wisenheimer at work wrote:
"At first I thought it might have just been a lucky race" - literally nobody at this age runs a 14:06 in a "lucky race". it's not just talent, it's a lot of work that pays off.
"With barely any lifetime mileage" - what does that mean? that he has trained little? wrong. he is sponsored by adidas, is in training camps and has a whole team of professional supervisors.
"lifetime mileage" at age 15...strange wording. you may ask the ingebrigtsens about their "lifetime mileage" at age 15.
"(...) more talented than Jakob Ingebrigtsen, who already trained seriously from a young age and was heavily coached by his father Gjert." - axel vang has also trained from a young age very seriously. "team axel": pia frandsen, nikolaj sorensen, nickolaj kaae. "more talented" - i don't know, neither do you.
Of course I was hyping him up a bit, since there is finally someone who can surpass even Ingebrigtsen. Daniel Skandera is still too young to bet on him.
Training camps are completely standard in Europe for kids. It's the same in the US. That has nothing to do with his abilities, kids can be 15 min 5k runners or 23 min 5k runners and both go on a training camp.
Yes, he has a mental coach, athletics coach, and physio therapist behind him. Nothing unusual for someone running 14:06 in the 5k.
Yes, his training is not "little". Since last year, he posted some of his long runs on Instagram, usually 28k (18 miles) at sub 4 (sub 6:20/mi) pace. Sounds strong for a kid, but if you keep in mind he ran 30:50 10k last year, and 30:10 10k this year, it's right in the middle of Jack Daniel's "easy range" so nothing spectacular.
His coach once said he runs 100 mpw (that was last year), but at low intensity, so he isn't training as hard as others and will have more longevity in his career. Lots of doubles. That's also a good point to the one who asked "what's his 400 speed?" - they aren't trying to develop it, who cares if he can run a fast 400 when he is in the finish LONG before anyone else is? I wanna see the US freshmen, who do lots of sprint training and plyometrics and then run 40 mpw beat a 14:06/30:11 guy in a XC race. Hell, even most seniors would have problems with the Dane!
If this kid tells us anything it's that mileage seems to be underrated. He also ran 4:04 1500 off just base mileage and threshold, without any speedwork.
And to the point that he is sponsored by Adidas since 1 year - you should actually commend Adidas for grabbing a young talent like him before Nike does. They released a new shoe (Adizero Pro), so he might be even faster now. He did do some of his former PR's in the Next% tho, admittedly.