Who is Hadd?

AS JEH and others will tell you, we will never know who Hadd actually is (other than he is NOT John Kellogg!) Hadd has told a few of us that he will vanish if we ever find out. How's that for detectives and conspiracy theorists? We don't want him to disappear, so stop searching.

Pete wrote:I can't (yet) claim any dazzling "oh-my-god" gains, but I did enjoy steady improvement and much better consistency. I ran 10 or 12 races (depending on how you count them), and hit 5 PRs (5K, twice at 5M, half-mary and full-pull). None of them were very big, but still, that's a pretty decent success rate. On top of that, my average race result was a half minute faster than the previous two years. And I turned 38 this summer. To me, that's more telling.

This year, I'm jumping on board all the way. The HRM (goddamn thing) will get strapped on more frequently, and I'll work much more methodically towards specific mileages and HRs. Then, when I'm ready, I'll move beyond Phase I (the monster thread only describes the base phase, or what he called Phase I) into the "sexier" part, and get those 7 or 8 minutes on 26.2 to win JEH's beer.

I'm glad someone bumped this, because I can look back at what I wrote before I started trying this seriously (per snippet above) and reflect on the improvements I've been able to make since then. When I wrote the above, I was 38 going on 39. My PRs, after a year of "dabbling" but not committing, were:

5k - 16:36

5 mile - 27:35

10k - 34:40

HM - 1:16:22

A year of Hadd training later, and a year older (I'll be 40 in July), I've managed:

1500 - 4:18

3000 - 9:18

5000 - 16:13

5 mile - 26:42

10k - 34:21 (very hilly course)

HM - 1:15:03

I realize none of these are stunning marks, but I'm not getting any younger. Hadd's approach is certainly not the only one, but I believe fairly strongly that it's one pretty good approach to distance training.

nice job and steady improvents for a guy as old as you Pete (ha)! Keep it up! I'm right behind you.

That is excellent improvement in my opinion, especially the shorter races (it's always nice to see master's racing on the track). I wonder if I might realize some gains by following Hadd's advice (I'm 63)? Guess I'll have to dig up that thread and give it a try.

Hey--

I'm 38 also, and have been sucking in all distances for about 5 years now. In December (before even hearing about Hadd), I just decided to try to run at least 10 miles daily and then throw in a session of fast 2x800M once a week. I did the work (didn't miss a single day) and, like you, lo and behold, I saw results. Not stunning, but results nevertheless. BOTH my 5k and marathon times are lower than they've been in 5y (16:10 recent 5k and 2:39 marathon March 6).

Hey, this stuff isn't for everyone, but I do feel that it offers advantages for guys like me who are getting older, mainly lowered risk of injury.

Have another marathon in 2 weeks, so I'll have more to report soon.

Another thing--It's a LOT of work. Not anaerobic, balls-to-the wall work, but a lot of time and grunt work (ie you won't see it on the cover of Runners World--"Run your best Marathon on 3 miles a day").

Just my 2cents.

oops, meant to say: 8x200M, not 2x800M

van wrote:

AS JEH and others will tell you, we will never know who Hadd actually is (other than he is NOT John Kellogg!) Hadd has told a few of us that he will vanish if we ever find out. How's that for detectives and conspiracy theorists? We don't want him to disappear, so stop searching.

Ha ha.....that makes a lot of sense.

"stop searching" ??? He is ALREADY gone! When was the last time he posted (at leat as Hadd) on here?? Awhile. And when was it exactly that he suddenly disappeared and shut down his e-mail? Right around the time people started saying he was JK. And what did you say "Hadd" had said? "Hadd has told a few of us that he will vanish if we ever find out(who he is). "

Looks like you've all been HAD(d) by JK!!!

It's relative.... wrote:

Looks like you've all been HAD(d) by JK!!!

Your stupidity amazes me. If you could read, you would be able to tell that John Hadd, from Italy, and John Kellogg, from Texas, are 2 completely different people.

I have spoken with both. Wejo did not even know who Hadd was and he has access to all IP addresses of every poster.

You are therefore an idiot.

Hey, maybe I am wrong.

