Henryk Szost - 2:07:39 - marathoner, profile

Thanks Polish guy. Very intresting.

Besides,I not think Poland style training was totally useless!

now, He is good speed eudurance, but strong change of pace.

like 2007-2008 Ryan Hall.

anaerobic and marathon specific is good mixed.

Ha, typical response of the person, who simply refuses to believe that someone, who is a nice guy, could be cheating.

As I said, I had raced against this guy quite a few times before 2010 and had beaten him handily. Nope, I could not see 2:12 in him. He was a road racer, who had trouble beating guys with PRs around 30-31mins over 10K and 1:06-08 over 1/2M in 2009. Our of nowhere, he switches coaches and runs 2:07, which is at the level of 27:20 to 27:50 over 10k. I can give him some slack for maturing and changing his training - worth maybe 30s -1min over 10k, 2-3 minutes over marathon (about 2:13).

I knew the people around him between the years 2004 and 2009, to which races they went, and what his performances were like. Henryk is a good runner, 3:44 is a fine performance, but it is not anywhere close to 2:07 level. More like 2:14 - 2:15.

PEDs are more than likely the culprit and only then was he able to completely change his training and handle the load Shvetsov had prescribed to him. Say what you want, but those who had known Henryk in the past were shocked with his 2:09 and even more with 2:07. Even his closest friend could not delete the smirk from their faces, when discussing his performances at Frankfurt and Fukuoka marathons.

many Kenyans make bigger leaps. I do agree he is suspicious

but so are the Africans. There might be a systematic doping program in Ethiopia and Kenya. Who knows?!?!??

Forrest, I don't know, what are you talking about. His former trainer Gajdus said few years ago, that Henryk should be the next polish national record holder. He did 1:03 halfmarathon back in 2006 and 28:56 for 10k:

1:03:47 2006-09-10 Piła

28:56.61 2006-05-06 Międzyzdroje Sen

That makes your statement look a little bit ridiculous. Everything may happen in road race, but Henryk was polish hope for many years. His first time in polish national team camp was back in 2005, when I met him. He was a mountain runner before.

Henryk was polish national champion for 5k in 2006, winning in Poznan with last lap around 56 seconds. I have seen that race. And he was always looked as a future marathon runner, not the speed guy.

He competed marathon in Olympics in 2008, going early with the leaders, around 30 min for 10km and fading badly later. Not a bad move for someone losing for 10k with 31m guys, like you said... "One day I will keep it to the end - he said then"

One more note - polish track and field is a kind of joke, we don't have many races. For 5km i 10km it is just only national championships. No pacers, often high temperatures. It is one of many reasons, why Szost doesn't have good track credentials. He never had a chance to compete against strong opponents in a good race. He comes from a rural background and always was trying to make some money, running road races. He didn't have time and occasion to run track.

About this log tempos - it is usually 10-20km, so 30-60 minutes. Nothing special. It may be called "easy" running in many countries. Some poeple do progresions, like 12km, starting from 3:20/km, finishing even belon 2:50/km. I saw this kind of training in polish national team camp in Szklarska Poreba. It was done on the track.

In addition we have to say that HS has clearly the strongest mental predisposition

Since I know lots of his former training partners personally (Ochal, Sowa, Draczynski...) all of them said that he does not fear hard training and has under a certain perspective A UNIQUE attitude towrads running:

He considers that as his JOB and admits publicly that running definitely does NOT belong to his hobbies. Therefore he won´t start coaching after ending career "...I don´t want to torture people like I was [by Gajdus])"

A lack of emotions helps definitely.

What the other poster wrote is completely trash because they dont end runs in 2:50

Long runs (35km) e.g. work like that 43:15 not faster, slght hill rep of 200/29-30s they do on the days prior to hard training

One more thing - Henryk was injured in 2009 and he didn't run Worlds. He had an knee operation few months later.

