19 year old Brit - 65.49 half, great interview

Moonraker Elite TC wrote:

trollism wrote:

Are we saying that sub 66 half for a teenager isn't really very good?

It is good, yes. But it's not great. It doesn't line up to that training at all. He should just let his time speak for itself without trying to augment his image with the other stuff.

I'm not saying that his training is stupid. I'm saying that it's grossly exaggerated in that interview. It is 100% impossible that he runs 180 miles per week, all sub-6:00 in addition to workouts, on a regular basis. At least one of the variables is exaggerated. Haile Gebrselassie would have trouble pulling that off on a weekly basis.

The kenyans do it all the time.Go to Eldoret/Iten or Ngong;180 Miles per week at sub 6.00 pace is no big deal

Moonraker Elite TC wrote:

trollism wrote:

Are we saying that sub 66 half for a teenager isn't really very good?

It is good, yes. But it's not great. It doesn't line up to that training at all. He should just let his time speak for itself without trying to augment his image with the other stuff.

I'm not saying that his training is stupid. I'm saying that it's grossly exaggerated in that interview. It is 100% impossible that he runs 180 miles per week, all sub-6:00 in addition to workouts, on a regular basis. At least one of the variables is exaggerated. Haile Gebrselassie would have trouble pulling that off on a weekly basis.

The kenyans do it all the time.Go to Eldoret/Iten or Ngong;180 Miles per week at sub 6.00 pace is no big deal

Where the f*** are you guys getting 180 miles per week from?!?

It doesn't say that at all. And his tarining converted to 6 min per mile doesn't equal 180 miles per week!!

shortshorts wrote:

If he is only 19 then he is still in undergrad and not in med school like the article implies unless they do it differently in the UK. He is in school to get into med school, not in med school, so chances are classes are pretty easy right now.

They're directly admitted to med school from high school over there (5 year program). So yes, if he says he's in med school then he is.

Burning the candle at both ends. He won't last with this regimen (+ med school).

shortshorts wrote:

but heres the thing... wrote:

My question for this guy is when does he do homework? He talks about how he manages to get to 6-7 hours of lectures per week, fine. But how does he study? Does he have a photographic memory or something?

Maybe he is just a training machine and a shitty racer. He lists some ridiculous mileage and paces that seem a bit far fetched, at least for a typical week.

Disclaimer: I have never run that mileage, at that pace, or sniffed those times but that doesn't make me ineligible to critique what is stated in the article.

Ah yes, the training machine. We have all seen this before. Guys who can come back from a killer workout and be totally fresh 48 hours later. Guys who can hammer at sub-6:00 pace all the time. So then you say 'geez man what are your PBs' and it's like they once ran a sub-15:30 5k.

Have you run 200miles a week?

Yes but not regularly. I think at that sort of mileage you are moving towards ultra distance running. After Serbia, I did a few weeks of massive training. I would basically spend the whole day training, 3 runs, 2 gym sessions, 1 bike, tennis and a cheeky round of golf. It was good fun though. I wanted to make the most of the last few weeks off from Uni so just smashed it out for a few weeks. I think there is a limit though as to what is sensible and up at that level you inevitably lose a little quality.

shortshorts wrote:

If he is only 19 then he is still in undergrad and not in med school like the article implies unless they do it differently in the UK.

Pretty clueless on all fronts aren't you?

Suffice it to say, they do it differently in the UK.

shortshorts wrote:

If he is only 19 then he is still in undergrad and not in med school like the article implies unless they do it differently in the UK. He is in school to get into med school, not in med school, so chances are classes are pretty easy right now. Undergrad (especially majors like bio which is a big med school stepping stone) is pretty much a joke and he could get away with 6-7 hours of classes AND studying each day and do fine if he is an intelligent kid.

They do it differently in the UK and Europe. It's funny that you try to make yourself sound like an expert, but you don't even know a basic thing like that. I think how it works is that in a country like France you can get into the med school after high school if you have a Bac S (maybe a different Bac or equivalent can get in too, not sure) high school degree (maybe certain A levels in Britain). The first year (and I think maybe the second) is your basic stuff and it's competitive and you can get weeded out (maybe 10% make it to the next year). You only get one retry.

