10,000 hours of running – Am I an expert yet?

Recently on a long run, Mark Hadley made a comment about being an expert once someone does a specific task 10,000 times. Later on TV, I heard someone else using a similar analogy about 10,000 hours of work before they were considered an expert. This got me thinking and googling (googling is now a word. isn't it?) the internet to see what the 10,000 hour rule actually meant.

It seems some long years ago that some guy did a study with violin students. From the study he concluded that those students practicing 10, 000 hours were pretty darn good. Actually, I guess he considered them really good because he labeled them experts. Students who practiced 8,000 hours were considered good while students who practiced only 5,000 hours were considered average. And, I am guessing that students that practiced less than 5,000 hours were, well, let's just say hard on the ear and leave it at that.

Meanwhile, once he concluded his study, he took the results and look to see if those same standards would apply to other disciplines. And, sure enough, he saw a similar trending nature.

So what does this mean to me?

Hummm, was I an expert at running? Have I run for 10,000 hours? Both are very good questions.

Since I have been running a long time – since 1983 and running every day since 1986, I must have a fair amount of hours already under my belt.

Since I have not tracked every run through the years, I don't have a definitive number of hours run. Therefore, I have to make some assumptions. My first assumption is that I averaged an hour of running every day. And, I started my calculations from 1986 since I wasn't running every day between 1983 and 1986. Thus, I have roughly accumulated 9125 hours in 25 years of running – give or take a few minutes.

This leaves me a little short of my 10,000 hour expert status, but it does mean that in a little over 2 and ½ years, I will reach that level. Then, I will be a "Running Expert".

On an interesting side note, not everyone adheres to the 10,000 hour rule. Some people become proficient and reach expert status in much less time. At some point, I guess ability i.e. talent enters the picture.

 

 

Thoughts from the Cool Down Runner