Former Elites Advice to Ryan Hall - who's advice most sound?

I thought this was very interesting. I mean none of us can truly know Ryan's situation. Two WC athletes trying to juggle schedules, home life, workouts, travel...+ injuries.

I thought Brian Sell, Rob DeHaven and Dick Beardsley (in that order) had the best advice. Would like to have heard from Pfitzinger with his NZ training. Thought Dixon's was a bit weird, it worked for him [Lydiard system] but not many pure miler/5k guys have pulled this off. How about it LR Board?

Moving to Kenya just doesnt seem at all practical.

First, it's dangerous- it doesnt do you any good to be a 2:03 marathoner if you've been hacked to death with a machete.

When training like this you want everything else to be as worry free as possible. Moving to Kenya would be the complete opposite of that.

Second, just moving to Kenya isn't going to make him Kenyan.

Third, the Kenyans aren't going to share their drugs with him.

Trying to run a sub-4:00 mile is fool's gold. Ryan Hall is a natural marathoner. Switching to even more intense training and intervals, re-introducing spikes at his age (close to 30), just beckons injury.

I would stay with the mindset about, but instead of dropping down to the Mile, hit up the Half Marathon and dip below 1hr before taking another shot at the Marathon.

Apostrophe Crime's wrote:

"Who is advice most sound"? Huh?

Silly goose! Stop perpetuating grammatical errors. Obviously "advice most sound" is a person's name, and should have leading capital letters.

Ergo, "Who is Advice Most Sound?"

And, yeah, I never heard of that elite marathoner, either.

aquafina wrote:

First, it's dangerous- it doesnt do you any good to be a 2:03 marathoner if you've been hacked to death with a machete.

Right. Someone like Kipsang or Kimetto don't look like MONEY when they run around in Kenya, but Hall does.

yourmom.com wrote:

I like that Rodgers does not actually give advice and basically just acknowledges that people at that level will get hurt.

Bill Rodgers once again proves he is the smartest of them all.

Spence:

"Run only when you feel like it... 2 years only track..." Is he kidding? I agree w/ track racing- but Hall's 31 now. 2 years of it??

Beardsley:

Sensible.

Sell:

Interesting & seems good.

Williams:

Even with injuries, I just have trouble believing less miles will help his 26.2 performance (besides hopefully being healthy). If he does avoid injury, his strength will be lower.

Dixon:

Out of the box for sure.

ttc wrote:

Spence:

"Run only when you feel like it... 2 years only track..." Is he kidding? I agree w/ track racing- but Hall's 31 now. 2 years of it??

Beardsley:

Sensible.

Sell:

Interesting & seems good.

Williams:

Even with injuries, I just have trouble believing less miles will help his 26.2 performance (besides hopefully being healthy). If he does avoid injury, his strength will be lower.

.

CAN YOU CATS PLEASE LEARN HOW TO USE "LESS" AND "FEWER?" PLEASE. IF YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT NUMBER IT IS "FEWER." WHEN QUANTITY IT IS "LESS." FOR INSTANCE, THE AMOUNT OF RAIN WE HAVE HAD THIS YEAR IS LESS THAN LAST YEAR. BUT WE HAVE HAD FEWER RAINY DAYS THIS YEAR THAN LAST YEAR. PLEASE LEARN HOW TO USE. THANKS!

Getting back to 59:45 13.1 form is the biggest thing (after health). This would prob entail the track races some of the elites advise. Then go back to the marathon. I just wonder how long it's been since he could break 1:02:30.

218er wrote:

Yea, not to thrilled about living and training in Kenya for a year. Malaria and other worse problems. Maybe back to Mammoth or down to NZ? But as DeHaven pointed out, having a group and support would be a plus. Rodgers=Zen Master.

There is no risk of malaria in high altitude Kenya, and the threat of malaria should not be a factor in anyone's decision to travel or live above 2500m.

Mosquitos in high altitude? wrote:

There is no risk of malaria in high altitude Kenya, and the threat of malaria should not be a factor in anyone's decision to travel or live above 2500m.

Occasionally, you HAVE to go to sea level to get some good paced runs in. And that is HIGH RISK in Kenya. Sorry, but that's a fact. Much better of staying in the US West Coast/Mountain.

I noticed there are no women on this advice panel... This strikes me as sad. I'm sure there are many past elite women who would have something helpful to say.

Nutella1 wrote:

Mosquitos in high altitude? wrote:

There is no risk of malaria in high altitude Kenya, and the threat of malaria should not be a factor in anyone's decision to travel or live above 2500m.

Occasionally, you HAVE to go to sea level to get some good paced runs in. And that is HIGH RISK in Kenya. Sorry, but that's a fact. Much better of staying in the US West Coast/Mountain.

There are quite a few Kenyans training there that would probably disagree.

Using the term "HIGH RISK" is not an accurate statement. The CDC describes it as "moderate" (note that they also don't use caps lock).

If you absolutely must get that sea level run in (though I'm not admitting that this is an actual need during training), take some anti-malaria meds, go to a dry place, and your risk of contracting malaria is minimal in Kenya.

No Pfitzinger or Daniels or Canova or Mahon or Hansons or Salazar.

or marathon coaches wrote:

No Pfitzinger or Daniels or Canova or Mahon or Hansons or Salazar.

You're right, no Salazar. I'd rather hear someone else's advice to Salazar regarding why he can't coach a marathon runner.

I agree with some combination of this, Dixon and Spence. I'm more curious about his training leading up to Oct'06 for his 57:54 20km at Debrecen (seems like even splits with a last 5k at exactly his pace). He basically threw down a 61 half (pretty much record pace at the time) 3 months before his half AR.

ttc wrote:

Getting back to 59:45 13.1 form is the biggest thing (after health). This would prob entail the track races some of the elites advise. Then go back to the marathon. I just wonder how long it's been since he could break 1:02:30.

Mo Farah most likely will soon. But i also think Rod Dixon is awesome