But, how would being able to read make the difference between Hadd and JK so obvious? Chew on this:

i personally think they have similar writing styles. Yet even if you state their styles are different, that means nothing to me for sure. If I was trying to hide my identity, i could EASILY write in 2 different styles so no one would know who I was. I am doing it right now in fact, because I am actually another common poster on here. So the writing style argument is bunk

r u sayin' that because Hadd said he is from Italy, then it is without a doubt true? I hope you are not offering that as evidence. Didn't people say Hadd was trying to HIDE his identity? if so, he would obviously lie about where he was from.

r u saying wejo's comments on who Hadd is are useful? If JK is Hadd, of course JK would let wejo in on the joke, and of couse wejo would protect his identity. In fact, it would likely be a deal: JK will post on letsrun under fake name, as long as no one knows who he is, and as long as wejo keeps it secret.

finally, the supposed IP address difference (which only wejo is the source of), has also been shown to not be useful evidence. I have been told one can create fake IP addresses for anywhere. I forget how, but this was offered on another thread I think

So you have give us nothing to prove that they are not the same person. now you could be right, but your opinion is backed up by little

what would it take for hadd or JK to come on here and state the truth unequivocally? the fact that they/he have not, makes me even more suspicious. why did they both disappear? They seem similarly displeased about being identified

They probably have not come on because the supposition is a patently ridiculous "Conspiracy Theory" about something very insignificant.

Here is my evidence:

1. I have spoken to both. I am not going to reveal personal details, but I will tell, UNEQUIVOCALLY, having spoken to both, I am as certain that they are two different people as I am that I exist.

2. Even without knowing the above, I would still know they are 2 different people merely from what they wrote.

Hadd and JK's training, though similar in pushing aerobic fitness as the key to distance running success, are very, very different in many other respects.

bump.....more Hadd input and results please

I'll let you know at christmas - Remind me.

>Hadd: Early last year my wife raced near Rome and Joe came across her after the finish line and we all met up that evening for a meal and a chat about old times.

Roma-Ostia, 2002

>Hadd: My wife, the 2.36 runner, does up to half marathon at this pace, but we have never found a need for her to go longer.

$1000000 question is?

John doesn't have a girlfriend, much less a wife....case closed!

dandruff ruff ruff wrote:

John doesn't have a girlfriend, much less a wife....case closed!

Hmmmm.....wejo speaks highly of him. Maybe they could take a trip to MA to make it official??

:-)

(didn't some guy, was it "ghost" or someone like that, that loooong time ago got into a my-training-is-better-than-yours fight with JK and Wejo (or maybe rojo, I always mix those two up for some reason) on the board, and the guy ended up saying to one of the BroJo's, SERIOUSLY, "oh if you love your coach so much, why don't you marry him" ! Pretty funny stuff. But I guess you had to be there.)

My biggest issue with Hadds system is you need to have a gizmo according to do it. Most of the guy's at the top did not have even have a timex.

On his system, if you do a hard anarobic phase once you have done the base work you will peak nicely.

Hollywood material: Good HADD hunting!

I think I've posted about my improvement under the Hadd approach once before, but someone asked for more results, so I thought I'd put it out there again.

I am a 48 year old "never was" who had been trying, with varying degrees of rigor and intelligence, to break 3 hours for more than 25 years. Before I started training the Hadd way, I was zero for 15 in my prior attempts, despite having gone through the half virtually every time in the 1:28 range. I always died, to varying degrees, somewhere in the last 8 miles. My PR was 3:02:52, which was lame compared to my half marathon PR of 1:20:50. I should also point out that running high mileage (for me, at least) wasn't the issue. I had run 10,000 miles (total) in the first three years of this century.

Last year, I started trying the Hadd approach in January. After 11 months of it, I ran 2:57:43 at CIM, a five-minute PR at age 48. And this was despite the fact that I actually ran fewer miles in 2004 than I had in the previous three years. I ran less miles, and I ran the vast majority of them much more slowly, but I got a lot better. And I have never felt anywhere near as good as the 22-mile mark as I did at CIM.

Hadd once told me that he thinks I should be able to run in the 2:52 to 2:53 range within the next two or three years. I'll believe it when I see it. But I can tell you this, I'm going to stick with his program.

Hadd continues to be referenced, what, two years after he first posted and soon disappeared? If this trend continues, we can expect in another two years for still other unassuming posters to chime in, asking about Hadd, and why any of us believe his training works. Questions surrounding Hadd may continue to float about in the depth of private emails, occasionally surfacing in the murky waters that are this board, thus introducing inquisitive newcomers, for the span of the existence of the Letsrun board.

Either that, or we'll make unanimous decision that grassroots coaching is really lame, and we should all spend more time playing on x-boxes (whatever those are), and wait for things to be published. Like this new book which Kellog wrote a chapter in:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/073605362X/102-7236693-7259342