A Must Read - Wall St. Journal Profile Nails Abdi Abdirahman's Personality Perfectly!!!

He eats what he wants, likes to party and runs fewer training miles than other marathoners, occasionally skipping workouts altogether.

I doubt we have the same definition of partying.

1998: 28:36.13

1999: 28:28.26

2001: 28:01.02

2002: 27:42.83

2003: 27:52.24

2004: 27:34.2

2005: 27:33.47

2006: 27:22.81

2007: 27:31.46

2008: 27:16.99

2009: 28:35.79

2010: 28:35

He has the consistency thing down. He did a great job of winning national titles. What has he done on the international stage? Not a damn thing. Perhaps if he had taken his running a bit more seriously it would have made the difference. We will never know - as 2012 London is his swan song and just like before he isn't going to a damn thing there.

It's pretty easy to tell which American distance runners are guilty of chronic over-training, and which ones are not.

People can point fingers and accuse Abdi of being lazy, but the fact remains that he's still around after all these years. There's something to be said for someone his age who can still make it to the finish line in one piece on a consistent basis.

No matter how hard he trains, I don't think his results would be any better in the international stage. Abdi's obviously very talented, but he's not a Bekele-level talent. No way.

You must be new here.

"Abdi", as insiders call him, is short, and therefore lazy and immoral.

Exhibit A: "I just wanted to eat, lie in bed and watch basketball," said Abdirahman, an American long-distance runner. "So that's what I did."

'Nuff said.

What do you mean by "hasn't done a thing"? No, he hasn't won medals, but he's finished 10th and 15th at the Olympics, and 7th, 13th, and 19th at Worlds. How many other Americans can say that?

I'm always hearing anecdotes about some Kenyan runner or another being laid back, occasionally taking a day off just because they didn't feel like running, that sort of thing. Also, I remember a T&FN interview with Bekele where he said he would occasionally get drunk and not run the next day (I believe it was January 2005).

I don't think having a good time is going to hurt you as a runner. I doubt Abdi would have set the world record or anything if he had run another 30 a week or partied less; as it is he has certainly had a very good career.

As deep as the field was at the trials this year for the men, it's still saddening that the front runners can't make a better end to the bell curve. We have a whole bunch of guys in the 2:09-2:12 range but it takes only perfect conditions to get a guy near 2:06.

I'd wear a Black Cactus shirt!

Say it aint so wrote:

1998: 28:36.13

1999: 28:28.26

2001: 28:01.02

2002: 27:42.83

2003: 27:52.24

2004: 27:34.2

2005: 27:33.47

2006: 27:22.81

2007: 27:31.46

2008: 27:16.99

2009: 28:35.79

2010: 28:35

He has the consistency thing down. He did a great job of winning national titles. What has he done on the international stage? Not a damn thing. Perhaps if he had taken his running a bit more seriously it would have made the difference. We will never know - as 2012 London is his swan song and just like before he isn't going to a damn thing there.

From the article:

"...If his running career ends without any medals in international competition, he won't feel like a failure.

"I'm not going to be like, 'What have I done! I've wasted my life!'" Abdirahman said. "No, that's not me."

If Abdi doesn't consider himself a failure for not having international medals, no one else should.

Why do you post articles from the rag of a newspaper part of the entirely corrupt Murdoch empire? It really makes you and this site look bad. You should only use legitimate news sources. I am actually surprised you found this article, I imagined you only read the editorials.

The breakdown wrote:

Why do you post articles from the rag of a newspaper part of the entirely corrupt Murdoch empire? It really makes you and this site look bad. You should only use legitimate news sources. I am actually surprised you found this article, I imagined you only read the editorials.

Are you suggesting that The Wall Street Journal is not a "legitimate news source"? Just because you disagree with the editorial page doesn't mean that the paper isn't a legitimate news source.

I read this article and thought it was kind of whack. It paints training hard and running lots of mileage and taking your training/recovery seriously as something that only crazy-OCD runners do. Honestly, if you look at the top 20-100 in the world, I think that Abdi is more the outlier than the norm. Maybe he wouldn't have done any better if he'd run 140-150MPW, but it's hard to believe he wouldn't have benefited from taking his recovery more seriously (not going out partying, etc).

It's true that he's had a remarkably long and consistent career, but part of that could be that he started running so much later than a lot of guys. Even still, if I were him, I'd rather have a shorter career but be 100% sure that I've maxed out my potential and really gone for success on the international stage than be good but not great for 4 Olympiad... But to each his own, I suppose.

Say it aint so wrote:

What has he done on the international stage? Not a damn thing.

Actually, in the grand scheme of things (and the average American's eyes), he has done exactly the same thing as Ryan Hall or Galen Rupp or Dathan Ritzenhein: Gone to the Olympics.

And he's had a great time along the way, something I'm not convinced is true of Hall.

I love it how this article paints Abdi as being a lazy slacker because he takes some days off. Dude peaks at 105 miles per week - that is not lazy!

I am not against running 140+, but perhaps if some of these other talents took days off to recover when they didn't feel their best, they would be even better.

Yes the Wall St. Journal is an arm of a corrupt Murdoch empire which lies, steals, break the laws with impunity and pays off politicians. It is difficult to trust anything coming from this news empire.

The sea yields to knowledge wrote:

The breakdown wrote:

Why do you post articles from the rag of a newspaper part of the entirely corrupt Murdoch empire? It really makes you and this site look bad. You should only use legitimate news sources. I am actually surprised you found this article, I imagined you only read the editorials.

Are you suggesting that The Wall Street Journal is not a "legitimate news source"? Just because you disagree with the editorial page doesn't mean that the paper isn't a legitimate news source.

Abdi could have been a sub 27 10k guy if he had run 130-150 mpw.

Abdi Fan wrote:

Abdi could have been a sub 27 10k guy if he had run 130-150 mpw.

Abdi could have spent his career injured and burnt out if he had run 130 - 150 mpw.

The key word you want to remember here is appropriate. There are marathoners out there running 100 mpw who are undertrained. There are marathoners out there running 100 mpw who are overtrained. That person's specific physiology, genetics, training history, etc determines their appropriate training mileage and intensity.

The breakdown wrote:

Yes the Wall St. Journal is an arm of a corrupt Murdoch empire which lies, steals, break the laws with impunity and pays off politicians. It is difficult to trust anything coming from this news empire.

Obvious troll is obvious.