Yorkshire Fell wrote:
Just read an interesting article about him in the month’s Runners World. It talks about how his coach really works on timing his peak for the major championships. I guess we knew this.
They disagreed about him running the indoor world 3k though- Josh wanted to do it to win on home soil. Coach didn’t want him to (guess it didn’t t work with the schedule).
Then he broke the UK mile record. So he’s in the best shape he’s been. I’d argue this is why he’s backed off further racing of the 1500m. He can’t hold the peak for months and months. So I think it’s understandable and fair enough!
He’s been working towards this for years. Just because everyone wants to see him race more doesn’t mean he has to. Jakob is coming back from injury so needs to get race sharp. Kerr does not.
Running is much harder to race a lot as compared to soccer or basketball where players can turnover every 3-4 days during the season which is hectic enough for them. But soccer and basketball are different sports, doesn't have very niche physiological or neuromuscular requirements or fibers as say the 1500m or mile. It's a more general exertion of the body in soccer and basketball, a little bit of every system in the body, but it's different for an all-out specialist in the 1500m/mile.
Even El G who did race every week only could do it for 4-6 weeks max, and he needed a break of a few weeks before coming for another round of 4 weeks of weekly racing and then season is over and he would go into hibernation for the rest of the 7-8 months of the year of no racing. He isn't racing in those 7-8 months isn't he???? But the soccer and basketball fellows are playing for 11 months of the year twice weekly for local and international fixtures and they are fine but El G couldn't race weekly for 11 months of the year right???
So, what Jakob is doing isn't that fantastic. Jakob doesn't race a ton too. He only races intensely within a very short window of 2-3 weeks and backs off for another 2-3 weeks to rest and recover. That's not called RACING EVERY WEEK RIGHT?????? And he will do this for at most 2-2.5 months max and sure enough he like El G will go into hibernation and do no track racing for the next 4-5 months until January or February or March in indoors. Running cross country in December isn't counted as 'racing' as he isn't racing on the track which is the question of concern. Cross country racing is very easy and soft on the legs and with good biomechanics and natural affinity for the surface and if there are no anthropogenic RF antennas for miles around then the racing is actually more like an easy-moderate run as Kenenisa Bekele will attest. It was so easy for him, always doing back to back doubles with no rest days for short and long course. He always jogs across the line as well while the rest were always struggling to no end in sight. The difference was just galactic.