He said, it was due to too heavy training with Gajdus. In 2010 he ran 2:10 in Wien and was disappointed because hoped to run 2:08. Later this year didn't finish European Champioships, again pain in the knee. It was a big disappointment, because he was looked in Poland as a potential medalist. In the same year he won Army Worlds, running 2:15 in Athens in October, very difficult course.

He switched to Shvetsov in the middle of 2011. He rested a little and ran 2:09 in October - PB for 50 seconds. Then 2:07 in March.

So it is - he regularly competed in big races from 2006, winning national champioships and trying to be competitive on the international scene. He didn't come out of nowhere. He ran Nationals, Euros and Olympics before. He ran 2:07 after 5 years of marathon running, setting PR almost every year. Not bad for a complete loser he is in your eyes.

I saw that progression from 3:20 to 2:49 on my own eyes, Adam Draczynski did it back in 2005 in Szklarska Poreba. It was typical session for old polish trainer Kiryk. Run by feel, finish strong. It is not a typical training now, just an example of what people in Poland do sometimes.

Thanks Polish Guy, good stuff.

Good stuff Polish Guy. Does Szost post his training online anywhere, or can you post then and now?

Szost don't post his training anywhere, but his coach revealed something about Henryk's training. His recovery runs are done in 4:10 - 4:20 min/km, easy runs in range of 3:30 - 3:40min/km. They do treshold and tempo runs, but it's interesting what his coach said after 2:07:39 in Lake Biwa:

"-What was the longest training with marathon race effort you did with Henryk ?

-3x5km at 3:02 min/km pace"

What is interesting, his coach says he doesn't look at the pace of hard workouts, but he prefers running them with race effort.

Another thing worth mentioning is the past of Henryk. When he started running he used to start in mountain races.

Here are other Henryk's PRs:

800m - 1:53.26

1500m - 3:44.26

2000m - 5:29.80

3000m - 8:02.42

3000m steeplechase - 8:56.41

5000m - 13:58.89

10000m - 28:31.90

HM - 1:02:35

Marathon - 2:07.39

Szost is clean. He is a staunch catholic and would not commit a sin like that. He is too honest for that.

Another thing, his track times, including 1.53 and 3.44 indicate Henryk has basic leg speed. That 3.44 is equal to a 4.02 mile, and his track career was sporadic and did not last long. He had the potential to run 3.38 - 3.39 for 1500 which is more than enough to run 13.20/27.40 which should have been his true value at 5000/10,000. 13.20/27.40 is faster than many Japanese 2.07 guys can run. Many of those Japanese sub 2.09 runners would be pushed to run 1500 in 3.50 let alone 3.44. You cannot always correlate, especially with the Japanese, who often have modest track times (e.g. witness the Japanese women 2.22/2.23 types with 15.30/32.00 credentials).

Back to Szost. He has super long legs and a relatively short trunk for someone his size (6.1) ...which is an advantage in distance running (think of a 'white' Paul Tergat - but Tergat was quite a bit leaner weighing only 62kg for around 6ft or just under).

These days with all the testing going on, including out of competition tests, Szost has not aroused any suspicion, and he has been around the international scene since 2006 which was not yesterday.

Ghost in Saudi,

www.kfupm.edu.sa

, apply today, over 50s welcome.

Oh for heaven's sake! I'm certainly willing to believe that Szost is clean, but I was brought up to be a staunch Catholic and believing that being a staunch Catholic somehow proves he's clean is absurd. Catholics as a group are no better or no worse than anyone else.

right, because there is NO CHANCE he has ever been in better than 13.58 shape but didn't have the opportunity to get in a fast race at the time! yep mmmhhmm.

Woodchopper wrote:

Cannot trust a guy who is been coached by a known cheat, a Russian cheat at that. Free to take whatever he pleases. There is no way a guy who runs 13.58 for 5k on the track can run a 2.07. Not even MPR race potential percentages could justify his times.