But the most direct way to get better at the marathon is to run more miles. As long as it doesn't kill or injure you. That is a different story.
It's an old concept and it wasn't even true then.
Wiki:
Salazar's competitive decline is often attributed to the stress on his body from that memorable Duel in the Sun detailed in the eponymous book by John Brant.[10] Salazar recounts falling into a "more-is-better" mindset which led him to reason that if 120 miles per week yielded a certain level of success, then 180 miles (290 km) or even 200 miles (320 km) would bring even better results. This intense and grueling regimen of such extremely long distances led to a breakdown of his immune system, and he found himself frequently sick, injured, and otherwise unable to continue training. After failing to make the 1988 Olympic Marathon Team Salazar opened a successful restaurant in Eugene, Oregon. Although only able to stagger through four or five miles per run, he remained obsessed with training. Brant wrote that "He couldn't run, yet he couldn't stop running." Salazar unsuccessfully visited the Stanford Sleep Clinic and a cardiologist, had surgery, and trained in Kenya. In 1994 he said that "For most of the last 10 years, I hated running. I hated it with a passion. I used to wish for a cataclysmic injury in which I would lose one of my legs. I know that sounds terrible, but if I had lost a leg, then I wouldn't have to torture myself anymore."[10]
It's nice to finally see someone running really fast and it seems to be due to a ton of work. It is discouraging seeing really fast people who don't run very high mileage and don't hammer hard workouts, and just some how run fast. Kiptum and Levins I guess are two who have run their Area/world records in the past year by running a ton of mileage.
I actually think it would be a mistake to shut down K2 for a month... give him the traditional 2 weeks off as Canova advises, then get back into it, but shorten the base mileage phase and move into the fundamental and specific training sooner so he can line up in an WMM early 2024 or hold off until Paris... but that seems very far away for someone training so hard.
Rather than the doping explanation, could these incredible times be due to incredible mileage?
ALL of it matters: high mileage, super shoes, etc.
Everyone else in the race was running 2:04 or slower, those aren't really super times. Top American was 2:07, just like we've had before a decade ago. Super shoes aren't why he just ran 2:00:35. You could put him in any shoe and he's beating any time ran before 'super shoes'. He's over 2 minutes faster than Dennis Kimeto's 2:02:57, the shoes don't make you that 2 minutes 22 seconds faster. Kiptum is blowing some of the top runners in the world out of the water.
K Kiptum does need to think like a professional, not someone trying to please letsrun folk. K Kiptum can become a very wealthy man. He want to be able to do this for a dozen plus years. Limit of 145 miles per week seems about right. Diminishing returns past 145 miles per week.
But the most direct way to get better at the marathon is to run more miles. As long as it doesn't kill or injure you. That is a different story.
It's an old concept and it wasn't even true then.
Wiki:
Salazar's competitive decline is often attributed to the stress on his body from that memorable Duel in the Sun detailed in the eponymous book by John Brant.[10] Salazar recounts falling into a "more-is-better" mindset which led him to reason that if 120 miles per week yielded a certain level of success, then 180 miles (290 km) or even 200 miles (320 km) would bring even better results. This intense and grueling regimen of such extremely long distances led to a breakdown of his immune system, and he found himself frequently sick, injured, and otherwise unable to continue training. After failing to make the 1988 Olympic Marathon Team Salazar opened a successful restaurant in Eugene, Oregon. Although only able to stagger through four or five miles per run, he remained obsessed with training. Brant wrote that "He couldn't run, yet he couldn't stop running." Salazar unsuccessfully visited the Stanford Sleep Clinic and a cardiologist, had surgery, and trained in Kenya. In 1994 he said that "For most of the last 10 years, I hated running. I hated it with a passion. I used to wish for a cataclysmic injury in which I would lose one of my legs. I know that sounds terrible, but if I had lost a leg, then I wouldn't have to torture myself anymore."[10]
It is, in fact, true. Seems most runners nowadays refuse to acknowledge the effectiveness of mileage. If you’re able to handle it and recover, it WILL increase your aerobic fitness.
