Rojo's Feature With Ryan Hall Is Now Up - Discuss Here

How does a guy who runs in the 90s think he can beat guys who run in the 110-130s.

Plus, he voluntarily takes 52 days off per year at a minimum.

How does he expect to win?

Well he does have the weight vest...

Good luck to him, but I can't see him finishing higher than he did in Beijing.

This is wrong on so many levels, but the one thing I am excited about after reading that entire interview, is looking at the pictures of the custom Hyperspeeds.

A couple of notes:

It wouldn't be a Let's Run interview if there wasn't a mildly racist question in the mix, so I wasn't disappointed there.

Hall certainly likes to talk about working on his speed more than he likes doing the work. Nothing like knowing your weakness, and not doing anything about it.

Good interview overall.

From what I have read, many Kenyans take Sundays off, so there's nothing unique about that.

Read it. Support our guys at the games. That said, nothing exceptionally revealing there. Maybe the straight out lack of miles for a guy at his level.

I think it's going to catch up to him, if true.

The lack of miles is strange - for a guy trying to compete at the top, running D1 miles is weird.

I think what is going on here is that Ryan is trying to be a free spirit - he doesn't like training at altitude, so he stopped. He doesn't like having a (mortal) coach, so he stopped. He he doesn't like running big miles, so he stopped. he doesn't like racing 100% at non marathon distances, so he stopped.

So to me the question is - is being a happy athlete enough to win a medal? or do you have to embrace the suffering, do things you hate doing, to toughen up?

Is a happy Ryan Hall faster than a stressed out, tired Ryan Hall? Or is being happy a better goal than achieving potential?

Glad to see him back at some altitude, at least. It's not as high as he could go, but it's a good middleground for this late in training.

I appreciate LRC doing the piece and Hall not talking too much about the faith-based training. Pretty good interview.

agip wrote:

The lack of miles is strange - for a guy trying to compete at the top, running D1 miles is weird.

I think what is going on here is that Ryan is trying to be a free spirit - he doesn't like training at altitude, so he stopped. He doesn't like having a (mortal) coach, so he stopped. He he doesn't like running big miles, so he stopped. he doesn't like racing 100% at non marathon distances, so he stopped.

So to me the question is - is being a happy athlete enough to win a medal? or do you have to embrace the suffering, do things you hate doing, to toughen up?

Is a happy Ryan Hall faster than a stressed out, tired Ryan Hall? Or is being happy a better goal than achieving potential?

Gabe Jennings without the bongo drums?

Olympics are going to be a rude wake up call for Hall. He won't be able to compete with guys with the same amount of talent or more talent who run 130 a week.

[quote]wise old sage wrote:

Rojo, I'm really not big on the armchair grammer petrolling that goes on hear, but they're write. You really knead to have someone, perhaps you no someone who has a GED, proof-reed your righting. It is abombnable.

___

+1

Rojo - how about you post long articles like this one on the message boards, ask for grammar fixes, then you put the completed, shiny and perfect article on the front page afterwards. Some of us actually enjoy proofreading and advertisers probably do like some quality control.

As much as Hall says it isn't about his finishing time and that's it's just about competing for a medal, he nearly spells out that it is indeed about the time by saying "The real goal is just to hit a big day like in Boston." Hall got an incredible time but fourth place in Boston. I'm not saying that sub 2:05 effort isn't something to be proud of, but christ, in the end, we're competitors, not time trialists. I simply couldn't call a non-Olympic race where I got 4th place the crowning achievement of my career and be happy with that.

His phrasing to me shows he's not competitive enough, and that he would be perfectly content with a 5th place showing as long as his time was considered good. Where is the Alan Webb win or go home attitude amongst the Americans?

ghghg wrote:

How does a guy who runs in the 90s think he can beat guys who run in the 110-130s.

Plus, he voluntarily takes 52 days off per year at a minimum.

How does he expect to win?

1. How could Paula Radcliffe take one of every 8 days off and possibly expect to be competitive?

Oh wait. She wasn't competitive - she was just dominant. By your rationale, the WR holder in the womne's marathon would never be any good because she actually allowed herself to recover.

