Maybe if Jacob had spent a little more time on speed work he would have had the gear needed to beat Whiteman at WC last year.
He's been very successful, but that doesn't mean Coe and Cram were wrong...
I’m not sure that it was speed that decided the outcome in the WC… -Wightman has always had this ability “to shift”, and together with stamina and speed (and tactics) I think he just was superior that day…
Well here’s the details (I hope I remember this correctly -I’m prepared to take some spanking if I don’t -have no known agenda here): I think Jakob got a little irritated, because he had heard this thing about his speed before. And he was only face to face with the journalist (and not Coe and Cram) -maybe therefore the missing words of respect- anyways, he said that he wasn’t a 800 / 1500m guy (like them) and that he never would run fast in the 800m. And what had Coe and Cram done in the 5000m (he said apparently as a little rude point), knowing that he himself was strong there…
My point isn’t to judge Jakob here, because rather than (hindsight) arrogance and disrespect he seemed eager to tell that he (and his team) had found another approach than Coe and Cram (simply because all the Ingebrigtsens are “slow” by birth): That is to train in their own strengths (the endurance) in stead of their weakness (speed). And a couple of years later Jakob said (after some fans spoke of his 800m abilities) that he never would do 1.44..!
I wonder if Coe and Cram nevertheless will be getting the last word: Maybe Jakob right before leaving for the 5000m++ will do some extensive speed work as an exception (on top of his huge base, and without ruining this with only a few weeks with extreme speed work), just to get all he can out for the 1500m once…
flip this around though - how is it not arrogant of Coe and Cram to comment on his training when they know none of the specifics? Maybe they really do know nothing.
I know -therefore I shortened this as good as I could.. But I’m prepared for a lot of down arrows -that’s life!
Lol fair enough, good points made by the way in your OP.
Thank you! Two fun facts: 1. In one of my (longer) posts in another thread I got an automatic LRC warning “ You have reached the 2000 word ceiling pr post; try to cut down”!!!!!!!!!
2. I have had a longer thought process over how long I think the average attention span is in this forum, and concluded on 8 sec -five sec to read the first line in a post + three sec to hit an arrow…
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