GregTR wrote:
I went from 240 lbs obese couch potato to 3:07 BQ in a year on Hal Higdon Advanced II peaking at 55 mpw. Like you said, it can be done but it's the exception rather than the rule.
It took me about 18 months to go from couch potato (not overweight, though) to a 3:08 BQ. But, I was 33 when I did it. And conditions were perfect (45 deg, no wind, flat course). And I am 5' 8" and 135.
I am approaching Mike Rossi's age and am coming back from a pretty long injury break. It is like starting from scratch. There is a huge difference in what your body can do in your 20s/30s and what you body can do in your mid 40s. Rossi is also big guy. Probably 160-180lb. And it was hot on race day. That just goes way beyond the exception to approaching the impossible. I knew a guy who was a very talented collegiate runner who ran sub-elite after college for fun (2:2X marathon). He quit running after a couple of big injuries and got back into it when he turned 45. He could not get under 3:10 his first try back on the marathon even though he had been running decent 5k/10k and 1/2 races (@19, 39, 1:23). It was just too much for an old pair of legs to jump back into the marathon after about a year of training. It is just anecdotal evidence, but it is hard to believe Rossi at all when guy who has tons of talent and is built perfectly for the marathon struggles to run the same pace as a guy who has no talent and who carries a lot more weight.