True. However the key training venues in Japan are also NOT at altitude either. 20 years of living at and now training at high altitude pays big dividends.
Altitude is another red herring. Jakob does just fine without it.
True. However the key training venues in Japan are also NOT at altitude either. 20 years of living at and now training at high altitude pays big dividends.
Altitude is another red herring. Jakob does just fine without it.
what would be cool if someone were to document his training / lifestyle for a month leading up to his next marathon (likely the first ever REAL sub2). that would be pretty cool and would silence the doubters...surely there's a film student / runner who could make a name for themselves by doing this?
In the article he says that only the clumsy get caught doping and that he is regularly tested, sometimes every day, to make sure he isn’t popped. Hmm.
180 miles a week. 4 workout days. Two of which are 30-40k at marathon pace. It is mind boggling that anyone would recover from that to improve and do it again the next week.
Someone tell the double threshold guys they are doing it wrong.
a lot of people freaking out about Kiptum training alone (yes! must be so he can inject EPO every day!) but if you do some digging you will find that he does not want to train alone....
In actual fact he wanted to train with Kipchoge's camp but was denied - as Kipchoge could see his potential as the new King of the marathon, and given Kipchoge's desire to remain No 1 he did not want to give Kiptum any help in getting to the top.
However this has backfired spectacularly for Kipchoge. This rejection lit a FIRE inside Kiptum. It has driven him to train like a BEAST with a 'Ill show you" mentality. This is why he is doing crazy volume at a crazy pace.
He has frankly been lucky to be able to absorb it all and get to the start line intact - but he did and here we are. Kiptum, driven by the pain of rejection from his hero Kipchoge is now the WR holder in the marathon.
I would love to see Kipchoge get ahead of Kiptum at the halfway mark and then see Kiptum drop the hammer crushing Kipchoge and then seeing the look of pain and wonder on Kipchoge's face as Kiptum surges ahead.
Kipchoge comes across to me as being a bit arrogant and it's always good to see smugness get wiped off people's faces.
True. However the key training venues in Japan are also NOT at altitude either. 20 years of living at and now training at high altitude pays big dividends.
Altitude is another red herring. Jakob does just fine without it.
There is an alternative to altitude, that works even better.
In the article he says that only the clumsy get caught doping and that he is regularly tested, sometimes every day, to make sure he isn’t popped. Hmm.
180 miles a week. 4 workout days. Two of which are 30-40k at marathon pace. It is mind boggling that anyone would recover from that to improve and do it again the next week.
Someone tell the double threshold guys they are doing it wrong.
He isn't tested every day - no one is - not even a fraction of that. That's 365 times a year. I would be sceptical about whatever else he says.
I have already educated you on Wilma Rudolph's career today. I know a lot more about this sport than you ever will.
But Armstronglivs IS the foremost authority on the sport. Why else would he post literally 100's of times a day (seemingly thousands at times), if that weren't so? He is trying to educate the rest of us. That wouldn't be so insulting, except that some of us are about as old as him, have been more involved in the sport (as athletes and coaches), but don't talk down to all and sundry with an arrogant attitude that all posters, but him, are stupid.
So why wasn't Bedford running modern times if he was training that hard? Yup - he was missing something they all do today.
Perhaps with modern methods and equipment and fewer pints in the pub he could have.
Henry Rono was a full time alcoholic and ran faster than Dave did at every distance. Is it very difficult to imagine that someone with similar talent who is not getting drunk every day could run much faster?
So Dave's modern training didn't really help him; he lacked talent. Or something.
Julian's career faded early, by Tokyo '64. One of the reasons given was he overtrained.
None of Arthur's marathoners ran well in Tokyo. In 1969 he won the Canadian National Exposition Marathon in Toronto in 2:15:41 and got his all time PB of 2:14:38 in December at Fukuoka. In 1975, he'd have been 39 or 40, he won the Auckland Marathon. That's some fade.
I remember him as one of the best in the world in the early sixties. After '64 he no longer featured in that discussion. As I said, the consensus at that time was he tended to overtrain.
Rather than the doping explanation, could these incredible times be due to incredible mileage?
God it drives me nuts when people make this terrible argument. Doping allows you to recover better and can keep you healthy during intense training blocks. Pretty much every top runner would train this way if they thought their body could hold up to this. They can't, and I'm highly skeptical that Kiptum is an exception and just the next doper in a long line.
I have no idea why the "I work hard so I can't be doping" argument still holds any water.
Because it's what ill-informed but idealistic fans cling to, to believe their heroes are clean.
YouTuber El Coyote Loco trained 190mpw (all in xc spikes, good form) 2 20 mile long runs all up hills 6000m of total elevation a week in 35C heat of Italy. All on Strava. He would tempo run sub30 10K workouts whilst talking to camera.
He quit competitively because those around him were all injecting and peer pressuring him.
It is possible to run crazy mileage if you have good running form (article stated Kiptum ran barefoot so he would of had years programming a natural stride as did Kipchoge who stated he ran barefoot upto age 15 which he stated "Helped build my foundation". Bekele and Haille also ran barefoot in their adolescent years. The top 3 fastest marathoners all programmed a barefoot stride (Abebe Bikila back then was doing what Kiptum is now). I am not saying this is why they're the fastest but I think it's a key ingredient, you're only as strong as your weakest link. Put it all together, the natural stride, the shoes, high carb diet, the mileage, running from a young age and being young during your marathon peak is what is going to be needed to break 2. I also do suspect doping to be at that very top level because it's just too superhuman and he's faster than talented runners who doped like Wilson Kipsang.
But Armstronglivs IS the foremost authority on the sport. Why else would he post literally 100's of times a day (seemingly thousands at times), if that weren't so? He is trying to educate the rest of us. That wouldn't be so insulting, except that some of us are about as old as him, have been more involved in the sport (as athletes and coaches), but don't talk down to all and sundry with an arrogant attitude that all posters, but him, are stupid.
Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win a LetsRun t-shirt.Help us build the best running shoe review site for a chance to win one of 10 LetsRun t-shirts.