LOL. Kenya is bigger than the Rift Valley. Have you ever heard of Mombasa or Kisumu? Find somebody who ran World Cross country and let them tell you about the heat and humidity there. Kapsabet which is a town near eldoret is hot and dry. It is a training town too. Travel alittle you might learn alot.
transmara wrote:
LOL. Kenya is bigger than the Rift Valley. Have you ever heard of Mombasa or Kisumu? Find somebody who ran World Cross country and let them tell you about the heat and humidity there. Kapsabet which is a town near eldoret is hot and dry. It is a training town too. Travel alittle you might learn alot.
The LOL is on you. No athletes in Kenya come from Mombasa.
I don't think the idea that the elites are using hinders most fan's ability to enjoy track. If everyone's using, great for them. But I personnally am bothered by the letsrun peanut gallery's double standard applied to white English speakers and the rest of the world. Lets get real here. Two of the three fastest female middle-distance runners the US has ever produced have been caught taking PED's. Two of the three most successful cyclists the US has ever produced also got caught. That is as bad a track record as any country I can think of. And getting away with it is not harder now. It is easier. The producers will always be ahead of the testers.
So to answer the question of "Do you really think (insert your favorite All-American white boy here) would risk everything by taking PED's"?
Hell yes he would. They have in the past and they will again.
There are meets all over Kenya. Mombasa happens to host KAAA meetings, Kisumu too.
transmara wrote:
There are meets all over Kenya. Mombasa happens to host KAAA meetings, Kisumu too.
isnt Mombasa where the World XC was a few years ago?
It was so hot that several runners dropped out. Bekele may have even been a victim of it.
I've often noticed at club level that someone comes out for their first race of the season and runs a blinder. They are relaxed, have great training behind them, and mentally they are putting no pressure on themselves as they weren't planning on peaking for that date at all.
Doha is also the first paycheck of the summer and a fairly short, easy flight from Kenya or Ethiopia...
malmo wrote:
The reason why in-between championship years are generally (see note) faster than championship years is really straightforward.
There's another. I remember Ovett writing about it in his autobiography. He just said that from time to time they would notice he was really flying in training, he'd talk to Andy Norman (the uber-agent of the day), and they would find a race at a few days notice.
As a humble club-level runner this rings true to me. However well you try to plan things, sometimes you just know you're hitting form. And for the pros, this year, there will be a Diamond League somewhere most weeks. And the ones who win will, by definition, be the ones having a good week.
transmara wrote:
There are meets all over Kenya. Mombasa happens to host KAAA meetings, Kisumu too.
You're still struggling. Kisumu is nearly perfect for running too with an average daily high temperature of 83 and an average low temperature of 65, year round. Kapsabet is only 14 miles from Eldoret Airport, even better running conditions than Kisumu.
For your edification, Kisumu, which is on Lake Victoria, is part of the Rift Valley, as well.
Mombasa, of course is far from the Rift Valley, being that it's on the ocean. Purely coincidental, of course, none of Kenyas runners come from there. I wonder why?
Don't let the facts get in the way of a good rant.
Maybe you lot should listen to coach Renato Canova. I had a little bit of experience training and living with Ethiopians, Canova has a hell of a lot. Most of you have none, you are expressing an opinion but don't have any actual experience or evidence to back up your theories
..and one more thing, if you were born at, live at and train at altitude, you are not the one who needs EPO
Hey Transmara, my observation wasn't an endorsement of the theory that any of these athletes are using PEDs. I was just pointing out to Faraday that the vast majority of elite African runners do not come from the hot parts of the continent (because of his misguided statement about "chasing gazelles in the heat.") The best distance runners, whether from Kenya, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, etc., all hail from altitude near the equator, where, as Malmo points out, temps range from the 50s to the 70s most of the year.
I agree w/ Canova that this isn't a startling time for a guy who's run 12:46, consistently been under 13:00 for many years, and beat both Bekele and El G in a 12:52 race. I didn't say anything about drugs. I think that's unknowable until proven otherwise. Good job to Kipchoge, he's always one to watch.
I've watched Kipchoge go down in flames, mostly. Gee, I wonder why.
you are worried about africans taking PED's? my god are you stupid or just a troll?
in relation to running fast times
white people = more suspect
black people = not suspect
hey guys let's just keep quiet it's better for our sport.
(joking)
wait am I??? Even I don't know.
LOL:Good try guy. Kisumu is not in Rift Valley. Kisumu is in Nyanza.
transmara wrote:
LOL:Good try guy. Kisumu is not in Rift Valley. Kisumu is in Nyanza.
You're really bad a geography. The Rift Valley isn't just a Province in Kenya it is a geological region. The Rift Valley is actually more than than one series of geological formations that extends from Tanzania all the way down to Ethiopia. Lake Victoria is the largest and oldest of all of the Rift Valley lakes. Kisumu sits on Lake Victoia. Kisumu is in the Rift Valley, whether or not it is in the Rift Valley Province. I-D-I-O-T.
New World Encyclopedia "Lake Victoria (elevation 1,134 meters (3,719 feet)), with an area of 68,800 square kilometers (26,563 square miles), is the largest lake in Africa, but is not actually within the Rift Valley; it occupies a depression between the Eastern and Western Rifts, formed by the uplift of the rifts to either side. Lakes Victoria, Tanganyika, and Malawi are sometimes collectively known as the African Great Lakes". Kisumu Lake Victoria is in the middle of 2 rifts. It is a lowland area. It is not part of the rift valley, DUMMY
"The complete rift system therefore extends 1000's of kilometers in Africa alone and several 1000 more if we include the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden as extensions. In addition there are several well-defined but definitely smaller structures, called grabens, that have rift-like character and are clearly associated geologically with the major rifts. Some of these have been given names reflecting this such as the Nyanza Rift in Western Kenya near Lake Victoria. Thus, what people might assume to be a single rift somewhere in East Africa is really a series of distinct rift basins which are all related and produce the distinctive geology and topography of East Africa."
Give up yet, idiot?
Coach , you are correct ! Thank you for bringing light to the general naivete of the most on this board. Few understand world class training levels of todays athletes. The older posters here did not have the african element of success across all areas with the depth it is today. Few here really do not understand what the african athletes come from to drive what they become.
What are the chances that the most talented US runners are also the most morally suspect? You would think that one of Bairu, Rohat, Teg, Solinsky, Ritz, Goucher, Rupp, Webb, Jager, Flanagan, Begley, would stand up and say, "I'm not taking this sh it" and go find a different situation. You would also think someone would leak it. A wife, a gf, a drunk idiot.
In a group training environment, its going to be everyone or no one. I'm sure they're too close and are up in each other's business too much to be able to dope without their teammates finding out. I would be more suspect of groups consisting of 2 people busting fast times, or an individual. Its much easier to convince one other guy to do it with you, or to go at it alone, then to convince a whole group that they need to do it.
So as far as our US guys are concerned, I think the Portland crew, at least, is clean. I would guess Rowbury and the Cook crew is clean. I don't really have an opinion about anyone else.
deriously wrote:
So as far as our US guys are concerned, I think the Portland crew, at least, is clean. I would guess Rowbury and the Cook crew is clean. I don't really have an opinion about anyone else.
Cook has all of his athletes sign a contract, before he will coach them, stating that they will not discuss with anyone the supplements they take. This should be a red flag.