Team Today Index

No Excuses

Fri, Oct  13, 2006 - By Pete Vordenberg - TeamToday.org

What's Harpers got that we don't?

Andrew Johnson - 6 x 4min on the steeps - the Aves last week in Salt Lake City (note snow on the mtns).

 

Average age of Olympic medal winner in cross country skiing: around 30

Average range of hours reportedly trained by Olympic medal winners in cross country skiing: Between 700 and 900 hours per year

Maximum hours: 1200

Minimum: 600

Approximate number of years training at this level before achieving medal standard results on the world cup: 5 or more

Approximate number of years taken to build up to that level of training: 10 or more

Activities Olympic medalists claim to have participated in as youths while building up to their current level of training: a wide variety of sport and exercise (some speed/agility/coordination/team sports like soccer, some strength/balance/coordination oriented sports like gymnastics, some more speed/anaerobic sports including running track, bike racing and ski racing, as well as endurance oriented activities such as skiing, ski racing, hiking, cycling, etc.

Number of minutes an average American junior or high school student spends engaged in actual activity in a 45 minute gym class: 16

Given a 50 week year (taking two weeks rest – cumulative) and a 6 day week (one rest day per week) the number of hours per day it takes average to equal 900 hours of training per year: 3

Number of hours three hours a day adds up to in a six-day week: 18

Number of hours per week the average college student watches TV according to Nielsen Ratings: 24.3

24.3 hours a week averaged per day: 3.4 hours

Number of hours of training 24.3 per week (50 week year) that adds up to: 1,215

Number of hours Media Post Publications claims the average college student spends on email, instant-messaging, or web-surfing per day: 3.5

Largest number of hours a USST cross country skier trained in 21 days: 90

Number of hours per day that is equal to: 4.3

Assuming this training time was borrowed from the amount of time this athlete would otherwise have watched TV or been on-line (according to the above surveys) the amount of time this athlete could still have spent watching TV or chatting on-line per day: 2.6

Number of hours recommended that teenage people should sleep per night: 8 ½ to 9 ½

Number of hours adults are recommended to sleep per night: 7 to 9

Assuming 9 are spent sleeping total hours left in the day: 15

Assuming 3 hours are spent training the number of hours left in the day: 12

Assuming 2 hours are spent getting ready for, to and back from training number of hours left in the day: 10

According to the American Time Use Survey the number of hours per work-day the Average American spends at work: 7.1 to 8

According to the same study the amount of time the Average American spend on leisure and sport activities per day: 5.1

According to a University of Virginia Study students spent the following time per week doing the following activities:

• In High School the time per week spent on homework: 10.3
• In College time spent in class: 15.1
• In College time spent on homework: between 13.5 and 16

According to the same study the hours per week the students anticipated studying prior to going to college: 19.7

The same students claim to spend: between 14 and 15.6 hours in class, almost 2 hours talking to faculty, over 6 exercising, over 3 volunteering, 10 at work, 7 partying, 15 socializing, 5 on the computer for non-academic use, and 5 watching TV for a total number of hours per week including study time: 97

Hours the average American reports sleeping per day: 8.6

Number of total hours available per week: 168

Assuming a college student averages 8 hours of sleep per night and does spend 97 hours per week engaged in the above activities the total remaining hours for the week: 15

% time those who do win Olympic medals spend actually winning medal: .3

% time those who do win Olympic medals spend in preparation to win: 99.7

Assuming the skier is motivated to both win and more importantly motivated to prepare to win the number of viable excuses available for not training enough: 0

 

* numbers: averages.  Research: non-scientific. Hour in the morning: real early.  Point: made.

Morgan Arritola - recient winner in record setting time of the Baldy Hill Climb, Sun Valley.

 

(Vordenberg Images), written By: petev

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