barefoot runner" - an amazing story about Abebe Bikila - who won 2 Olympic marathon golds. He only got picked for his first Olympics because someone else broke their ankle. His second gold came after unbelievable odds.