Amerikano wrote:
No I stand by my point. If you look at Sammy Wanjiru, he ran 26:41 as junior. He also set records in the half-marathon. Although he did pass too early in his career, he was FAR from 2-flat. I think he is the best example of a hypothetical mid-26 runner training for the Marathon in his peak of career.
The flaw is that every athlete so far who is capable of running under 26:45 has a period of adjusting their engine to be more efficient to last at the Marathon. If the athlete prepares for 10k, sure they can have a best of 26:20/26:30 (for instance Mo at the moment). If they attempt a Marathon, they get smoked by Kipsang like in 2014. Kipsang got beat by a 40 year old man last week, but is a top 3 Marathoner in the world.
Are you saying if Mo trained to run 26:20, then ran a marathon a few weeks later, he'd run close to 2:00:36? Doesn't take a complicated equation to figure that its not likely.
The reality of the distance is that no athlete can be in top shape for the 10k and Marathon at the same time. The engine needs to do two seperate things. Either you slow down the 10k time, race the Marathon or be in top shape for 10k and blow up the Marathon.
You're arguing against no one. No one here has claimed you can be in peak 10k and marathon shape at the same time. Did you even read the article?