I am no expert here but you can't ignore the fact that Hall was running 2:06 after training at altitude and 2:04* after training at altitude. You can also not ignore that virtually all Kenyans train at altitude.
Two questions arise here:
1. How big is the difference in the Marathon with vs. without alt training? My guess is 3 minutes.
2. Is he on something (CERA?) that makes altitude training obsolete?
If you look at the qualifying times, Hall can certainly afford to give 3 minutes to anyone in this field.
orbitboy wrote:
If you look at the qualifying times, Hall can certainly afford to give 3 minutes to anyone in this field.
My thoughts as well. I would be more concerned if he does not implement some blocks of altitude training leading up to London.
orbitboy wrote:
If you look at the qualifying times, Hall can certainly afford to give 3 minutes to anyone in this field.
Well, he was in 2:08 shape for Chicago (and probably last year in Boston, too). +3 minutes and you're at 2:11. That's probably good enough but may be a close call.
Didn't the articles posted on here from Rojo say he has done training stint in Flagstaff and Palo Alto? Last I checked Flagstaff is considered high elevation no?
Paul Tergat gave up on altitude training. He said that it broke him down too much and that he got better results when staying away from 8000 ft. Given that Hall grew up at altitude, trained his entire career at altitude and complained that he was suffering from exhaustion when last training with Mahon, it might not be a bad idea to try a marathon build up at sea level to make sure he good quality rather than straining at altitude. It will be interesting to see whether it works for him.
Nutella1 wrote:
Well, he was in 2:08 shape for Chicago (and probably last year in Boston, too). +3 minutes and you're at 2:11. That's probably good enough but may be a close call.
That's why I said "if you go by qualifying times" rather than "most recent race." And I doubt he gained an entire 5 minutes with the conditions at Boston last year. Three minutes, perhaps. But not five.
I've said elsewhere that I think 2:11 will get you on the team tomorrow. I think this race will go a whole lot like 2008, including race times.
Where does hall train at sea level?
I think he said Redding the other day?
didnt do too bad that last stretch at stanford.
Redding is almost 500 feet above sea level.
That's altitude.
he's thinking he needs speed to run with the best marathoners and that the work he needs is better accomplished at sea level.
he's thinking he overtrained at altitude in the past and nearly ruined his career, why risk it when he is already in 2:08 shape?
he's thinking that top US track runners are the only threat for the win.
he's thinking the trials race is at sea level.
altitude is great if you lack conditioning but not so great if you lack speed.
overtraining at altitude is pretty much the only way Hall could blow it.
A bunch of guys are gonna start off fast tomorrow and blow up and barely break 230 that's my prediction
Redding is more or less sea level, but Hall regularly trains in Flagstaff, which is at altitude. I don't know if he actually uses an altitude tent, but there is that gag video of him in an altitude tent with a bedpan.
Given the fact that the trials are in January, I doubt there are too many places at altitude with decent running in the winter.
As far as I know, the Hansons group never trains at sea level and has done pretty well.
Altitude is way over-rated. He could never get the leg turnover he needed in Mammoth. Moving to Redding and training at sea level was the wise thing to do. He is going to blitz the trials course tommorow. Just wondering did Khalid Khannouchi(sp?)train at altitude other than a few stints in N.M ? I thought he usually trained at home in N.Y....it's Attitude not Altitude.
Factoids wrote:
As far as I know, the Hansons group never trains at sea level and has done pretty well.
Obviously that should have been "the Hansons group never trains at altitude and has done pretty well"
Nb Dickie wrote:
Altitude is way over-rated.
I think the following guys would beg to differ: H. Gebreselassie, 2xMutai, M. Mosop, K. Bekele, P. Makau, W. Kipsang.
Not to state the obvious, but Jesus never trained at altitude.
Nb Dickie wrote:
Altitude is way over-rated. He could never get the leg turnover he needed in Mammoth. Moving to Redding and training at sea level was the wise thing to do. He is going to blitz the trials course tommorow. Just wondering did Khalid Khannouchi(sp?)train at altitude other than a few stints in N.M ? I thought he usually trained at home in N.Y....it's Attitude not Altitude.
In Flagstaff, you can train at altitude but workout at lower elevations.