Another 5 months to hide his nagging achilles injury.
This right here. Something isn't right. He's one of the top athletes on the planet and he's cutting his own shoes? Shouldn't be be getting the best treatment in the world and custom shoes from Nike to get him through this? You can't train at his level and be carrying an injury like this. It won't get better.
eddie van halen made his own guitars, with a blow torch, most all hockey players doctor their own sticks, wayne gretzky would not let anyone touch his sticks, put baby powder on it. after a tape job ...
He has to cut his shoes and run all the workouts on the Tread.
Not sure he’s ever going to be the same again but I hope I’m wrong!
Stop. He was very recently on the track for a threshold session. Many of us have had to modify our shoes after signing with a sponsor- even mo Farah had customs made.
As a decent runner who also had achilles tendinopathy twice - I see why he's being cautious. Building up and adding intensity is the scariest thing because any slight tweak starts to give anxiety and it's minimum 4 weeks off. He's probably stressed thinking "is it actually happening again?" every time he has a slightly uncomfortable step.
Odd/tragic that Nike has some of the harshest heel counters in the market when many of their prominent pros (Jakob, Hocker, Farah back then) have struggled with Achilles issues. Everytime I run in Nikes I feel like my heels are being sawed off.
Skipping indoors gives him another 5 months of uninterrupted training to prepare for WR assaults this summer. To me it’s a no-brainer.
There’s surely a middle ground? Kenyans often skip Indoors but they do run XC or start racing hard in April/May (DL/Kenya). Jakob typically hasn’t dabbled much in the early season eg China/Doha DL/road stuff, but maybe this is the year. Or he could do a late-starting indoor season. But the alternative is opening on May 31 in Rabat, which is a lot of time training with no racing.
Yes, we need to accept that at the age of 25 shots at track world records is in the rear view mirror. He never had the 800 speed to get the 1500 anyway. He could have a shot at the 10k but it has to happen this year.
Listening to the snippet about why he pulled out of Euro XC, which features in this video, re-confirms to me that his achilles is generally okay. Rather, he is not willing to put himself at risk of any kind of injury or illness which might stall the momemtum he is currently building in training.
I would say the goal in 2026 is firmly WR's. I think you will see him run some indoor events (maybe a 3000m indoor WR), but I'm starting to think he doesn't commit to a full indoor season. It is already a fecking long season with potentially 10 Diamond League races, plus Ultimate Championships. He will be looking to nail the 5000m WR straight up, and then give himself a 2-3 chances to challenge the 1500/mile WR. I don't think World XC or World Indoors will be helpful in the pursuit of outdoor WR's - as he learnt in 2025.
Regarding his mileage, it's a lot! In comparison to another strength based athlete and double threshold disciple, Cam Myers is only running 140km or less per week.
Agree with all of this. His interview in September confirmed that he is aiming for the three big WRs (1500, Mile, 5000m), he said he "must be satisfied" with this. That points to me that he knows he is at his career peak and can't let this year go to waste. I still see him running the Europeand World Outdoor championships this year but expect to see him skip on World Indoors.
Good pickup, I forgot to mention Euro Outdoors, which means the season is even longer and he is even less likely to run a big indoor season.
Skipping indoors gives him another 5 months of uninterrupted training to prepare for WR assaults this summer. To me it’s a no-brainer.
There’s surely a middle ground? Kenyans often skip Indoors but they do run XC or start racing hard in April/May (DL/Kenya). Jakob typically hasn’t dabbled much in the early season eg China/Doha DL/road stuff, but maybe this is the year. Or he could do a late-starting indoor season. But the alternative is opening on May 31 in Rabat, which is a lot of time training with no racing.
I think the middle ground is running 1-2 indoor meets, skipping extended indoor season at World Indoors.
He's one of the top athletes on the planet and he's cutting his own shoes? Shouldn't be be getting the best treatment in the world and custom shoes from Nike to get him through this?
I think Nike are genuinely really poor with their treatment of runners. Mo Farah did the exact same thing with his running shoes and cut chunks off them to make room for his achilles, so they clearly didn't design custom shoes for him either. Elite athletes shouldn't need to take a stanley knife to their shoes in order to train in comfort. Yet Nike made customised wider shoes for Roger Federer so we know they do it for some sports. I hope this video shames them into developing some fully fitted comfortable customised training shoes for Jakob.
This is not true. Farah’s Peg trainers were special makeups regarding the heel. Theyve done the same with many elite runners- perhaps educate yourself a bit before piling on?
Skipping indoors gives him another 5 months of uninterrupted training to prepare for WR assaults this summer. To me it’s a no-brainer.
There’s surely a middle ground? Kenyans often skip Indoors but they do run XC or start racing hard in April/May (DL/Kenya). Jakob typically hasn’t dabbled much in the early season eg China/Doha DL/road stuff, but maybe this is the year. Or he could do a late-starting indoor season. But the alternative is opening on May 31 in Rabat, which is a lot of time training with no racing.
Jakob needs to focus on the 1500, Mile, and 5000m WRs this season or else he might never get them. This is a special year and I don’t think there is a middle ground after getting injured right after a big indoor season last year. Once he gets those three records he’s pretty much set records-wise and doesn’t need to be in insane shape anymore year-round. Only thing left would be to get more golds.
Jakob is very likely to be better in 2027-28 than 2026, because his recovery is my no means certain for this year and if he continues to suffer achilles problems he may be forced to take completely off for a long period and come all the back healthy, not with sawed off shoes, in 2027. So, I disagree that 2026 is his last good chance for those big records at 1500-5000. He was well on his way to those world records in March 2025. He was in tremendous shape. 3:45 low indoors is impressive. But he should have backed off and saved it for the late summer.
Jakob is very smart with his training, unlike Hocker and Kerr, he shows up most of the time at championships and delivers as well as giving us fantastic performances throughout the year. His setup is strong and he is aiming for a big season in 2026 outdoors.
I’m an avid Kerr hater but this one ain’t fair. Kerr raced more this year even outta shape in Kingston. Worlds his calf blew up.