Jos Hermens holds nothing back regarding Bekele: "I think he has some kind of dyslexia, an inability to plan..."

I understand the Dutch are known for their characteristic bluntness, but this type of interview is almost crazy to me.

And the crazy tempo workout, equivalent to 2:02.xx? It's easy to say "KB only trained 7 weeks" after you filled your wallet with the appearance fee.

salted jock wrote:

I understand the Dutch are known for their characteristic bluntness, but this type of interview is almost crazy to me.

I moved to the U.S. from Holland, and realized that the Dutch can be blunt but it usually comes across as a sort of fake incredulity, so they can drive home their point but at a distance. The whole interview is an exercise in this.....everything he's saying is so obvious to him, but in the spoken interview it just sounds less serious than he probably thinks it is.

It's official, KB is the world's fastest slacker at distance running.

YMMV wrote:

It's official, KB is the world's fastest slacker at distance running.

KB needs to take back his career

Look at today's quote of the day. Levins took back his career. KB should start with a new coach. Patrick Sang?

Yannis went to Ethiopia is see him and found that he ate a lot of cake.

LetsRun.com wrote:

“It all comes down to preparation. He has just as much talent as Kipchoge, but while Kipchoge will prepare for six months before a marathon, Bekele only started 7 weeks ago. Blah blah blah”

/

Preparation comes down to something else though and that is discipline, awareness and humility. Kipchoge has a seemingly infinite level of those traits. Bekele is clearly lacking. Having those characteristics is part of someone's ability, which is why it's wrong to say Bekele is as talented as Kipchoge.

Bekele had his day and it was spectacular. He's in a tough spot now because he can still demand a lot of cash to show up and race and he is still world class, he's just not the same person he was whereas Kipchoge has only gotten better with age!

Bekele might be compared to Farrah Fawcet while Kipchoge is more like Elizabeth Hurley.

YMMV wrote:

It's official, KB is the world's fastest slacker at distance running.

He dropped out because he was only gonna go about 2:07. I think he was genuinely embarrassed to put up a time that slow.

Training training training

Bad Wigins wrote:

YMMV wrote:

It's official, KB is the world's fastest slacker at distance running.

He dropped out because he was only gonna go about 2:07. I think he was genuinely embarrassed to put up a time that slow.

So would I.

LetsRun.com wrote:

The google translate version of it wasn't great so we've translated the whole thing for you.

I, for one, like Youtube's translation of Eliud Kipchoge as "Elio the chicken".

Of course we cant know the future and I hope that Bekele will still run a great Marathon .

But is stupid to compare Bekele with Kipchoge . Bekele for about 12 years has been the greatest in cross country and track.

Just look the palmares of Kennenisa Bekele and Eliud Kipchoge before they went to the marathon.

It seems two different categories of runners. The dominance of Bekele is outstanding.

Is like the Track and Cross country just take the best out of Kennenisa.

Bekele behaves in a rational manner to try to do what's best for himself. Since he retired from the track and xc, we always see this... the minor marathon or race slightly offseason sometime in fall or spring and he DNFs, but he makes sure to show up when the race is big. As Canova would say, his motivation and nervousness is not there because it is not worth his cost benefit analysis to waste his talent in a minor stage where his main competition is not present.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGDBR2L5kzI

Wait, I thought his bad performance this time was a result of him "stepping on a rock" or something in training (presumably one with rusty blades sticking up)?

Seriously, why does any marathon waste their money on this guy at this point? He's got a world record worth of excuses, that's for sure.

I'm no longer interested in hearing about how he just started "training" (whatever that means exactly) seven weeks before a major marathon. If he lacks the ability to focus for more than two months at a time (something that I, with a 2:45 pr, can even muster) than I am developing a whole new set of questions about his achievements of the past.

Chief among them, what exactly went *right* before his 2:03 low victory in Berlin?

Are we really to believe that he's so far out at the extreme end of the bell curve of ability that he barely has to train to mix it up with the world's best? And that he can't even bring himself to clear that ridiculously low hurdle?

I suspect the real thing going on here is an attempt to keep cashing in on performances of old by peddling a notion that he has some super-hero talent still that could resurface on any given Sunday -- next time he'll train for real! -- when, in fact, he's getting old.

If not him, the plotline is certainly old now.

Based on the several articles I've read about Bekele's general lack of dedication, it seems like he's more of a businessman than an athlete these days. He'll still go through the motions of training and race off of his talent, but his heart seems to be in his business endeavors. That's fine, but I do hope he realizes that if he's lucky, he only has two-three years left as an elite athlete, and he's not going to have these same opportunities in the sport even five years from now.

Bekele either doesn't care anymore or doesn't understand exercise science of the sport he holds a world record in. Does he have only his coaches to thank for his success ever?

Red blood cells are the life of distance runners and only as good as your last 90 days. If his build up was only 7 weeks, then he was woefully underprepared for a marathon. A guy like Kipchoge puts in months of good training so that his 90 days before the marathon is all amazing preparation from day 1 through 90. This needs to be clearly explained to Bekele so we can at least be sure ignorance of his own sport isn't what's holding him back.

seems kind of dumb to say he has an inability to plan, how'd he become world and olympic champion all those times...... you have to be able to plan to be at that level..

I'm beginning to think that Bekele is not actually trying to be a marathon runner anymore. Rather, he is working with Hermans on a perfomance art piece where Bekele will "attempt" a marthon and Hermans will find new ways to rip on him to the media.

And this is coming from a serious Kenny B fan (cross counts when determining the GOAT).

Next he kenny B will "plan" by extending his training, and get a few more appearance fees, drop out, and then his career will be over.

Seems like a well-orchestrated marketing ploy.