Training / Natural Talent?

[TNT1]

I thought Homer's success was in beer and donuts

http://imagecache2.allposters.com/images/pic/153/421401~The-Simpsons-Will-Work-for-Duff-Beer-Posters.jpg

http://www.poster.net/simpsons-the/simpsons-the-duff-beer-9961744.jpg

 

[MWdeJager]

I honestly cannot believe the amount of bull$h1t that is flying around this thread  Get off all your lazy a$$es and start training for the TDF.

 

Lack of "Natural Talent" is the only reason I'm not training for the TDF thank you very much.  You can only train so much, and then the little bastard who was born with the cycling genes is gonna kick your butt.

[pedal on the downhills]

natural talent is when you step up and untrained clock 5.5 -6watts kg, and accounts for a huge part of performance. Still, the effect of triaining is so big that a test in the untrained state is a poor predictor of ultimate ability. I have seen many riders go from mediocre to high level with a few years of training.

Unlike the pinko liberals would have us believe, we are patently not all born equal, otherwise we'd all have  a VO2 max of 80 +  - or 60!

 

Champion riders (and those good enough to be pro) always test higher and ride better than the genetically challenged, which is why aa deeply untalented rider can flog himself for years and still get clobbered by an unfit superior rider. 

[pedal on the downhills]

Overtraining is real. it is easily measured in terms of effects on central nervous system and structural changes within the muscle among other things, and is not simply a case of being under-recovered. There is a shipload of literature that shows what happens when overtrained, but the point is there are long-term and even permanent effects on exercise capacity Possibly the most idiotic article i have seen on the subject is one that was posted a while back which said that athletes who listened to their symptoms of fatigue were just recreational neurotics, and also, that recovery periods should not be included. This only ignores vast evidence to the contrary and represnets such ignorance or muddled thinking that it doesn't deserve further response.

Pros get overtrained too, but not as often as amateurs because by the time they get to that level they've learned to manage their training loads according to their capacity better than amateurs.

[pedal on the downhills]

Dr Seuss is wrong, natural talent is massively important in determining success at endurance sports; all that trianing will do is enable you to reach the limit of your ability - but that doesn't mean give up because youre born to drink warm coke, because most people respond well to training.