Does anyone believe it when Alberto says that now Mo & Galen will get "a couple weeks with no running whatsoever.

so now he is a china doll?

- If he was lifting heavy weights after an extended break, injury risk goes up.

- If he is sprinting hard after an extended break I can see injury risk going up.

- If he is running not much faster than his easy day pace for half a mari, there is no risk of injury.

You running pus$y China dolls make me laugh!

Kip takes 5 weeks off... May be an apples to oranges comparison, but that makes me think it could have some validity.

What I do know is there is almost daily discussion on LRC of Al, his methods, his athletes, etc...And he continues to churn out phenomenal runners. When will we stop the negative vibes toward Al Sal and acknowledge that he is the guru, the master, and the best hope that the US has for producing athletes that are consistently at the top of the heap on the world stage? Al is the Phil Jackson of distance running, so let him do his thing. You know who you are.

May be Rubis wrote:

What I do know is there is almost daily discussion on LRC of Al, his methods, his athletes, etc...And he continues to churn out phenomenal runners.

Continues to churn out phenomenal runners? Let's look at Salazar's current stable:

-Rupp. Salazar gets 100% credit here no doubt.

-Farah. Joined with Salazar in 2011. Had already run 12:57.

-Ritz. Ran 12:56 after being with Salazar for only 3 months. Injured more under Salazar than ever before.

And that is it. He basically coaches three guys; one he has coached forever, one super talent that recently started running with him, and one super talent that arguably would have had the same or better results with any other coach.

I have coached East Africans professionally and I can say they take 4-8 weeks no running in between their two seasons, depending on the coach and event specialty. When training kicks back up in nov getting down to racing weight can be an issue, but I have seen runners regularly take extended periods of time off and run wr or wc times the next season.

TUE wrote:

Trollist wrote:

2 weeks really isn't that much.

Really? Have you ever trained or coached at the professional level? Two weeks is a serious chunk of time to completely unplug.

What have you done with the elites that you've coached or trained with?

From my experience, when you are fit, and you take two weeks off and perhaps do some biking, hiking or basketball, with in a couple of weeks you are right back were you let off aerobically. Perhaps you are not race sharp with in a couple of weeks of getting back into training, but your fitness returns quickly.

Stick with eharmony wrote:

They need time to dope

They are exceeding their TUE levels to increase their "base." After they "come back" faster than thought possible. When they compete again their TUE levels will appear to be "normal." The "base" will still be with them. It just won't be detectable, at least not until testing equipment gets better.

Quote Zero zilch nada?

why do people say this

Why do people who know nothing about our sport post on this forum? The "stress" of going with the leaders can "result in an injury"? Ridiculous.

Track Fan 1979 wrote:

For Mo, I am wondering about his decision to run half of London this year after having a few weeks off. Clearly he will have lost condition and the stress of going out with the leaders in London can result in an injury.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. One of the primary reasons Rupp is doing so well is because he stays injury free. One obvious key to staying injury free...REST! And the exact same can be said about Lagat. He takes the time to rest and has had a VERY long and almost entirely injury free career. That's why he's still killing it at 38.

This is perfectly reasonable, I fully believe it that they won't be running. Remember that Lagat takes 5 weeks off every fall, and then 1-2 again at the end of indoor.

I was at his presentation after the 2012 NXNs, a presentation to some of the top HS XC coaches in the U.S. (I am not among that elite group).

He definitely meant it. Though there were some oohs and aahs in the audience, everyone took Alberto at his word. And it is not once a year, it is twice a year. The two weeks off is then followed by another couple of weeks of light jogging (light by Galen Rupp's standard, of course).

It's all about periodization to reach a peak for a couple of very short time frames.

exactly! 2 weeks off is nothing when you're training that hard. At their level you gain more from the recharge.

and I don't know about them, but on my breaks I was never sedentary, I got in all the activities I didn't have time for when training hard. Snowboarding, hiking, cross country skiing, nothing as intense as my training, but still active.

although some of the hikes were probably a little more greuling than my normal training.

Yes

110 mpw at 95% bodyweight on the alterG

LOL11 wrote:

so now he is a china doll?

- If he was lifting heavy weights after an extended break, injury risk goes up.

- If he is sprinting hard after an extended break I can see injury risk going up.

- If he is running not much faster than his easy day pace for half a mari, there is no risk of injury.

You running pus$y China dolls make me laugh!

Oh you're a tough guy aren't you?

h2o2 wrote:

I don't care who you are or what you say, 2 weeks of NOTHING is a TON. And doing it twice in a year? No way. You'd spend 6-8 weeks just regaining what you lost in that two weeks. That was a huge change from the "norm" that Lance Armstrong made, saying it was pointless to take so much time off and then waste time rebuilding to that point.

1. Resting for two weeks and spending 6-8 weeks regaining fitness twice/year when you aren't competing leaves you 32-36 weeks/year to reach new levels of fitness. How many athletes do you know who perform above their prior season's peak for more than a tiny fraction of that?

2. Recent news suggests that Lance Armstrong may not have been entirely on the level about his training methods.

A pal of mine was a Div 3 runner of note. His senior year, discouraged, he took a couple weeks off.

He came to his senses in time for conference and Div 3 champs. PR'd in 1500 & 5000, won the Div 3 NCAA steeple.

He was no big shot, but rest helped him peak and win a title.

I completely believe in rest. I was injured quite a bit in college and I seemed to always run my best after these long periods of forced rest. When I wasn't injured and able to continue running, I ended up running quite crappy.