Yuki Kawauchi PRs (again), Ryan Hall withdraws (again), Deena doesn’t break 2:30 (again)
The Week That Was In Running: March 11 – March 17, 2013
By LetsRun.com
March 19, 2013
To read last week’s Weekly Recap, click here.
Not a lot of time this week to analyze last week’s action as we have to get on a plane for Poland so we can cover the 2013 World Cross Country Championships. Thankfully, we already broke down the action at the 2013 NYC Half for you.
We start with 5 quick thoughts, before giving you some free coaching advice, a photo of the week, a video of the week, a good quote and some recommended reads.
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5 Quick Thoughts
#1
Bridget Franek ran a US record of 6:19.09 for the 2000 steeple. It’s a nice early season time but it’s not the fastest 2000 a US woman has run in the steeple. The US record for full 3k steeple is Jenny Simpson‘s 9:12.50 from the 2009 world championships – meaning Simpson averaged 3:04 per km. So Simpson ran way faster- Franek only averaged 3:09.5 per km – for 50% longer.
#2
Julia Lucas just misses making the OlympicsGood to see Julia Lucas competing again. Her heart-breaking fourth place finish at the 2012 US Olympic Trials where she boldly went for the win instead of playing it safe and just making sure she got top three was one of the most compelling stories of the Trials.
She opened up her 2013 season with a 9:21 3000 win at the Oregon Preview. Last year, she ran 9:16 at the Oregon Preview – but in a race where Sally Kipyego ran 8:53.
It would be fantastic to see Lucas make the 2013 Worlds team but with Dartmouth’s Abbey D’Agostino running so well, it’s not going to be easy as D’Agostino seems like at this point a near lock in our minds barring injury.
More: OTC Elite’s Julia Lucas puts her trials behind her
#3
2004 Olympic bronze medallist and US marathon record holder Deena Kastor ran 2:32:39 over the weekend in LA at age 40. Not bad for a 40 year old but it makes us wonder if she’ll ever break 2:30 again. We hate to say but if we were betting – we’d say no she doesn’t ever break 2:30 again. Father time catches up with us all and it will soon be four years since Kastor last broke 2:30 as she ran 2:28:50 at the 2009 Bank of America Chicago Marathon.
Kastor’s 2:32:39 makes us appreciate Colleen De Reuck‘s 2:28:50 American Masters record all the more. The world record for a 40 plus female? Priscilla Welch’s 2:26:51 from 1987 London. Irina Mikitenko’s 2:26:41 from Tokyo this year (thank you Doug for the correction).
That being said, we think it’s total bad-ass that Kastor will soon be getting on a plane to compete Sunday at the 2013 World Cross Country Championships in Poland.
And Deena definitely thinks she’ll be breaking 2:30 saying, “I gave a 100 percent effort on an 80 percent day.”
More: 2:32:39 for Deena
#4
LetsRun.com visitor Alan Ryan meets Yuki Kawauchi after his win at the Beppu-Oita Marathon and presents him with a LetsRun t-shirt.
Yuki Kawauchi is the man. On a week where Tirunesh Dibaba pulled out of London and Moses Mosop and Ryan Hall pulled out of the Boston marathon (meaning it’s likely going to be 18+ months between marathon finishes at a minimum for Hall), Japan’s Kawauchi sets a world record by running a second straight sub 2:09 in the span of 42 days by running 2:08:14 in Seoul. All we can say is, “Incredible.”
The guy PRs twice in 42 days (2:08:15 in the first race, 2:08:14 last week in Seoul) and yet he wasn’t happy with his Seoul race as he said afterwards, “I was aiming for 2:07 in this race. It was an incredible waste.”
Also in Seoul, former 2:04:27 man Duncan Kibet was a DNF yet again. Take a look at the six career marathons listed for Kibet on Tilastapaja.org. The first three were all headed in the right direction. The last three – not so much.
2008
2:08:33 2 Wien 27 Apr
2:07:53 1 Milano 23 Nov –
2009
2:04:27 NR 1 Fortis Rotterdam 5 Ap
DNF Real Berlin 20 Sep
2010
DNF Virgin London 25 Apr
2013
DNF Dong-A Seoul 17 Mar
More: YUKI KAWAUCHI smashes PB again, can`t breack 2:08 –
#5
Wilson Kipsang Wins 2013 NYC Half MarathonWe loved getting to spend some time again with Wilson Kipsang in New York. He seemingly has a natural charisma that is good for the sport. To be truthful, not a lot of potential New York City marathon winners have the personality/English skills to do well on say The Late Show with David Letterman but Kipsang would do well on something like that in our book.
We’re still surprised adidas didn’t outfit him in Shamrock Green. A bit gimmicky but we guarantee he would have received more TV time on the newscasts on St. Patrick’s day.
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Quote Of The Week I (that wasn’t quote of the day)
“I suppose the appeal (of the first sub-4 mile) lies in its very simplicity. It needs no money, no equipment, and in a world of increasingly complex technology, it stands out as a naïve statement about our nature. A man could, with his own two feet, overcome all difficulties to reach a pinnacle upon which he could declare, ‘No one has ever done this before.’”
– Roger Bannister, writing in his autobiography, “The First Four Minutes.” The quote appeared in a New York Times article last week on former HS sub-4 runner Tim Danielson who has been accused of murdering his ex-wife.
