We've merged three threads on Jakob's post-race comments into 1. One other thread was entitled, "Jakob: "Competing with a cold: probably not the best medicine. 🤔 Not showing up: not an option, unless half dead." The third thread was titled, "Jakob criticizes Hocker’s cross training- “that’s very strange”.
It is becoming a 'unculture' in Norwegian press (and athletic culture). They prime events by emphasizing, often as the main headline on national news, that athlete X or Y has a cold or niggle or something prior to the race. It is a perfect strategy. If X or Y wins, they can scream about how they dominated the competition despite their illness, that are just that d*mn good. If they lose, it's not reflective of anything, it's just bad luck. I can't remember a broadcast when I haven't heard about Henrik's, Filip's, Jakob's, Karsten's, Karoline's etc. various illnesses and injuries during their warmups for races. Of course, NRK, VG, Tv2 etc do not know, nor care, if their international competitors have colds or whatever, and it will not be made an issue of on Norwegian news.
It is a bad habit. I think if you have a cold or something, but feel well-enough to race, you should be respectful enough of your competition to not mention your cold. Just say you weren't physically better to them that day. Otherwise, you are automatically planting doubt about your competitor's acheivement. That said, Jakob did not make any such excuse after Paris.
Exactly. I find it hugely disrespectful to Nuguse (or if anyone else had won) to start wittering on about a cold the week before then his Instagram post afterwards. Either you’re well enough to race or not. Why bother if you’re not able to give it your best shot.
Just so everyone can praise you for ‘always turning up’.
Athletes are allowed to have a race schedule that doesn’t include every race. They are allowed to focus on something as huge as the Olympics and then have a dip in performance afterwards. That’s all normal. But he needs to stop being disrespectful to those that beat him.
At least he made no excuses for the Olympics (that everyone focused on peaking for).
Nuguse sure seems to be happy that Jakob showed up according to his comments on Instagram, why are you being offended on his behalf?
Showing up even when you're not 100% is what separates the mindset from the people like Jakob who wants to go down in history as the best runner ever, compared to someone like Kerr who views racing as a nuisance and doesn't show up without weeks of prep and if he's 100% confident he's going to win.
Seeing the best runners race often is what makes the sport enjoyable for us fans, and it's what Hocker, Jakob and Nuguse does while Kerr is busy building his personal brand on social media.
I think training at altitude is over valued. A lot of fast people train at altitude, but they were fast before they go there. It’s not really a causation. There are benefits to training at sea level being able to train at slightly faster paces. As well as better recovery when you’re not training.
Didn’t listen to the clip but if we’re acting like hocker doing some cycling is the secret to his success it is silly. It’s not a all.
it’s either some additional low stress training or it’s erroneously being touted as his training secret to cover up the real secret they don’t want you to consider
If you watch the clip, Jakob makes this exact point. OP quoted him out of context trying to create controversy where it doesn’t exist. Jakob didn’t attack/criticize Hocker at all.
Yeah, it was a very well reasoned opinion by Jakob. Basically he's saying if you're injured, then cross train but nobody is going to be a fast runner because they cycle or swim.
One of my favorite things about Jakob is that he is very direct. It makes his interviews interesting. He doesn’t use coach/athlete speak, and yet he is willing to use humor to underscore the absurdity of sports interviews and to some extent the absurdity of pursuing running excellence as one’s supreme goal in life. Ahead of Zürich, he was asked how he would rate his excitement about the 3000m WR. He asked to clarify the scale and then answered with an 8.9. His “next athlete up” comment was made in poor judgment, but I think he’s begun to see that he needs to recognize each of his competitors as real individuals and not just “the field”. This does not erase his ego or mean he won’t make other mistakes, but I think he understands it is not in his interest to play the loan wolf character.
Kerr's criticism of Jakob's race planning is legitimate. He did make an excuse in Paris, that he misjudged it. Calling Kerr just the next guy wasn't sporting. The way to lose is to recognize the performance and say he was the best man in the day.
People need to discriminate between "excuse" and "the reason why a performance went badly or not as one hoped." One just can't say the cliche "I tried what I thought was my best today, and it wasn't enough" and expect to maintain and improve. Well, why didn't I have it today? Illness? Injury? Not enough sleep/fuel/etc? Poor race strategy? Equipment malfunction? Age related decline? Lack of cold/heat/humidity/elements/course preparation? Something else? If it's the truth, it's a valid reason.
