Comeback journey to sub 20 min 5 k at age 66....

Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, I suppose.

Since my best age-graded times from my 40s are about equivalent to your best 5k, we have roughly equivalent baseline capability so we can make some direct comparisons and see over time. My own approach, informal and half serious it may be, comes from having worked with an excellent coach for a long time. I’ve no idea whether your thoughts have any firm basis in experience or training, but I will follow along and applaud you if you reach your goal.

Take it from me ... it would have been more convincing to say 14:22.

Sir with all due respect distance running, especially at your advanced age, is not rocket science and I'm thinking there may have been other factors which precipitated your results which did not come up to your expectations.

Do you know coach Eddie McDonough at Dublin South Athletic Club near Dundrum- he's a great coach and I used to run for him back in the late 70s. I used to run with Roy Dooney (2:13:00) and people like that.

Ahahaha!🤣🤣🤣 Let me see now, my memory is still thanks in good shape🤔😉 The only Irish Masters runner I have ever coached was age 43 when I in magical 2 months (!) coached him on 5 sessions(!!) per week from a 16:30 5000m down to a Masters pb 15:37 5000m !! He should be something like 50+ age now ?

Hi buddy🖐 Your informative good answer was just to answer a trollpost. As I told in another comment I have never coached an Irish Masters runner except the then aged 43 guy who went from 16:30 down to 15:37 in just 2 months onboard the Dancan train. 🖐🧙‍♂️

That is a lie. It was proven here that there was no 15:37 Irish masters time that year.

That is a lie and has been proven here.

I was also coached by Stensson, for about 8 months. I got slower over every distance. Dancan doesn't work for me either. And the guy is weird with that helmet hair style and the wizard crap.

The only other ' Irish' guy I can remember I coached for some time was a native Kenyan who with me as coach won ( among some other wins) the Dublin half marathon in 1:04 time.

A new thrilling idea of tweaking my method the Dancan popped up in my head yesterday! 😃

But it will wait until springtime I think....

The idea to test 2 sessions per day( bike+ running) Monday-Friday and do other things I like to do Saturday-Sunday in Nils van der Poel style , the Swedish skating 5000m/ 10000m Olympic Champ .🥇🥇 🇸🇪🇸🇪🇸🇪

Yesterday, not the conversation that has been going on the NSM thread for the last few months?

also you still haven’t answered my question about race date, training meso and micro cycles? And you are already saying your Dancan needs changing ?!

No, Nils training program has nothing to do to the NSM. It's a very different program. But as I have told I have done great coaching on 5 sessions per week and when I'm now a pensioner I can just make a thrilling test tweaking my Dancan with how Nils trained.

A certain person on this thread is quite delusional.

Weird that you pop up in the NSM thread. Have no idea what any kind of training is, on the time you pop up in the thread, there's really interesting discussion about cross training, then suddenly.......you are interested in cross training.

Sure, add another element you don't understand to the ever conflicting philosophies that you have already combined. I'm sure you will manage to come up with some equally terrible results for yourself and anyone else you manage to con into letting you coach them.

Now i know why you follow Sirpoc on Strava ;-)

Coach JS is difference but in my book he's quite unique and he looks better than 99% of 65-year-olds that I know. He still has good posture and looks much younger than his age - more like a kind of rock star. He can still pull women which is impossible for most of us in that age group. Just saying....(although that last part is irrelevant to the running website)....

Coach J.S. might be quite a bit hyperbolic and a very GRAND thinker, but he knows what he's talking about. For those slamming him and saying they got slower, which is mostly trolling I think, there must be other things going on if you're serious.

I don't think his stuff is the best for a pro who really needs to maximize every variable. in fact, i feel quite sure about that. but he understands running as much as almost anybody here. of course there are some brilliant minds here like Canova. And very great high school coaches like Timo.

anyways, most people who aren't getting already very good coaching should be able to improve with him.

if you are already very familiar with the science and art of run training, and you are running the highest amount you are willing or able to do, you don't really have a reason to go with a coach, and probably aren't going to see much improvement.

It’s a bit difficult to tell as when you try and pin mr magic down to anything about his coaching plan/methodology it’s like trying to catch grains of sand.

some of this and some of that without any idea how this fit together or whether anything works - the only verifiable people he coaches have got slower, unless I’m mistaken from the various thread or have said he wasn’t their primary coach.

I’m sure Jan does has a wealth of running knowledge (I’m a coach too with 30 years of experience so I too have a wealth of knowledge) but it’s only useful if communicated in a coherent and concise narrative for others to understand and repeat - this is what is always lacking with Jan - maybe something stop him being very forthcoming about anything in particular?

I don’t know this JS dude and haven’t followed the threads discussing his coaching - real or alleged - over the years, but I do know he rubs a lot of people the wrong way for his brash claims, unsupported assertions and self-reverence. But I can’t tell, based on my limited exposure to his writing (I’ve frankly avoided those threads), whether he’s more like 430miler or Antonio Cabral, two other self-claimed high level coaches who’ve rubbed people the wrong way on here. I know from personal experience that Cabral is (was? We haven’t heard from him in a long time) the real deal as I met him 20 years ago along with many of his athletes. Is JS a real - and in some ways obnoxious, maybe because of language - accomplished coach, or not, I have no idea but will be happy to see him hit that goal, which is a pretty serious one. And anyway I’m glad for a thread that discusses 5k training for very good mid-60s runners, which I aspire to be one day.