After five years, you do what would be called a residency in the U.S. and I think that lasts longer than the U.S. version (maybe five or six years?) but they work less per week and have longer vacations and they end up being a doctor at around the same time as U.S. students. They don't have to have $100k worth of debt. I met German and Italian exchange students who were paying $500 or $1000 Euros a year. It seems sort of stupid that some students in the U.S. pay $100k for a four year bachelor's degree (the rich don't have to worry and the very poor can get breaks) and then try to get into medical school (another $100k). Is any of what I wrote accurate? If not, what is it like?

I dont know about Europe but in Aus. and New Zealand there are two pathways.

One is a health science or biomedical science first year that all hopefuls are in, the top grades, medical admiss. test and interviews are entered into a 5 year med program.

Than theres graduate entry which is similar to the US.

Kudos to this bloke, I am inspired.

Lawson sounds great

but it just shows how far British standards have fallen that we are amazed by his efforts - in particular we seem flabbergasted that someone could train so much an make so many sacrifices when that is how was for so many good runners back in the day.

I'm sorry, but I just don't believe this.

That is why he is running these times as a 19 year old and you got 7th place in your ago group in your local Turkey Trot.

You are right for France, the first year is very difficult and the year before starting residency too. I don't think that you can train seriously during these years. The cost is approximately 500 Euros a year, nothing if you are poor. Probably not a bad system if we compare the health of french and american populations!I don't know how it works in UK. Probably more expensive than in France.

well if you live in Scotland you get free university no matter what your parents income, in England and Wales I think its at most around £3000 a year, but that is for Oxbridge and probably a lot less for most Uni's.

I wasn't trying to sound like an expert...sorry it came off that way but that is just how I thought it worked. Thanks for the clarification.

I hope not all Americans are as ignorant as me or we would be in pretty bad shape as a country! I freely admit that I do not have the slightest clue as to how most of the world works outside of the US. It is not something that I am proud of but also not something that I am putting any effort into changing at this point of my life.

So you really get into medical school straight out of high school over there? That seems pretty crazy to me. I always saw getting a undergrad education and the whole medical school admittance process as a way to both weed out those who were not serious (or smart enough) and teach the basics to students. Plus if becoming a doctor doesn't pan out down the road you could always fall back on your BS. In my mind he fact that you know you will be graduating $100K or more in debt is always a way to ensure that only those who are very serious about medicine will enter the program.

I seen this fella win the Cardiff half marathon on tv and to be honest, he looked fairly relaxed running 65 minutes.he was wearing a pair of football shorts and a big wooly hat and a t-shirt. He was second at european junior 10,000m in summer so not a bad racer.Has a nice stride and anyone whos getting trials with premiership football clubs over in England would have to be quite athletic and have a natural inclination to be good at sports, believe me. Great potential as long as he doesn't break down which is very possible with that schedule.Reminds me of Dave Bedford.With regards medicine in Ireland and UK, you would pretty much have to have perfect results, i.e. 90-100% in all school leaving exams. lectures would actually be 6-7 hours a day.Its very intense and takes 7 years in Ireland and 5 in the UK.

Shut up because you're trying to talk about something you know nothing about. They take a test at the end of their secondary education (goes by different names depending on the country, equate this to the MCAT, much much harder than ACT/SAT). This test weeds out the serious from the not-so-serious and decides their future. So they take their "big test" at age 16-19, while in America we take it at age ~21+. Their primary medical education starts sooner, but lasts longer (5 years). Americans who want to go over there for a medical degree and already have a Bachelor's, can skip the first year of basic sciences to complete their degree in 4 years.

It should also be mentioned that the guy who beat him in the euro's was an ethiopean running for Azerbaijan who was part of a group of runners, one of which had already been caught by the IAAF as having been given an Azerbaijani passport with the year 1991 when she was born 1989, so its clear that the azerbaijani authorities will have given him a fake passport too, so most likely he was first european and first junior in that race. Plus he trained in the morning of his 30.03 10k in which he ran 7k solo in windy conditions, so surely worth much faster, although I wont be one of those guys who flings projected times about.

guy is clearly insane.. I run about 70 miles a week and ran 1:05.22.. trying way too hard he'll end up like Josh Mcd stu eagon and matt withrow!!

Concrete Runner Fan wrote:

That is why he is running these times as a 19 year old and you got 7th place in your ago group in your local Turkey Trot.

That is fictional (although yes, he is faster than I was as a 19-year-old), and you can imagine whatever you want about his training. Meanwhile, 19-year-olds elsewhere are training just as hard as him, without all the hyperbole, and running 5 minutes faster over half-marathon.