Kenenisa Bekele "dismayed" by Jos Hermens’ comments to LetsRun about him - vows to break world record

Bekele is soft. No muscle definition left anywhere. His manager is right, he's lost his professionalism. Bekele came into his last marathon at least 7 pounds overweight.

Nice couple scoops, LR. Intuitively, it seems like Jos has a point, but then Bekele diiiiid run his 2:03:02 just 12 months ago. Hard to argue he doesn't know what he's doing.

Glad to hear Bekele still wants it. Maybe London?

Had been interesting to coach him to a new world record with DANCAN-system ( at most 90-100 miles per week)......but.....It will of course just stand as a dream I think.There will be new upcoming runners that soon will take over from Kenenisa and Eliud and Wilson..... Just a little story about one of the new ones: Mo Farah have been reported to do f.ex 6 x 1600m at 4.20 min down to 4.10 min in preparing for the big races. A young guy in my training did last week 8 x 1600m at 4.20 min for his weekly LT-intervals. That means he should be able to run a 5k race at his LT-pace and 13.33 min!!

Ethiopia/Kenya Magic

These two articles are interesting. It's good to see a motivated Bekele responding. Good to see he still has the desire and pride.

I wonder if this is just what Hermens wanted. He had to know he'd get a reaction when he talked to Jonathan Gault.

I always remember that when I first started coaching at Cornell my boss said to me in the first week I was there, "Robert, don't be afraid to piss the guys off. If the reason why they are motivated is to prove you wrong, then that's fine with me."

I was shocked by that comment but motivation takes on many forms.

Bekele will break the WR within 1 year.

rojo wrote:

These two articles are interesting. It's good to see a motivated Bekele responding. Good to see he still has the desire and pride.

I wonder if this is just what Hermens wanted. He had to know he'd get a reaction when he talked to Jonathan Gault.

I always remember that when I first started coaching at Cornell my boss said to me in the first week I was there, "Robert, don't be afraid to piss the guys off. If the reason why they are motivated is to prove you wrong, then that's fine with me."

I was shocked by that comment but motivation takes on many forms.

You boss hit the nail on the head.

Hermens has had nothing useful to say about Bekele or his training in a very long time.

Bekele is not a high mileage slogger. He has the lungs and muscle power to run his best on moderate volume and relatively higher quality.

Focus or motivation is not the issue. Never has been.

Bekele has fought through mineral deficiency, Achilles trouble and a stupid federation.

Maybe it's just the light, but Bekele looks very gray in that photo.

Youth.in.revolt wrote:

Nice couple scoops, LR. Intuitively, it seems like Jos has a point, but then Bekele diiiiid run his 2:03:02 just 12 months ago. Hard to argue he doesn't know what he's doing.

Glad to hear Bekele still wants it. Maybe London?

I was thinking, Dubai, but maybe too soon?

Maybe Kipsang and Bekele in Dubai?

rojo wrote:

These two articles are interesting. It's good to see a motivated Bekele responding. Good to see he still has the desire and pride.

Especially after all the years he lost it. Maybe the off top-level performance time was good for him.

I'm absolutely sure, in a years time everyone will know you and your DANCAN magic formula :) 13:33 LT pace is astonishing. 57:XX half marathon? :) Oh... and I believe Bekele will come back strong. He had some bad luck in Berlin. He will run at least 2:03 next year bc this season has fired him up again.

dskajfhasdhf wrote:

Bekele will break the WR within 1 year.

Yes, London 2018.

Only one person has ever run sub 2:04 at age 35 or older. That is Geb when he ran 2:03:59. Granted no one has run faster than Bekele at age 34 (the 2:03:02), but I think his confidence that he is going to run sub 203 at that age and only getting older is not realistic now.

Henrik wrote:

I was thinking, Dubai, but maybe too soon?

Maybe Kipsang and Bekele in Dubai?

I'm wondering if Dubai's very early start is a problem. With a course like that, the WR should have been broken there over and over again.

Also, there are a couple of Kenyans every year, but the only stars they have had were Ethiopians: Haile and Kenenisa. I don't know if they will ever change their policy and pay to get great match-ups.

About the delay, that's close to four months until then. That does not look so bad. On the other hand, that leaves little time to get ready for London.

oh please wrote:

Only one person has ever run sub 2:04 at age 35 or older. That is Geb when he ran 2:03:59. Granted no one has run faster than Bekele at age 34 (the 2:03:02), but I think his confidence that he is going to run sub 203 at that age and only getting older is not realistic now.

Rupp and Farah are getting old. Farah is nearly Belele's age. Rupp has too many miles on his legs -- 16 years of hardcore running. Why is it realistic that they could run sub 203?

And Kipsang and Kenenisa did not run a full marathon. Recovering from 30 hard kilometres should not be a big deal.

Gatlin

oh please wrote:

Only one person has ever run sub 2:04 at age 35 or older. That is Geb when he ran 2:03:59. Granted no one has run faster than Bekele at age 34 (the 2:03:02), but I think his confidence that he is going to run sub 203 at that age and only getting older is not realistic now.

oh please wrote:

Only one person has ever run sub 2:04 at age 35 or older. That is Geb when he ran 2:03:59. Granted no one has run faster than Bekele at age 34 (the 2:03:02), but I think his confidence that he is going to run sub 203 at that age and only getting older is not realistic now.

Except Haile was probably 41 already. Kipchoge is apparently around 40. Kenenisa's age is rumoured to be correct. If true, he might have a couple of years left at the top.

So I'm thinking he'll have to run about 2:02 flat to break the WR that Rupp is going to set this weekend.