Jakob doesn't seem to pander to fans/media (probably because of that upbringing). It took me until this year to warm up to him, but I think the dude is awesome, running-wise.
That being said, from a personal standpoint, I hope he spends as much time as he can with his family and obviously not repeat the sins of the father. Saddens me to see these running pros disappear from their kids' lives for weeks to even months at a time.
I think training at altitude is over valued. A lot of fast people train at altitude, but they were fast before they go there. It’s not really a causation. There are benefits to training at sea level being able to train at slightly faster paces. As well as better recovery when you’re not training.
Also worth noting that the altitude training is often done as camps or some other getaway, most of these locations are low-stress small towns, and during summer the temperatures are cooler and mild. I'm sure spending weeks training in a peaceful place with great conditions helps a lot as well, since the altitude inhibiting recovery is offset by your nervous system and hormones not being as taxed by the outside world between workouts.
I think training at altitude is over valued. A lot of fast people train at altitude, but they were fast before they go there. It’s not really a causation. There are benefits to training at sea level being able to train at slightly faster paces. As well as better recovery when you’re not training.
It's another training tool. Cyclists are decades ahead of runners in understanding the benefits and limitations of altitude training and/or living at altitude. Many LRCers have a total misunderstanding. Just being at altitude for a couple weeks increases red blood cell count even if you do little or no exercise. Especially true at higher elevation (10,000 - 14,000 feet). ...Of course, elites traveling to altitude for several weeks are going to train while they're there but training at altitude is a different beast and actually has some limitations that can't be overcome completely. ...Max heart rate for instance is limited by the body and cannot go as high as it does at sea level. Period. "Sleep high, train low" is a common mantra among cyclists and altitude tents are used to by some to help induce red blood cell production sleeping while still being able to hit higher HR target zones for different workouts.
Living full time at altitude is a different beast entirely, and especially so for those born and raised and always residing at altitude. ...Some serious benefits but also some very limiting factors too. True max heart rate is never fully attained at altitude and that is a serious training limitation.
And I think this has done exactly as intended because I listened to the LR post-race recap last night and Rojo and Jon both weren't objective in their assessment of this race, because they'd heard before it that he had been somewhat ill, so within the first 300m had written off the race as 'yeah but he's ill'.
Pre-race press conference, post-race interview(s), IG post the same night, all making sure everyone knows that this result doesnt count because he was ill.
I've got no problem with him talking about an illness PARTICULARLY if he lets us know ahead of time. I mean I was stunned it was in the Norwegian press last Thursday but would rather here about it before hand than after the fact.
The more I think about it though I do have a problem with his comments on Kerr. So what if he's been at altitude for 3.5 weeks without racing? That's his right. If Jakob is being tired out from racing too much, then he could race less.
I am a huge Hocker fan since his days as a Duck but even if I weren't a fan, I'd admit the guy whose Gold Medal is still NIB can't be disrespected like this...
p.s. I am also a massive Yared and Jakob fan. I guess I just love seeing all those guys run. Plus Kessler is amazing!
The more I think about it though I do have a problem with his comments on Kerr. So what if he's been at altitude for 3.5 weeks without racing? That's his right. If Jakob is being tired out from racing too much, then he could race less.
I think the implication is that Kerr was perceived to be taking Zürich almost as seriously as Paris (by spending 3 weeks at altitude and not racing), and I for one thought he would beat Jakob again because of it. To then turn up and lay that humongous tyrannosaurus egg doesn't win him a lot of fans. Add on that stupid "dress sense" comment at the press conference, and it's easy to understand why people have so little love for The Greatest Miler In The World™
This post was edited 7 minutes after it was posted.
I’m always worried when I see Hocker post his bike rides on the roads — seems like the risk of injury (a fall, a car hits him) outweighs what little physiological benefit it provides.
excuses excuses excuses, he always seems to be sick when he loses
and Kerr was right, Jakob is surrounded by yes men who will post on letsrun to try and protect him when he loses, and downvote any post that criticizes Jakob
How does it feel knowing your hero got 5th, failed to break 3:30 and lost to Laros after saving himself the whole year?
How does it feel knowing the best distance runner in the world made a complete fool of himself and blew it with amateur tactics in the most important race that only happens every 4 years?(aside from the Covid games)
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