I know it's now 2-day-old news, and forgive me if I missed a post on this, but is anyone else as impressed as I am by Rothkin's performance? I know he's got the pedigree to be up there, but how does a guy from an Alpine country succeed in conditions that were nothing less than tropical, and caused many runners from much hotter countries to sucumb to the heat & humidity.
I'd love to know what, if any, kind of special preparation he did to acclimatize himself for the conditions.
Maybe because he doesn't have to wear an electric collar that zaps him anytime he leaves the borders of that Alpine country?
He had an amazing run. But don't forget he has a recent 2:08 PR. From his interview:
- How did you prepare for the conditions in Osaka?
First I ran the New York Half Marathon three weeks ago. It was humid there as well. Then I travelled to Kobe, where I trained for two and a half weeks. It is near Osaka and has the same climate conditions. From training session to training session I was getting on better with the weather conditions. Today I did not feel the heat for the first 25 k. Then of course I had to fight.
- Where do you normally train?
Before I went to New York I did high altitude training in St. Moritz. I was there with my Kenyan friend Abraham Tandoi, who was also my pacesetter in the Zurich Marathon. In the winter I usually train in Kenya and join the group with (London Marathon winner). I run between 200 and 230 kilometres per week during training camps.
Thanks. Seems he did about 3 wks of heat training, which seems to be what the studies indicate is necessary for most of the physiological adaption to take place. Maybe some of those who did more might have overtaxed themselves, as Malmo hypothesized on another thread.