Hello Jeronimo
Thanks (gracias) for participate. It´s not everyday that the coach of the runner is open to expose himself about his training, but it´s the best solution to know the facts and not speculation, to know from the source and to know the facts by you.
You don´t know me but i got running passion for the distance runs, and i do participate on this Letsrun.com often. I consider myself a bit provocative, but i think this is not a fault, but more a question of my temper. Therefore when i write you are a young man, if i relate that with me that i´m closer to 60 years old, and if you are 40, then i start coaching when you were a child, there to name you young, i accept that you ask me old, no negative comment. The same when i wrote that you have no idea about marathon training. The "you have no idea" is a write style that precisely wants to say that "of course you did some mistake" and this sentence in commas i took from your post.
To finish my introducing and move to what i think are the interesting questions that you say you are open to answer, let me say that some my family comes from spain - gallicia - Vigo, and second i got great respect for the spanish runner and spanish coaches and i did learn quite a lot from them. So without have talk face-to-face with you i got respect for you. But as you might understand, the respect can´t limit the debate.
Don´t worry poor english. It´s not your and my mother language “por supuesto” !
Now the questions.
1/Long before 2012, i consider Tadesse the all time world´s best POLIVALENT runner (track, road, cross). I see he is very consistent, and he is one of the fews to defeat Bekele what did happen in Mombassa WCCC.
I watch him alive in every Lisbon HM edition that he did run. The WR he did is an astonish performance but an expected result since Tadesse is so good. This year edition he failed the WR by just few seconds due to the weather and wind conditions, but he runs so relaxed without any stress and very confident.
Question is. Why with such Tadesse great palmares he (or you) decides to run the marathon when he keeps to be the world´s best at short distances than the marathon ? What the methodological or technical reason to approach the marathon event ? Reason of money or just huge ambition to run the marathon distance that now we see it´s critical what he can do at the marathon distance when at HM, road it´s take for granted that he will run very well?
2/my first post is about comment Ross Tucker post. What you think about what he says, namely that Tadesse got no speed to run the marathon and according him the miss of basic pace to run the marathon is proved by the conservative pace that Tadesse did in this 2012 london edition. Do you agree with Tucker that he got no speed, and do you really think that he got a mind problem to face the marathon.
3/ Ok, since he tried the marathon let me say my opinion – just an opinion – Tadesse is tailed for the marathon. Little man, not very tall, very thin, very consistent, good economic foot stride, slow twitch muscles, able to lead and run in front, i read one study that says he got one of the world´s best pace economy, and very fast on HM. In my opinion this would able him not to run just 2:10, but 2:05 or sub 2:05 in a perfect flat run with perfect weather conditions. Runners of his category actually they are doing 2:03 to 2:05. Byinstance I remember that Khalid Khannouchi the year he did 2:06 and defeats Paul Tergat and Gebrelassie in London, few weeks before his London Wr he wasn´t able to run the Lisbon HM faster than 1.01. Tadesse is much faster and best than Kannouchi at point of consideration. Let´s imagine that i don´t have no idea what´s Tadesse training.
Therefore the reason of the marathon failures of Tadesse isn´t talent, it´s not ability, it´s not miss of speed pace, it´s not a mental problem, it´s not poor weather condition because the leaders did great chrono performances. Therefore if we take for granted that it´s not neither of this problems, there it lasts only one main clue, the training issue.
Besides on this 2012 marathon London edition he didn´t start at the fast pace that he did on the past marathon attempts.
What do you think is main reason to Tadesse successive marathon unsuccess?
4/To resume and a quickly sinthesis, in my opinion, if the reason of Tadesse marathon training is a fact, the problem can be just one. The Tadesse aerobic threshold is distant to the anaerobic theshold. We might debate Tadesse periodisation by periodisation, week by week, clycle by cycle, day-by-day, workout by workout, but in the style of popular magazines (as you say) i will translate why the aerobic threshold is distant to the anaerobic threshold. He trains too fast somewhere somehow. What do you think ?
5/I guess that 2 years ago i read a your paper of the university that is about training methodology. I don´t have it with me, i´m very disorganize you see and i work quite a lot, but the idea i got is that your training typification it´s not distant to the modern spanish training approach for the distance runs. Not distant from the last spanish best of the last decade or so, Fabian Roncero, Julio Rey, Jose Manuel “Chema” Martinez. It´s a coincidence that you say that you did 1 month of training in Segovia, but i didn´t guess of course, it´s not my imagination, it´s something that someone told me.
Actually that you are open to answer the questions, please, might you post the essential of Tadesse plan, that we might have a better idea what´s Tadesse marathon training profile ?
Muchas gracias once again.