Marius Bakken - Work With Your Body, Not Against It
This week OWFTT (Our Weekly Free Training Tip) comes from Norwegian Olympian Marius Bakken. Bakken is a great guy to learn from, as he trained in Norway, in the US (under famed Illionis coach Joe Newton) and in Kenya. Bakken has developed his own 100 day marathon training program, which is definitely worth a look if you are looking to run over 2:45.
Roadsmillslaps.com this week released a great interview of Bakken where Bakken talked about how US-based runners often train too hard. We 100% agree. Bakken's take on the difference between Kenya and Westerners is definitely Quote of the Week # 1:
"Another factor is that Kenyan runners have a different way of looking at things: Instead of 'no pain, no gain,' itÂ’s, 'You have to work hard, but not against your body. You have to work with it.'"
Sammy Wanjiru/Bank of American Chicago Marathon & The World Half Marathon Championships
**** Next weekend is going to be a fun one for distance running fans. The Bank of American Chicago marathon will take place in the Windy City and the world's greatest marathoner, Sammy Wanjiru, will make his much-anticipated US debut. We'll have up our LetsRun.com preview later in the week, but the race isn't a cake walk for Wanjiru, as two other 2:05 guys are in the field in Abderrahim Goumri and Vincent Kipruto, as well as 2:06er Richard Limo
and debutante
Tadese Tola. The women's race should be interesting as well, with two 2:19ers squaring off, as the best female of the last few years, Irina Mikitenko, will race American Deena Kastor.
**** Across the pond, the World Half Marathon Championships will be held in the UK. There, as in Chicago, everyone will be paying close attention to weather forecasts as well, as hopes for Dathan Ritzenhein couldn't be higher. If his 12:56 5k wasn't enough to get US distance fans into a pre-race frenzy, then his supposed 45:03 US record 10 miler in practice should. Will Ritz become just the
2nd American to break 1 hour in the half? We'll find out soon.
Probably the biggest news last week was the fact that the 2016 Olympics were awarded last week to Brazil. Our response may shock you. We are very pleased the US lost and think Brazil is the perfect place for the Games. We give you 3 reasons why the Games belong in Rio.
1) Brazil was way, way, way more excited to host the Games than the US.
We know that some native Chicagoans were upset that the US lost out on the Olympics, but did anyone else really care? Not really. Public support for the Games in the city of Chicago itself was reported to be less than 50%, although the Chicago bid people reported
that 72% of Chicagoans wanted the Games.
Contrast that to Brazil, where 85% of residents wanted Brazil to host the Games. Brazilian president Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva was so excited Brazil got the Games that he cried in the press conference after the vote was announced. That energy and desire to have the Games will make them special. We give our Quote of the Week #1 to Mr. Da Silva, who said:
"I cried now because I didn't have the courage to cry during the presentation. From the bottom of my heart, this is the most exciting day of my life. I felt more pride at being Brazilian than I ever felt before."
To us, going to the Olympics should be a once-in-a-lifetime type feeling. Any chance that would be the case in Chicago? We doubt it.
2) Holding the Olympics in Brazil will cost US taxpayers nothing.
In this day and age of struggling government budgets, why a US city would devote millions of dollars of public funds for a sporting event is beyond us. Chicago backers tried to claim it would all be privately financed, but we don't believe it. The US doesn't need the Olympics to prove it's a worldwide player, so there is no reason to pay for it. Brazil, like China in 2008, wants to prove it's arrived, so it makes sense for them to pay for it. Plus, infrastructure upgrades are way more needed in Rio than they
are in
Chicago.
3) Rio = Live Track & Field Action.
With recent Olympics, the biggest problem for track fans has been the lack of prime-time live track and field action. Well Rio is only one hour ahead of NYC so Brazil's time is perfect for US audiences. NBC won't actually have any excuses for not showing everything live.
So the time zone of Rio is perfect. Live performances mean that TV ratings should be high which is good for the USOC which in turn is good for the USATF.
4) The Usain Bolt Factor.
We said we'd give you 3 reasons why we are pleased the Olympics were awarded to Rio. Well, we'll give you a fourth, as US backers will say that the time zone of Chicago would also work well. Yes, that's true, but people need to think about the Usain Bolt factor. Usain Bolt will be 29 years old at the start of 2016. He'll need something to motivate him to run 8.99 and 18.45. Celebrating in the streets of Chicago won't be enough to get him to train. By then, the megamillionaire will need the goal
of celebrating Carnival-style
in Rio to get him to train. Brazilians wear yellow. Bolt wears yellow. It's way more likely he'll continue to train for Brazil than Chicago.