When I was training, I rarely took days off and prided on myself on out working people. But one of the key concepts of running is RECOVERY. I did a good job of incorporating that in my training but most do not.

And when I think about now, I very much see the rationale for taking a day off at least every other week even if it was proven to me that physically it's better to train every day (which that hasn't been proven). Mentally it's just such a big boost to know you didn't have to run one day.

You can go for a walk with your wife, kids, etc.

I was talking to a kid on the Cornell team the other day and he was like "Coach, i know you have for years told us to listen to my body but I never actually did that."

Don't be a slave to the numbers.

2. Grammar police - I have changed effected to affected.

ghghg wrote:

How does a guy who runs in the 90s think he can beat guys who run in the 110-130s.

Plus, he voluntarily takes 52 days off per year at a minimum.

How does he expect to win?

You just described 90% of Kenyan runners. Which one was it that you were referring to?

NJ Possible wrote:

I simply couldn't call a non-Olympic race where I got 4th place the crowning achievement of my career and be happy with that.

I am sure you would have probably stepped off the course just before the finish line to avoid the humiliation of having that 2:04 Boston Marathon 4th place on your illustrious resume.

I've mentioned this before but referencing Kenyan runners who take a day off and comparing that to Hall is TERRIBLE.

Hall takes a day off and runs 90 a week.

Kenyans take a day off and run 130 a week.

Go read Mutai's training log. He is running 3 hours a day at 8000 feet, 130 miles a week with that day off.

He's gonna be exposed in London and it won't be pretty. The same quality of judgment that let him slip into deranged fundamentalism is not helping his running, it's holding it back. But because of his mental illness, he can't see it.

TLW wrote:

I've mentioned this before but referencing Kenyan runners who take a day off and comparing that to Hall is TERRIBLE.

Hall takes a day off and runs 90 a week.

Kenyans take a day off and run 130 a week.

Go read Mutai's training log. He is running 3 hours a day at 8000 feet, 130 miles a week with that day off.

Try going to Kenya instead? Some of the guys I have trained with in Kenya have had their training logs published on LRC. Let's just say... those guys have a sense of humor too...

I don't question recovery. Knowing your body is important. Plus, the article you cite says Radcliffe still manages 120-130mpw. In her prime she was running more than that as this article below from 2002 shows. Plus Radcliffe's training is closely monitored. Ryan Hall is doing the DIY style sans Coach. I think other guys that did it themselves like Shorter even did more than 90-100mpw. Again miles as you correctly pointed out shouldn't be the goal, but how many other world class runners only do 90-100mpw?

"Salazar instituted rest days and time completely off from running at a young age so his prodigy wouldn’t burn out. In Salazar’s competitive days, a post-marathon win “recovery” week would include a total of 70 miles with no intervals. Salazar has since learned how aggressive training without breaks damages the adrenal system, causing inadequate responses to training stimuli. Currently, Rupp gets two weeks off twice a year; breaks are followed by one month of stress-free jogging with gradual progression of weekly mileage.

Having consistency in training is really important. Look at a lot of the Africans—they have one coach who’s with them throughout their careers. Having that consistency in training throughout my career has been huge for me,” Rupp says.

Through careful, closely monitored progression, Rupp has finally hit 100-mile training weeks over the past year. “Alberto’s always said he never wanted to give me everything all at once,” Rupp says. “That’s the best advice I ever got for training—keep at it little by little. If I’m going to peak at a certain age, around 30 or so, there’s no rush to do all the work right away."

"Hartmann has strong opinions about the need for athletes to eat well and take adequate rest. "The athlete who is in training can be very susceptible to picking up bugs and colds. There is that window of opportunity for so many hours after you have trained hard when your body’s defenses are low. You have actually broken down the body when you train. It’s a stressor—a distress on the body. The reason we benefit from training is that we mix hard training days with easy ones. The opportunity to break down is there after every hard training session.

"You must above all take adequate rest. Paula will regularly have a two-hour afternoon nap. The pineal gland, which is just below the brain, releases natural hormone (HGH)—which is needed to build new muscle—into the body 30 minutes after going to sleep. Sleeping twice a day releases a second dose of HGH into the body."

Then there's this.