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If you trained for five years…

Tom Flint

International Regular
You probably could as you sound like you have a head start on the average Joe. I've seen you mention running before and I reckon your pb is quite close to 3 hours already?
 

Tom Flint

International Regular
I've played football rugby and cricket to a fairly decent standard all my life yet the one time I ran a marathon I trained hard but still took 4.27. Getting that down to 3 hours would take years itself.
 

Furball

Evil Scotsman
You probably could as you sound like you have a head start on the average Joe. I've seen you mention running before and I reckon your pb is quite close to 3 hours already?
3:44, but that was 10 years ago and it's the only marathon I've done.

To be clear, when I say I could run sub 2:20, I'm talking about a hypothetical where I run 10-12 times over 6 days a week, covering about 100 miles every week, as well as 2-3 gym sessions and a couple of pool sessions, as well as making the required changes to my diet and nutrition, over a 4 year period.

That level of commitment isn't feasible and I couldn't sustain that whilst holding down a full time job and enjoying other hobbies and aspects of my life.
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
I think I remember mo farah's average marathon speed being quicker than a lot of people can run in the 100m
It’s something ridiculous like that

They had average Joes on a treadmill at Keely Hodgkinson’s pace and they all gave up quickly (or fell off)
 

Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
You probably could as you sound like you have a head start on the average Joe. I've seen you mention running before and I reckon your pb is quite close to 3 hours already?
At the last London Marathon, 8% of competitors finished inside 3 hours.
 

Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
What's the percentage allocated to running club members?
No idea, but I'm guessing all the sub 3 hour runs are club runners.

A fella at my Golf Club was a really good Club Runner who used to win all the 10k races in our area. His best marathon time was 2:55 and reckoned he could get it to 2:40 with decent training.
 

shortpitched713

International Captain
I'm not sure how many of these really don't require a certain amount of success in the genetic lottery. You could argue that sitting on a horse isn't, but if you think you can learn how to dressage in 4 years then you're living on a different planet.

I'd probably say Show Jumping might be the most likely. It's the easiest of the Equestrian disciplines to learn and if you get the right horse, could be doable.
If I absolutely had to dedicate myself to one of these for 4 years to compete and save my bloodline or some ****, I think equestrian sports where a horse is doing a main part of the work instead of me would be the best bet.
 

shortpitched713

International Captain
but if you think you can learn how to dressage in 4 years then you're living on a different planet.
Why are we letting the posh gits the benefit of the doubt on this one?

With adequate motivation, and nothing else to do but commit oneself to learning dressage, why not? Once again, it's the horse that does the work, you just need to put in the preparation work to coordinate and lead it, and build that connection with the horse, which I will do if given the time and adequate motivation.

There is no motivation on the planet that's getting me to run a sub 2:30 marathon, a sub 10 100m , or a sub 1:50 800m. There is no world in which it's happening period, even doped to the gills.
 

Molehill

Cricketer Of The Year
Why are we letting the posh gits the benefit of the doubt on this one?

With adequate motivation, and nothing else to do but commit oneself to learning dressage, why not? Once again, it's the horse that does the work, you just need to put in the preparation work to coordinate and lead it, and build that connection with the horse, which I will do if given the time and adequate motivation.
All I was saying is that it's a good deal easier to point a horse at a fence and ask it to jump it (which it more or less does naturally) than to get it to do fancy ballet moves which it most definitely does not do naturally. Show Jumping is the way forward for the Zero to Hero Olympics Plan!!

I'd also suggest not going down the Eventing route, takes proper balls to do the cross country (not to mention the fact at least 2 seem to die each year doing it).
 

Ali TT

International Vice-Captain
I think equestrian is a long way from the event to choose. Putting aside the cost element, it's not as if dressage is just sitting an a horse (who are awkward, smelly bastards anyway). It's insanely precise and judged to minute detail. I'm not a fan of it, but under no illusions that it's easy to learn.

The show jumps are about 7 feet high so there's a significant chance of life changing injury if you fall off. I reckon starting as an adult with commitments just adds too much of a fear factor, that starting as a kid and persisting works out of you.

Be interesting to see what they come up with in the new modern pentathlon.
 

social

Cricket Web: All-Time Legend
Just speaking from personal experience, I think you can forget about something that you used to be pretty good at as there’s a reason why you didn’t make it back in the day

I would choose a sport which:

A. Isn’t overly technical so is relatively easy to pick up

B. Doesn’t require being a member of the lucky gene club; and

C. Is somewhat niche so you aren’t faced with loads of competition

For me, it would be shooting

I went to the shooting club in Dubai a few times and pretty quickly reached a point where I would hit say 40% of targets

Obviously would need to improve a lot to qualify but could imagine becoming reasonably proficient if I put the time in

Would also helped if I chose to represent the Faroe Islands or some other powerhouse
 
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