Any time we see a truly spectacular athletic performance, there’s someone to comment that it must be genetic. Which of course led us to wonder, just how true that was. Is speed genetic? Are the best runners just winning because of genes or is it about training, diet, lifestyle. Nature vs nurture at work.
Coach Laura Norris and I dove in to the research to see what the data actually says.
And the first thing to know is this is an extremely complex subject to study! Here I’ll give you a quick breakdown of the highlights from our discussion, but you can (and should) listen to the entire Tread Lightly running podcast episode below to get a complete understanding of the topic.
How Much of Running is Genetic?
Right now everything points to athletic success and performance being no more than 50% from our genetic make up. Could that change as we are able to do more studies or isolate genes…perhaps.
Which means it’s equally about where you live, your training, the environment that surrounds you, what we often refer to as epigenetics. If you look at many of the top African runners, you’ll see they grew up in places where running was not just part of their day, but a massive part of the culture.
That shifts your entire focus on the sport and how you approach it from a very…
