wejo wrote:
I think Jakob will adjust slightly.
He'll need to be more cautious on first lap. He may really try to blast them for 1000.
But his instinct essentially is always to try and run as fast as he can. That works a lot easier when you have a rabbit in the DL.
The question is if you coached Jakob how would you tell him to race it?
Exactly how he ran that mile in Lievin :D
Start at 56.0, run your second lap 0.30 seconds faster, your third lap 0.30 faster than that, run as hard as you can for the final 300. The one thing you absolutely must avoid at all costs, is a second or third lap that is over 56 seconds. Because at this pace your biggest adversaries (Hocker, Kerr, Nuguse, Kessler and now add Laros) move back nicely under their threshold "red lines" more than you will factoring in the efficiency cost of leading the race.
In Eugene 56.14 and 56.24 for laps 2 and 3 sealed his fate. In Budapest the second lap of 58.10 (even though he didn't lead it) sealed his fate. In Paris the 56.6 second lap sealed his fate.
And if I was coaching him right now I would be getting him to practice ingraining the feel of these paces without any aids. I know he does work with guys on bikes in front of him perfectly regulating his pace - get them out of there.
One other thing I would be doing (and Ritz if you are reading this you should do this with Yared too), is some kind of longer rep work where I was actively crossing my threshold pace, backing off it and trying to come back again within reps. Run some 800/1000m reps where you run a 300m segment in the middle of it in 40.5-41.0 seconds. Or alternate 200's where you step the pace down to the high 26's and then come back out of it to your 27.5's and then back down under it again. High speed "fartlek" work on the tartan. (You did ask what I would do if I was coaching him - this is what I would be doing once a week from March to June).