Diniz walks a 18:35 5000 in France

at the end of the day he is still a racewalker. Nuff said.

At the end of the day he is stiil a good athlete and you are not. At the end of his carreer he will be an Olympian adn you will never have had a chacne.

at the end of the day he can walk a 5k faster than you can run....

What's really shocking is finding out France has pride.

I set the backwards blind-folded bear-crawl world record for the 5000 the other day. Why don't you start a thread about me?

because that event isn't recognized by the IAAF.

That is truly impressive. It's hard to believe anyone could actually walk that fast. When I'm fit I can barely run a 5K 60-90 seconds faster than that.

He is still gay though because of the French part...

A very good performance, Christophe. The next 2 years will be very interesting in the 50km, with Deakes, Schwazer, and the Norwegian all able to challenge the Russians and Chinese. A wide open race, unlike the 20k, where Paquillo is dominant. I raced against the best French from the 1980s, Toutain especially, and spent a pleasant week near Mezidon before a 15k race there in September 1897.

Jungleroy - it appears that you were a world class walker in your time. I have a lot of respect for world class walkers.

When I worked in Mexico (1991-93) I met some Mexican world class walkers, who trained up the volcano in Toluca. Some of those guys would sometimes enter a 10km race, and they could run around 30:00-31:00 minutes for 10km road, with little running training under their belts, such was their general fitness. I am sure if some of those guys put their mind to running, they would run around 28:30-29:30 for 10.000 and 1:03-1:05 for the half marathon. I know this, because some of the athletes were tested in the lab. and on the track. They would sometimes do some running training, and were capable of repeat 1000's in around 3 minutes, with only 1.5 minutes rest. That is the kind of training a 14:50 5000 runner does.

Jungleroy - please post the training of a typical world class walker, including the gym work and lifting of weights.

Walkers often get a bad press from all and sundry, but if you actually test world class walkers for athletic overall ability most of them are much fitter and stronger than world class runners. Well defined pectoral muscles, 6-12 pack abdominals and well defined calfs are common in world class walkers. Yoann Diniz (the world champion at 50km from France) has a similar build to Alan Culpepper (U.S.) but Diniz is stonger and has more muscular development compared with Alan, although both are extreme ectormorphs.

Ghost

coach:

christophe_moulton@yahoo.ca

njl2 wrote:

I set the backwards blind-folded bear-crawl world record for the 5000 the other day. Why don't you start a thread about me?

exactly.

racewalking is gay, no matter how many times you losers push for tolerance.

A lot of us used to spend some winters in Mexico -- high altitude, good weather, much as runners now go to Flagstaff (as do race walkers, the Plaetzers/Tysses of Norway, for example). Nevado Toluca was a favorite route because the road goes all the way to the crater at about 4,000 meters. Toluca is of course out of Mexico City, away from the air pollution. We also used to hike the steep sand trail up to the Las Cruces climber's shelter on Popocatepetl, which is closed now due to volcanic activity.

The training for walking is not unlike that of marathoning -- 150 to 250 kms per week, aerobic conditioning plus lactate threshold work plus some high speed repetitions for VO2 max development and technique efficiency.

I think the three biggest differences between walking and long distance running would be:

1. More hours per week. Individual walks of up to 3 hours for 20k preperation and 4 hours for 50k. Training volumes similar to world-class nordic skiers in the aerobic phase -- up to 20 hours per week.

2. More volume at anaerobic threshold, workouts like 4 or 5 X 5000m, or 20 X 1000, done at goal pace with short recoveries.

3. More attention to core strength.

Some information on Nathan Deakes' training is available on the internet, although he is probabaly on the higher end in terms of training volume. It is still possible to do a world-class 20km on 120 km a week if the orientaion is toward intensity and a lot of work at or near race pace.

You will find as much variation among athletes and coaching systems in walking as in running.

Come on as a runner you really shouldn't be making comments like that.

Wow you run, you put one foot in front of the other, big sport you participate in. You must be really insecure with yourself if you have to put other sports down like that. You don't respect racewalkers yet you get so angry when people don't respect runners. Guess what, you are doing the same thing you are getting angry about.

I am a runner, with respectable times but I appreciate racewalking and think that they deserve a lot of credit. [quote]anyone in his/her right mind wrote:

I also don't respect any swimming event except for the free style. Why try to race while purposfully limiting yourself?

njl2 wrote:

I also don't respect any swimming event except for the free style. Why try to race while purposfully limiting yourself?

This is a typical letsrun dumbass comment.

So do you not respect hurdlers or steeple chase runners? Because, hell, why try to race while purposefully limiting yourself by having to clear hurdles or run through water pits.

Back to my sojourn in Mexico (1990's) - many of the Mexican race walkers tried to avoid training on the road in populated areas because they would be called 'maricones' by the local populace - 'maricon' means 'gay' in Latin America, and to call someone that in Latin America is a grave insult - macho culture rules (and still does).

So the elite Mexicans usually trained in groups (safety in numbers) in safe places like the roads which led up the volcano in Toluca.

Even though Mexico has a fine tradition in race walking with many World and Olympic champion, the 'average' Mexican still has a hard time comprehending and appreciating the sport.

As Mexico is now improving economically, there are less youngsters willing to take up the sport on a serious basis, and I fear that Mexico will eventually no longer produce world class superstars. The same is happening in distance running in Mexico. The elite at the top end are less numerous, compared with glorious 70's when you had many Mexicans running under 28 minutes for 10.000 - now just a couple.

Ghost

coach:

christophe_moulton@yahoo.ca

You are right about Mexico not having a strong walking team now. In the 1970s, all their athletes lived in the CDOM, the Centro Deportivo Olimpico Mexicano in Mexico City, and all trained under Coach Jerzy Hausleber, a true national team approach. Now the program is more fragmented, and they are just another one of the top-10 nations. In the recent Pan Am Cup in Brazil, Ecuador and Colombia were both as strong or stronger than Mexico, and the USA actually won the team event on a technicality because we finished a full team at 50km (I was our second man, 9th overall at age 47, quite an anomaly, but I have been getting faster again after a 15-year vacation.) The Russians have the strongest team, the Chinese the most depth of times within their country but this is rather suspect given the questionable standard judging in their domestic races, but we will see that on any given day, another program like Spain, Italy or even Ecuador is capable of winning.

njl2 wrote:

I also don't respect any swimming event except for the free style. Why try to race while purposfully limiting yourself?

I have a lot of respect for anyone that can dedicate themselves so completely to any endurance sport.

Why try and limit yourself?

Have you tried to ride a bike before? It's the most efficient human powered machine there is.

So, by running, you are limiting yourself, because you're not on a bike.

Again, I have tremendous respect for anyone like Jungleroy. Nordic skiers, cyclist, swimmers, race walkers. And 18:35 is crazy.

Thats different, the enviroment is being restrictive, they are still using their body to its full potential. With racewalking and the butterfly you are limiting your body. I don't understand what the point of doing that is. It is about as impressive and logical as running backwards or doing a bear crawl race.

RunDaddy wrote:

So do you not respect hurdlers or steeple chase runners? Because, hell, why try to race while purposefully limiting yourself by having to clear hurdles or run through water pits.