Jakob out of London

One of the worst takes ever.

Jakob needs to unfortunately stop Euro XC and indoors. If he wants, he can run World XC and World Indoors but thats it, nothing else. He will gain much more from slowing down his training so that he doesn’t peak multiple times per year. He probably already does this but he shouldn’t be running the workouts he does in March.

It was only 2-3 weeks ago that Jakob posted on Instagram that he was almost ready to begin training 100%. He made some reference to being forced to train in the pool more than he'd prefer.

As soon as I saw that I knew the debut would be later, not sooner

Another example of a poster who speaks with self assurance about things he knows nothing about.

Lack of racing for Jakob means lack of substantive training for Jakob. He’d race if he felt ready especially with a lengthy break after.

We already know he started back full training in late June. I don't think missing London (about 3-4 weeks into full training) is necessarily bad news. Obviously, if he had a setback that changes things, but I don't know that he has. We'll know exactly what kind of shape he's in August 16th. Until then, it's really hard to say.

He's totally washed up. Did okay for awhile but that's the end of it.

I thought it was more like an early-mid June start for that. If he only started a couple weeks ago that is a later timetable than speculated.

If this is true then he officially goes from "medium to spicy" on the concern "heat" scale.

And it's not just about if he makes it back for Tokyo (because he probably will), it's now that this same injury is taking to longer to heal itself in consecutive years and as with any athlete, the lifetime volume of high intensity training doesn't evaporate - it's miles on the clock.

I've always maintained this and people seem to get upset about it - this is why even the greats don't have forever to mark their marks historically (in terms of WR's etc) - they either have to scale it back in training to avoid getting hurt or they plough ahead and do get hurt. I felt that Jakob had this year and the next at best to get the 1500/5000m records - if this season is a write-off in terms of records (might not be, fingers crossed) then I really feel next year he needs to choose which one he really wants (for me it would be the 5000m no question) and get it done as soon as he can.

I also thought a month/6 weeks ago that when he got back it would still be the 1500/5000m for him in Tokyo, I'm beginning to wonder if it will be just one event in Tokyo.

I will say I’d find it incredibly lame if he opts out of the 1500 to race just the 5000. I know Nick Willis and now Mac Fleet have suggested that as what he’ll do. But he is missing a 1500m outdoor world title in his trophy case, and Paris begs for a redemptive moment.

Fgcgffg

He just had a kid. When the mother conceives the child, there is a drop of testosterone in the dad. That + the whole court drama probably lowered his ability to tolerate high mileage and got him injured.

I think you and TL are exaggerating this. He has been running for over a month now and probably got off the cross training 2.5 weeks ago (instagram). Why would he race with just a few weeks of 100% actual running? He is not Cole Hocker who will settle for 5th in a diamond league. When he comes back he wants to run fast and place 1st.

I find it quite odd that just because it's close to the end of the season that he cannot chase records. Could he not get Nike to set up a meet at Bislett in late late september? Seems like we are grasping at straws here.

good point. it would be surprising if there was NOTHING after Tokyo. All these runners coming off absolute peak shape. would be a shame if there aren't one or two more meets for them to show what they've got.

though im sure it was like that after Doha, which ran even a couple weeks later.

I was more reacting to the comments in the piece and the feeling that he is still working through it. If he feels 100% and is just taking his time than yes we might be overreacting.

Well yes, I don’t know for sure obviously but I think he just got to altitude (unless something disastrous happened) and is preparing for some faster sessions. The biggest problem is that he doesn’t know whether the faster paced stuff will be tolerated by his achilles. Since he has Worlds as the #1 priority, he likely doesn’t want to race until he is absolutely sure that his achilles will be fine. It’s a fine line to tread.

All I'm going off of is an Instagram post from June 20 saying he was "Nearly back to training 100%" I'm hoping he's just in the middle of a training block and doesn't want to disrupt it given the timing of the season

"Incredibly lame" might be a bit harsh TL. As of today Mo Farah is the only man to win the world 5000m three times and he did those consecutively - Jakob obviously has the chance to join him in September.

The question is obvious, if you aren't quite fully fit (and this doesn't just mean injury free and training, it means some period of concentrated racing), does he sacrifice winning the 5000m when winning the 1500m after a severely interrupted season (injury, emotional baggage with the family, being a young father) might simply not happen?

If it's me and I risk not winning both, I'll take the 5000m and see if I can pull a late career El G moment in Beijing in the 1500. I agree that Paris is begging for redemption (and 4 months ago he was 100% my pick to win the 1500m in Tokyo because of that) - but 4 months on from that and he's still dropping out of races and not apparently fully fit? That prediction is hanging on by a thread.

I think this is the point though. I was under the impression that "actual running" was planned to have started much more than a month ago.

Hey I picked him to win the 1500 in Tokyo this season and I'm still sticking with that so I can't be exaggerating too much. But I do think big picture the injury stuff which is a) becoming a consistent issue and b) the recovery time getting longer is worth a little concern, that's all.