Rets Lun wrote:
Keepin it Real wrote:5:30 pace is not fast for 12:45/12:50 5000 meter specialists.
So why then is Geoffroy Mutai (27:10 10k road PR) running so much distance @ 8 min/mile pace? He's running the shit out of guys like Rupp and Farah (27:43 10k road PR) and everybody else. But he keeps his easy days easy and he trains without a "professor coach".
Farah and Rupp have been primarily Track guys - what has their road 10k got to do with this? G.Mutai is a road guy. He has found what works for HIM, but others may be different - and while his marathon is great, why doesn't he step on a track and run sub-26.30, since you think it is all so easy for him and he does it right but others are wrong. Is it really the Canova thing that bothers you? I know very few people that can train on their own without a coach, as the latter tends to encompass training partners. Strange that Mutai manages to attract training partners to help him train (although he pays them), who is coaching them? Also, just because he says he is running that slow doesn't mean that he is - do you train with him? - he may think that he is, or even starts out that slow but goes faster as he runs. The local Kenyans guys that come over here that I have met, also start many runs slow, but tend to run much faster as the run gets going. They also tend to lose their ability as they spend more time at sea level - maybe this is also a reflection of altitude adaptation and that sea level development is different, requiring a different stimulus.
Mark Nenow also did his own thing (27.20 on the track ~25 years ago), but did a lot of steady running with little specific work - again mostly at sea level.