Do you believe Bekele did this workout?

if you check out this old sports illustrated article, you'll see that pre had bests of:

100: 10.7

200: 23

400: 49

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/8182/index.htm

(go to page 31)

based off the low end, i'd actually think he could muster a faster 400.

is this really relevant, well, hardly. just because pre could run 49, doesn't mean bekele can of course, but really, seriously, the guy can, i am sure, run just around 49 flat. i agree about the limited variation in stride length against the variable of max turnover.

hell, even my own fastest recorded 400 is 54 high(relay), but without any further specific training i'm sure i could have mustered a 53, it's just that, as a two-miler, i didn't have the need to step down and do it.

prefonstain wrote:

if you check out this old sports illustrated article, you'll see that pre had bests of:

100: 10.7

200: 23

400: 49

And how could anyone possibly believe Prefontaine ran 10.7 for 100m?

And this is wrong too:

altoroad wrote:

Ovett's PR for 200m is generally cited as 21.7.

It was a misprint. He was typically running 22.8 in his younger days, so it probably should have been 22.7

J.O. wrote:

prefonstain wrote:

if you check out this old sports illustrated article, you'll see that pre had bests of:

100: 10.7

200: 23

400: 49

And how could anyone possibly believe Prefontaine ran 10.7 for 100m?

Well I heard Webb did 10.9 in high school and pre was obviously way better so clearly he could do 10.7.

(parodying the logic of some posters on this thread that think KB could run high 40's)

I think that lack of logic doesn't just apply to the younger posters here either. Some of the coaches here don't understand speed endurance either.

Bekele has incredible speed endurance. I don't know if the Steve Magness chart is real or not, he's a very weird guy, who does multiple posts under different names on the same post talking to himself, so he could have just made that stuff up?

J.O. wrote:

And how could anyone possibly believe Prefontaine ran 10.7 for 100m?

100 yards. Pre's from the old days.

I don't get why people think this is that tough (for Bekele). 90-120 seconds rest for 4's and 2's is an eternity. Also, not sure why there are 17 peaks on the graph when he only did 16 repeats.

WOW, you marathoning letsrunners who suscribe to running world are all jealous and dumb. there is a 340/357 1500/miler in my conference who does the 4x400 at the END of the meet (after the 1500 and 800 rounds/finals) and he splits 49 easy....

so, if KB can run a 5k at almost 4 flat mile pace (and has a 330 1500 pr) it is dumb to think he cant easily run a 49x open or even 48x.

you have to realize, KB isnt like letsrunners, with their short event being the 10k. he has fast twitch and owns world records.

that being said, whether the workout is 16x 4&2 or 8x 4&2 I guarentee he could've done it.

found it here wrote:

No, that's not how you scale it.

What are these paces to Bekele? The 400's are approximately his 800 race pace, and the 200's are approximately his 400 race pace. So take the 17 minute 5ker again - he is probably a 2:05-2:06 800 guy, and a 55 second 400 runner. So this workout for him is 16 x (63 400 meter, rest, 28 200). Much harder than what you had in mind.

Honestly I don't think anyone in the world could do this workout. It's 4 miles worth of 800 pace stuff PLUS 2 miles of 400 pace stuff at the same time. No way. No one does 6 miles of very hard work in one session, with this little rest no less.

good point, yeah, I don't think he could do it anymore either.

blahhhhh wrote:

long dong silver wrote:

Maybe someone like Coe could have done it, but I doubt KB could have (Coe had about 4 secs on KB in an open 400). Consider that KB's open 400, in his prime, was 50 flat at the best.

Could Coe have beaten KB in an open 400? Yes. By 4 seconds? No.

KB could run 47. I really doubt Coe could run much faster...maybe, mid or low 46.

[quote]blahhhhh wrote:

Utter nonsense!

Coe was a 1:41 800m runner and Bekele ran 1:48. Coe is going to beat Bekele over 400m comfortably EVERY time.

Coe was a 45 high open 400 guy in 81, Bekele wouldn't break 48. Somewhere between 48.5 and 49.5 at absolute peak seems about right, with more weight towards the 49.5.

It's not the pace of the reps, but the crazy volume. He's doing the 400 at 1.44-48 pace for 800, and 24s 200 16 times, which in my opinion is unlikely even for Kenenisa Bekele.

I didn't look at the graph, so thank you to the people who clarified that just 8 400s and 8 200s were done. Still alot, but perhaps doable.

In Toby Tanser's book Eliud Kipchoge's listed toughest workout is 4 x 400 @ 55, which is much easier than what Bekele supposedly did. Bekele is faster than Kipchoge, but that much?

Numerous elite 800 meter runners consider 4 x 400 @ 800 pace to be a tough workout.

I also wonder if El Gherouj actually does 10 x 300 @ 35-36. Elite 400 meter runners are succesful without doing so much "fast" volume.

Coe more likely?!

Bull!!!

Of bek can't do it u know Coe can't!!

Red Arrow wrote:

Utter nonsense!

Coe was a 1:41 800m runner and Bekele ran 1:48. Coe is going to beat Bekele over 400m comfortably EVERY time.

Coe was a 45 high open 400 guy in 81, Bekele wouldn't break 48. Somewhere between 48.5 and 49.5 at absolute peak seems about right, with more weight towards the 49.5.

"Utter nonsense!"? Oh, my.

Yeah, the guy who got beat by less than a second in an all out sprint finish by El G (who could dust Coe at any given moment) is going to lose to a better than average high schooler.

See, KB's 800 time isn't, well, all that great because he, well, doesn't race the 800 much.

Don't get me wrong, Coe would beat Bekele...just not by 4 seconds (you do know how long 4 seconds is?) and I'd bet my life savings on KB running under 48 for a 400.

I would love to take that bet. Bekele has never done anything to indicate that he has 47.x caliber speed. Nothing! Even his 1500 is way worse than his 3k+. If he could actually run a 47 he would be running like 3:26 for 1500, so he definitely would have run it more often.

In Bowerman's biography by Kenny Moore, he said Prefontaine never broke 50 in the 400

I would bet my life savings he could break 50, but no way in hell would I bet he could run a 47.

Red Arrow wrote:

blahhhhh wrote:

[quote]long dong silver wrote:

Maybe someone like Coe could have done it, but I doubt KB could have (Coe had about 4 secs on KB in an open 400). Consider that KB's open 400, in his prime, was 50 flat at the best.

Could Coe have beaten KB in an open 400? Yes. By 4 seconds? No.

KB could run 47. I really doubt Coe could run much faster...maybe, mid or low 46.

blahhhhh wrote:

Utter nonsense!

Coe was a 1:41 800m runner and Bekele ran 1:48. Coe is going to beat Bekele over 400m comfortably EVERY time.

Coe was a 45 high open 400 guy in 81, Bekele wouldn't break 48. Somewhere between 48.5 and 49.5 at absolute peak seems about right, with more weight towards the 49.5.

Show me where Bekele has raced 800 in 1:48.

Show me when Bekele ever broke 4 minutes for the mile.

Show me where Bekele ever broke 3:40 for 1500.

Show me those race results.

Don't show me woulda, coulda, shoulda.

If Bekele can run 3:30 for 1,500...then why doesn't he.

Silly Old Fossil wrote:

Show me where Bekele ever broke 3:40 for 1500.

Don't show me woulda, coulda, shoulda.

WTF??????