Yuki Kawauchi is going to fry himself (look at this fall/winter racing schedule)

I love this guy. I fear for his Olympic dreams as you do though.

I think his low mileage (compared to most elite marathoners) helps him recover and perform as well as he does.

TLW wrote:

I think his low mileage (compared to most elite marathoners) helps him recover and perform as well as he does.

In my opinion that cannot be enough. Marathons are hard on you. Obviously Kawauchi is tough as nails, but there are physical limits.

Just take this to the extreme -- could he race a marathon every week and reach his potential? Of course not.

Sure seems like he'd be better off spreading these long races out more. If he must race, do a 1/2 or a 10 miler. Oh well...

You really have to wonder what he would do if he had a 6 month build up like the pros he races against. He has run 2:08 on his one a day schedule. You have to think that he is capable of 2:06, at least, on a full time training program. Maybe he is able to race every month because he is actually underperforming by 5-7 min at each race. Extrapolated to us slow runners, it would be like a 2:45 marathoner running a 2:55 marathon every month. Hard, but not necessarily a prescription for disaster.

naked mermaid wrote:

Just take this to the extreme -- could he race a marathon every week and reach his potential? Of course not.

Sure seems like he'd be better off spreading these long races out more. If he must race, do a 1/2 or a 10 miler. Oh well...

He's not racing a marathon every week.

I raced every week when I ran my fastest marathons.

Carlos Lopes raced every week in the months up to his Olympic Marathon victory and record.

J.R. wrote:

He's not racing a marathon every week.

I raced every week when I ran my fastest marathons.

Carlos Lopes raced every week in the months up to his Olympic Marathon victory and record.

You seem to miss the point. I didn't say he's racing a marathon every week. You probably agree that would be a bad thing.

I also didn't say he's racing too much. I said he's racing marathons too much.

His upcoming schedule is a little more relaxed, with a low-level half marathon in early Jan., a low-level ekiden in late Jan., the Marugame half in early Feb., then Tokyo in late Feb. where he says he's going for 2:07.

His 5k pr is pretty nasty

The worrrmmmmm wrote:

His 5k pr is pretty nasty

Yeah, for being in middle of a bunch of marathons, I'd say it's pretty impressive.

naked mermaid wrote:

You seem to miss the point. I didn't say he's racing a marathon every week. You probably agree that would be a bad thing.

I also didn't say he's racing too much. I said he's racing marathons too much.

I'm saying you're wrong.

J.R. wrote:

I'm saying you're wrong.

And that's why you see any other world class marathoners running several marathons in one season?

I'm not sure that these are all hard efforts for him. He's a 2:08 guy running several minutes off of his PR It's still a lot of racing, but he should be able to bounce back.

high fiber wrote:

J.R. wrote:

I'm saying you're wrong.

And that's why you see any other world class marathoners running several marathons in one season?

Yes, that could be it.

Daniel Komen.

I honestly love Yuki, but he needs to get real to not end up like Daniel Komen.

http://running.competitor.com/2011/05/features/what-ever-happened-to-daniel-komen_27486

Komen seems like he was just trying to cash in/didn't care about running much. I get the opposite feeling from Kawauchi.

freak.of.the.run wrote:

Daniel Komen.

I honestly love Yuki, but he needs to get real to not end up like Daniel Komen.

http://running.competitor.com/2011/05/features/what-ever-happened-to-daniel-komen_27486

In other words, keep doing what he's doing.

Did you read the story of Komen? Good story.

Then the slide began ... Komen was neglecting his fall training in favor of partying and spending his money.

One day Komen casually told one of Tom Ratcliffe’s assistants, “I don’t have to train as hard anymore. I’m already here.”

There's a good lesson there.

Guys like Ron Hill and Jack Foster would often run 6-7 marathons a year along with many more short races and had long careers. Maybe 2-3 of the marathons were full throttle efforts and the others were lower key. It looks like Kawauchi is doing something along those lines.

I think he is just that different , the pace at which he races is not that destructive to him . We are imparting our views of how we feel after a marathon effort or think others would at this type of effort.

If rested I agree he is a 2:06 marathoner.

It's his attitude that is setting him apart, and it's that attitude that yields his racing schedule.

Better to be a has-been than a never-was.