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Photo of The Week
This really came from the week before but we forgot to include it in last week’s weekly recap. It came via twitter courtesy of two of Eric Jenkins teammates after Jenkins was DQ’d for grabbing the jersey of a runner on the last lap of NCAAs.
Eric Jenkins Northeastern Teammates support him on twitter. Photo courtesy of https://twitter.com/jameshall23
Speaking of grabbing the jersey, here is a photo of him grabbing Oklahoma State’s Kirubel Erassa’s jersey with less than 200 meters remaining that an LRC visitor found and sent to us. It’s a shame Jenkins got DQd but officials can’t let people grab jerseys with less than 200 meters remaining.
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Video Of The Week
Hasn’t everyone always said that hammer throwers are the coolest guys in the sport? If not, they may start saying that after watching this music video featuring 2008 Olympic and 2009 World champ 2008 Olympic and 2009 World hammer champ Primož Kozmus of Slovenia.
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Weekly Free Training Advice Courtesy of Ryan Hall
For US fans, Ryan Hall‘s withdrawal from the 2013 Boston Marathon was certainly a letdown. Hall hasn’t finished a marathon since February 2012 and now probably won’t run one until next Fall. But we really enjoyed the emailed interview he gave to Runner’sWorld after his pullout as we thought it was full of great wisdom:
Ryan Hall on Injury: ‘I Just Missed Too Much Time’
Two great things you can learn from Hall.
1. Progress in your training in a logical fashion – don’t rush to get back to where you used to be
“The biggest lesson I have learned is that I need to take a more progressive approach to my training. The hard thing about having been to a certain level of fitness and a certain level of training is that I expect to be able to be back to that level whenever I want to without taking the slow and progressive steps I originally had to take to get there. I am learning that I have to pretend like I am starting from scratch every time I begin a buildup. “
2. It’s important that injuries are just a part of high level training, and if you learn from them, you can come back as a better runner.
“I really don’t believe these injuries are a sign of my body breaking down and not being able to handle marathon running and training any longer, even though I do understand that to an outsider, and certainly on paper, it may look that way. I really believe that these lessons I have learned through these injuries will help usher in a season of health that I would not have experienced if I hadn’t learned how not to get injured. The only way to learn to not get injured is to get injured and learn from it. If you look at a lot of great marathoners they too went through rough patches, like Meb [Keflezighi], and came out the other side stronger for it. I believe this will be the case for me as well.”
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Weekly Free Training Advice II – Don’t Destroy Yourself – Make Sure Your Training Is Repeatable
This advice comes from the coach of Tim Danielson during his freshman year at BYU, Sherald James.
“Great runners have the ability to destroy themselves. They won’t take halfway and be satisfied.”
One thing we always think about when training is, “Is your training repeatable – season after season, year after year?” You might be able to get away with something for one season when you are 18 years old and in the prime of your physicality by forcing your body to do something, but in the long term you have to work with your body.
The quote came after The New York Times said James said Daniels insisted on “running 20 intervals of 440 yards, each in less than 60 seconds, at altitude, James said, or would augment a 10-mile run with seven or eight fast quarters on the track.”
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Recommended Reads
Julia Lucas: “I’d always rather fail being bold than fail being too meek or tentative.”
LRC Ten Training Tips From Bernard Lagat, Dathan Ritzenhein And Abdi Abdirahman
LA Marathon will be 60th of career for 77-year old who runs thinking of his MS stricken wife He cares for her full-time when not running. “My life is pretty simple. It’s all about taking the next step … just take the next step.”
NY Times Piece On The Life And Tragedy Of Tim Danielson, The Second US Prep To Go Sub-4 In The Mile
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Quotes Of The Day & Last Week’s Homepages:
Note: To see a particular day’s homepage, click on the hyperlink of the date. The hyperlink below the date on the quotes will take you to that particular article – not that day’s homepage.
– Lolo Jones talking to HBO’s Real Sports about how her motivation to make the 2014 US Olympic bobsled team is not having won a medal at London 2012. The show will air Tuesday at 10PM ET.
– OTC’s Julia Lucas talking about her devastating 4th place finish in the Olympic Trials 5000 (where she missed the team by .04 seconds) and answering the question, “Would she do anything differently if she had a chance to run that 5,000-meter race over again?” Yesterday she won theOregon Preview 3k in her first race on the track since the Trials.
“I was getting a little lazy at home, and I decided I’d go down to the exercise club.”
– 102-year-old Ray Clark on why he started exercising at age 98.
– Abdi Abdirahman talking about Bernard Lagat and the training they did together leading up to this weekend’s NYC Half Marathon. Of his expectations for Lagat, Dathan Ritzenhein said, “I think it’s just like any other race: if Bernard’s there in the last 400 meters, then it’s bad news for whoever he’s with. Whether it’s a half marathon or two miles, it doesn’t matter.”
– Ryan Hall talking about his string of injuries issues over the past year and his decision to pull out of the Boston Marathon.
– British 10ker Michael Crawley writing in The Guardian about how he’ll be seeing if old-school training was the key to success of the guys i
– Galen Rupp talking about his goals for 2013 and beyond which include eventually beating Mo Farah.