What did Farah under Salazar to become so fast in the final lap?

UK OK and Teddington Brit,

Thank you very much for sharing your first-hand experiences with Farah. Posts such as yours are the kind of things that attract people to the LRC website from countries all over the world and make this website so special as compared with other running websites.

UK OK's point is correct, it has more to do with self belief. And if you watch those races again, you will see that Mo just wanted it more than the other runners.

Teddington Brit's numbers are wrong. Often runners over-estimate how fast the top distance runners are in pure speed.

The ability to run a very fast last lap comes from a combination of practice and determination. Rupp just gave up on the last lap, but Farah fought to the death. In his mind he just wasn't going to settle for anything less than a Gold medal.

In physiological terms, the training that runners do should prepare them for a sustained fast finish. During a race, our muscle fibers are used in a sequence, with both fast and slow twitch fibers being used from the start to the finish. With practice, the ability to save the most powerful muscle fibers for the end of the race, whilst still using aerobic fast twitch (fast oxidative) fibers also, enables a runner to sprint longer and longer, so that the best conditioned runners can run the last lap at close to their 400m pace.

However this takes a lot of confidence and determination. And those two factors are the main things Mo Farah has developed in the last few years. With Salazar he has almost reached his peak.

EPO

Come on, Rupp just gave up? The guy has devoted his life to running since he was in high school, and in the biggest race of the year he just decides it's not worth the trouble? I don't think so.

Confidence and desire are certainly important, but they're not enough to beat someone who's just fitter and faster than you are. No matter how much Rupp wanted it, he wasn't going to will himself to that victory, because he just wasn't as fit as the other guys in the race.

I'm with the people who said it took more out of Rupp to get to 4600 meters than it did out of Farah. If you lined the two of them up and had them run a 400, Rupp might be a lot closer.

Rupp did give up on the last lap. Maybe he thought that he wasn't going to win a medal and so he didn't give it all he had? But he could have run that last lap in 54

Maybe he eased up after he realized he was out of it, but that's the effect of being beaten physically, not the cause of it.

He was right at the front with 400 to go, and with 300 to go he was off the back and losing ground. He was simply outclassed, and I think it was because it cost him too much to get through the first 11.5 laps, as another poster put it.

Buffalo Orange wrote:

Maybe he eased up after he realized he was out of it, but that's the effect of being beaten physically, not the cause of it.

He was right at the front with 400 to go, and with 300 to go he was off the back and losing ground. He was simply outclassed, and I think it was because it cost him too much to get through the first 11.5 laps, as another poster put it.

Agreed. maybe Rupp backed off a bit, but he didn't lose to Farah, and Farah didn't win, because he "tried harder." Perhaps he was more focused, etc, but the main reason is his superior speed AND endurance.

Does anyone know what kind of stuff he was doing in the UK with Alan Storey? Or what kind of "inspiration" Storey got from Mottram and his coach? It is so bothersome that these guys are so secretive with their training. I understand why they do it, but I think when Renato Canova can tell the whole world the life story of his very best runners, it wouldn't hurt Al Sal's camp to write up a little piece called "how I develop finishing speed in my runners" or something similar.

BRILLIANT!!!! It is about being economical during your race and then tapping into your raw speed..

speed endurance. the best way to get better at running fast when you're tired is to run fast when you're tired. usain bolt, leshawn merrit, david rudisha, asbel kiprop, and bernard lagat do not increase mileage to refine their speed. they train at speed. so what did farah do? according to salazar, about 10-20 mpw LESS than rupp in conjunction with the interval program salazar plagiarized from peter coe.

Not trolling. But for clarity, Rupp has not developed finishing speed. Kicking a 1:53 or whatever in a slow USATF 10k is not finishing speed. In both the 10k and 5k at worlds Rupp showed that he DID NOT have what at least a half dozen other runners in the race had. He is better, I guess, but he's nowhere near the current world elite closer list.

Farah trains over 60-90 seconds per mile faster than he used to. According to Salz, that was his problem.

Imagine if Salazar could get some Africans. I honestly don't think the kenyans and ethiopians train as hard as Americans.

You would be wrong.

Somali blood + English diction + Oregon microbrews

chetwick wrote:

Not trolling. But for clarity, Rupp has not developed finishing speed. Kicking a 1:53 or whatever in a slow USATF 10k is not finishing speed. In both the 10k and 5k at worlds Rupp showed that he DID NOT have what at least a half dozen other runners in the race had. He is better, I guess, but he's nowhere near the current world elite closer list.

Farah trains over 60-90 seconds per mile faster than he used to. According to Salz, that was his problem.

True. But his kick has improved a LOT since he was a frosh/sophomore. He used to get lit up all the time in the last 400m of his races.

asdfasfdasfd wrote:

True. But his kick has improved a LOT since he was a frosh/sophomore. He used to get lit up all the time in the last 400m of his races.

This is very interesting. Do you have direct knowledge of this? Or is it something you have been told about?

Yes, when they raced in Birmingham earlier in the year there wasn't that much difference between the two of them.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPPmMMBuJps

Mo still outkicks but the difference isn't as big and Rupp still closes the last two laps in 56ish I think and that's off a faster paced race.

Rupp got 3rd and 4th at NCAA indoors in 2007, then 2nd in the NCAA 10k. Outkicked all three times. Not to mention NCAA cross country when he got outkicked by Josh McDougal. He also was not a sub-4 miler until his senior year, I believe.

bump, anyone got info?