Hard Work

I was watching a video on Flotrack earlier about Olympic marathoner Brian Sell. You can watch the video here. His coach was talking about how hard he works and how the type of work he does translates to his ability to perform well in adverse conditions. This got me thinking about a conversation I had with the team a week ago after a hill workout. That day we talked about what it means to feel comfortable when you are uncomfortable. To clarify: how to perform well in situations that do not match with your strengths. I have long admired Sell for his accomplishments, but probably more for how he goes about preparing for them.

To give you some background, Sell runs somewhere between 150 to 180 miles a week on average and probably at an intensity level higher than most collegians who run 90 miles a week. The interviewer ask his coach, Kevin Hanson, what makes Sell different from a guy like Dathan Ritzenhiem (another of the USA Olympic marathoners). Ritz is one of those "talented" runners. As Hanson put it, Ritz's talent is that he can do a lot with very little. Meaning, he does not have to train as hard or as long to achieve a fabulous result. Sell, on the other hand is one of those Chris Mosier types, he just simply out-works those "talented" runners. He runs 180mpw because he has to in order to keep up with guys like Ritz who run 100mpw at max. The interviewer in the video said something to the effect that because Sell has to work so hard, he is perceived as having less talent, which is a very common perception. However he also brought up another good point. He asked Coach Hanson if he thought that maybe Sell really has some "talent" after all. He did qualify for the Olympics for goodness sake. Hanson chuckled and then said "the ability to work hard is a talent."

Wow, I mean WOW. To a guy like me who values hard work more than all the talent in the world that short little quote made me want to shout out loud and pop the champagne (uh...spring water). I know that maybe my reaction is possibly a little over the top, but come on, how often do you hear a world-class coach say something like that. Some might say that it is nothing new, or that it is not that big of a deal, but hang on, stop and think about it on a high school level for a minute. What Hanson really did was validate the efforts of all those guys who get made fun of a practice because they put in extra miles or run hard 6 out of 7 days of the week. He stood up and basically said to all the pre-Madonna "talents" who can run 4:40 in PE class and then "train" at 25mpw, "if that is all the work you are willing to put in, take a seat, because guys with talent like Sell are going to run you into the ground."
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So, what does that mean for the Mustangs of Trabuco Hills...it means write what you want Dyestat, because when push come to shove, Dana trains at 50mpw and we train at 80.

Hard work is our talent!