His goal is to run the European Championships in August. Pending his fitness at Euros, he will plan out the remainder of the summer.
Have you read that? I saw he said that before this procedure in the Sean Ingle interview, but now we are looking at a different timeline. European Champs is not the picnic it once was, so he can’t open up there and expect to have success. He’ll need to be feeling ready in July.
Obviously, he will do some tune-up races prior to Euros, if all goes well, his primary goal is to be as close to 100% as possible in August (notice I didn't say 100%, he knows he won't be 100% fit, but he'll be competitive). His plan is to get back on his yearly training and racing cycle, so he can finish out the summer/early fall healthy and ready for his usual fall/winter training build-up.
A link to this post was provided in Rojo's article " LRC Great news: Jakob Ingebrigtsen is already up to running 8km on land as he comes back from Achilles surgery"
The title of that article is incorrect and deceptive.
JI did not have surgery on his Achilles tendon. He had surgery on the sheath surrounding that tendon.
There is the big difference between the two with regards to invasiveness and recovery.
Incorrectly calling that "Achilles surgery" is like labeling surgery on the pericardium 'heart surgery' or labeling surgery to the skin covering the knee as 'knee surgery".
You would be ignorant to think this man wont forge a comeback and put himself back into the front of the line. Will he ever win at 1500 again, odds say no. That was already happening prior to the injury. His fitness and the way he trains imo would favor the 5k/10k distances and the guy hasn’t even run a 10k yet. So, you may see his position change some but mostly it’ll be a shift to other events. I believe initially he will come back with the intent on continuing as a 1500/3k/5k guy but after a couple years he’ll shift to a 3k/5k/10k runner, and I won’t say he’s gonna light it up but he’s going to be in continue for at least another Olympic cycle after LA. That would take him to 30 yr old where it can go anyway he may hit the roads or decline on the track. He just can’t get anymore major injuries.
His 3000m is a masterpiece and I think his attitude towards that distance will be, “Been there, done that”. If he decides to move up to 5/10, it would be because he is no longer capable of running 3:26-27, which is what is be needed to approach his WR.
Even if loses his edge a bit in the 1500m, winning the 5000m in L.A still seems doable. On the mens side, former 1500m Gold Medalists don’t move up to the 10000m and I doubt Ingebrigtsen will ever run one. Hitting the roads will also never happen.
Jakob will always be relevant. At least for the next couple generations at least. He might be done as the best runner in the world. But for a generation the general consensus was that Daniel Komen’s 7:20 was unbreakable, and furthermore, that the Africans were simply too good. And a white boy from Norway said “hold my beer,” and he put the fear of a Norway god in them. So he remains relevant. And for all we know, there is no Cooper Lutkenhaus without Jakob.
For all I know, Ingebrigtsen has nothing to do with Lutkenhause’s success. It’s possible that Lutkenhause has never even heard of him.