First and foremost I think these graphs are a byproduct of our sedentary society. Kids in the United States spend much of their free time indoors on the computer or watching television. How many kids do you see walking to school on a daily basis? Children who are physically active are healthier than children who are not, we all know that. Children who are physically active also stand a better chance of developing into elite distance runners (and will lead healthier lives as well). Many people don't think of walking to and from school each day as "training", but in a strange way it is. I don't think kids should be involved with structured training and sport specialization at a young age; however simple play and physical activity is good for one's health and for developing future athletes.
Nowhere is this concept more prevalent than in Kenya. It's much more common to see children walking (or running) to and from school each day and leading very active lifestyles. By the time they get to their teenage years and can think about actually training for a sport they're THOUSANDS OF MILES ahead of where our young people are physically. I can't stand coaches who claim that Africans have a genetic advantage or that living at altitude has helped make them superior athletes. We've got a population that's over 7 times as large, and we've got kids growing up at altitude here in the United States....BUT we also have too many kids sitting on their asses playing video games.
These charts definitely depict the need for more aerobic training in this country. Not only for overall health and wellness, but also for the early development of champion distance runners. The 1990s were a time where many distance runners got away from training at high volumes. They decreased their mileage and increased the number and intensity of interval workouts. I think it's pretty clear that this strategy wasn't very successful and now coaches and athletes are again taking the mileage approach. It may not have been the only factor, but I do think the emphasis on high mileage (and better physically prepared children) were at least partially responsible for the United States' success in the Marathon during the early 1980s.
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| In 1983 there were 267 Sub-2:20 Marathon Performances in the United States. 20 years later in 2003 there were 32. 2010 Population ~307,006,550 |
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| The Japanese have remained fairly consistent with their number of sub 2:20 marathon performances over the past 20+ years. 2010 Population ~127,560,000 |
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| 580 Sub-2:20 Performances in 2007. Constant rise since the early 1990s. 2010 Population ~ 39,802,015 |
This makes me want to start training for a sub 2:20 marathon.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you on the genetic advantage bull that is spouted. However, do you realize how much insanely harder it is to avoid temptation in the U.S? In kenya they don't have tv's, cars, video games, computers, media telling them to do this and that, parents telling them they need to go to college and get a job, gvmt forcing them into manditory school 8 hrs a day. Lets face it, in Africa they have less temptations and less to do. They are not faced with the decision of going to run vs taking a car. They are not forced into jobs by society. It is not really the runners so much at fault as it is the entire society that U.S runners live in that is to blame for their lack of commitment to the sport. I myself am a runner, running upwards of 100 miles a week training for the olympics, and at times I have to force myself to lock away my computer, remove my telivision, get away from all the distractions that our society is plagued with.
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