[quote]billcm wrote:
Then he improves his endurance and the same time develops a killer kick?
quote]
You're wrong right here. His kick has always been in there and he didn't develop them at the same time. He developed his endurance and overall strength relentlessly for over half a decade, to the point where he probably didn't feel like he had a kick at the end of races beacause:
A) He was usually a little flat
B) He wasn't working on speed
."...develops a killer kick and drops about 6 seconds off his 1500/mile. How the hell does one do this?"
He was a 4:01 full miler (somebody will love that) in HIGH SCHOOL. And he ran that off of his strength work. He went to 3:57 FINALLY indoors at UW this winter, where the facility is arguably just as fast as outdoors if one were in peak shape there. People should have known that Rupp was a 3:57 (capable) guy last year and probably the year before but he just wasn't racing miles until 2008, and when he did he was forcing them and not really doing speed work. Heck even that 3:57 indoors looked extremely forced and tight. When I saw that I thought that he was capable of at least 4 seconds faster when he gets into a race like PRE and is just racing and not chasing the 4 minute mark.
But most importantly, indoors 2009 was the first time he ever applied speed work in any serious way. He ran 1:51 out of the gates indoor and then broke 1:50. Along with his fitness and speedwork, he started to BELIEVE and eventually to KNOW he could run very fast and kick. Combining the speedwork with that kind of self belief is what drew out the speed talent that was always there.
Remember, he outkicked Solinsky for 5K in 2007, and a week or 2 later he outkicked the field to win the Cardinal 10K claiming the CR. Spring of 2008 he outkicked the Adidas Meet 3K field to win that event. NCAA cross country 2008 he blasted the doors off Chelanga down the homestretch. All these were done before he really applied speed workouts along with shorter races. You now see the results, and you should know why Yoder-Begley and Goucher have been racing 1500's and 800's recently.