Hall did not train at altitude - WTF is he thinking?

Junk Master wrote:

Not to state the obvious, but Jesus never trained at altitude.

On the contrary, many biblical scholars consider the Sermon on the Mount his best performance.

Junk Master wrote:

Not to state the obvious, but Jesus never trained at altitude.

Fishing Instructor wrote:

On the contrary, many biblical scholars consider the Sermon on the Mount his best performance.

BOOM! QOTD!

Albuquerque's at 5200 ft and you can train up in the mountains as high as 10000 ft and while there is sometimes snow in the lower areas of the mountain, rarely is there any in the city, and the temperatures aren't very low at all, so it is a good winter training city at altitude. But if you grow up at altitude and train there for a long time, the altitude effects do not just go away when you train at sea level. I found significant improvements training in a semester in Abq, but then continued to pr at multiple distances in the years after I left, with the altitude effects seeming to persist for six months. And Hall has said over and over that at higher altitude at big bear or mammoth he is not able to train at the speeds necessary to go with the surges at marathon majors. This could well work very well this year before altitude effects decrease significantly for him. I hope that he has been training (or will train, for the Olympics) at much higher speeds with pace changes.

God told him not to.

"He's been waking me up a lot in the middle of the night recently, telling me things I should do. Then when I do them, I feel absolutely amazing."

http://olympictrials.runnersworld.com/2012/01/12/ryan-hall-pre-race-qa/

God told him mountains and hard training are bad!

I think altitude training is overrated. There were very few of us if any back in the late 70's-early 80's that trained at altitude including myself, Bill Rodgers, Greg Meyer, Joanie Samuelson, Patti Dillon, Alberto Salazar, the list goes on. Frank Shorter was the only one I knew who did as he lived in Boulder. I'm not saying it won't help some runners but I think Ryan Hall can run 2:08 or faster not training at altitude and that's far faster then anyone else can run right now in the US.

Dick Beardsley wrote:

I think altitude training is overrated. There were very few of us if any back in the late 70's-early 80's that trained at altitude including myself, Bill Rodgers, Greg Meyer, Joanie Samuelson, Patti Dillon, Alberto Salazar, the list goes on. Frank Shorter was the only one I knew who did

Frank Shorter won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. Remind me how Rodgers and Salazar did there.

Joanie is a different subject - back then womens Marathon wasn't really competitive yet. 2:30 will never win a womens Marathon anywhere again.

Dick Beardsley wrote:

I think altitude training is overrated. There were very few of us if any back in the late 70's-early 80's that trained at altitude including myself, Bill Rodgers, Greg Meyer, Joanie Samuelson, Patti Dillon, Alberto Salazar, the list goes on. Frank Shorter was the only one I knew who did as he lived in Boulder. I'm not saying it won't help some runners but I think Ryan Hall can run 2:08 or faster not training at altitude and that's far faster then anyone else can run right now in the US.

I can't wait to see how someone who has raced marathons exclusively off altitude training, performs after an extended stint of training at sea-level. It's a fascinating, rare experiment on a high performance athlete.

I'm and exercise physiologist and Altitude isn't beneficial it just breaks down the muscles and decreases fitness. It is only beneficial if you lived at altitude and trained at sea level. Otherwise it's useless and pointless.

Uhoh wrote:

Joanie is a different subject - back then womens Marathon wasn't really competitive yet. 2:30 will never win a womens Marathon anywhere again.

Her time in LA would have won in Beijing by ~2 minutes.

Hall isn't training at altitude but when he's not running he lives in an altitude tent-

http://video.competitor.com/2010/07/running/runcenter-what-ryan-hall-does-when-hes-not-running/?utm_source=HPmarquee&utm_medium=running

(starts at 2:11)

Uhoh wrote:

Dick Beardsley wrote:

I think altitude training is overrated. There were very few of us if any back in the late 70's-early 80's that trained at altitude including myself, Bill Rodgers, Greg Meyer, Joanie Samuelson, Patti Dillon, Alberto Salazar, the list goes on. Frank Shorter was the only one I knew who did

Frank Shorter won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. Remind me how Rodgers and Salazar did there.

Joanie is a different subject - back then womens Marathon wasn't really competitive yet. 2:30 will never win a womens Marathon anywhere again.

Surely you're joking...

joanie ran 2:22. Her Olympic win was weather like it was in Athens. Brutal. Go back and look at the footage

Fishing Instructor wrote:

Junk Master wrote:

Not to state the obvious, but Jesus never trained at altitude.

On the contrary, many biblical scholars consider the Sermon on the Mount his best performance.

Nice

Uhoh wrote:

Frank Shorter won a Gold Medal at the Olympics. Remind me how Rodgers and Salazar did there.

Joanie is a different subject - back then womens Marathon wasn't really competitive yet. 2:30 will never win a womens Marathon anywhere again.

The 1980 Olympics didn't happen for Rodgers, remember?

Relax!

It's not like he's running against the Kenyans and he doesn't have to win, just needs finish in the top 3. Why bother?

Rodgers was a notoriously bad hot weather runner. No matter where he trained, he was never gonna medal in the heat. And Salazar was already past his prime by '84. It would be idiotic to say that neither of those guys ever medaled because they didn't train at altitude.

The fact of the matter is that some runners just don't respond well to altitude training. Others do. And I imagine some can do just fine either way. We'll find out if Hall is one of those guys. I agree with Dick: Hall's enough better than everyone else that it shouldn't matter tomorrow.

Yep, they just drop down to Sedona for the day and run repeats and then return to Flag...

Surely you're joking...

joanie ran 2:22. Her Olympic win was weather like it was in Athens. Brutal. Go back and look at the footage

Don't get me wrong. Joanie was amazing - and still is. However, I don't think she would be able to win in 2012 with her 1980's form. She would still be in the mix, but OG, no way.

Dick Beardsley wrote:

I think altitude training is overrated. There were very few of us if any back in the late 70's-early 80's that trained at altitude including myself, Bill Rodgers, Greg Meyer, Joanie Samuelson, Patti Dillon, Alberto Salazar, the list goes on. Frank Shorter was the only one I knew who did as he lived in Boulder. I'm not saying it won't help some runners but I think Ryan Hall can run 2:08 or faster not training at altitude and that's far faster then anyone else can run right now in the US.

yeah but most of you were on steroids (before they were actually a controlled substance) and who knows what else before the testing really hit.