Kawauchi's 2012 race schedule

Thanks for this Brett. I count 8 marathons in 1 year!! This guy is astonishing. Has there been any further insights published on his training?

That win in Sydney is impressive. Not an easy course, similar to NYC.

Euro runner wrote:

Thanks for this Brett. I count 8 marathons in 1 year!!

9 marathons.

Even more impressive, so he averaged a marathon every 5/6 weeks throughout the year!

It's cool that he ran three 5ks on the track, a 1500, a 3k road race and a 5.5k ekiden stage even though his jam is the marathon.

At the end of all of those races, he ran two sub 2:11 marathons with only two weeks in between. Has anyone else ever done that? And I'd love to know his training regimen during those two weeks.

Euro runner wrote:

Even more impressive, so he averaged a marathon every 5/6 weeks throughout the year!

When are we going to get a good american athlete to throw caution to the wind and race like this. Im tired of hearing of over complicated training schedules.

Get out and get it done !

According to press reports the day after the first sub 2-11 he went for a 2hr long run. From the race schedule posted by Brett we know that he ran an easy 10k road race the following weekend. All that leaves is the other 11 days to work out ...

Montesquieu wrote:And I'd love to know his training regimen during those two weeks.[/quote]

I published a translation of a post from Kawauchi's blog back in August where he talked about his Saturday morning training group. He's still doing workouts in the park with other guys on the weekends when he's not racing, and the rest of the time it is still running in the morning before work.

Christian Hesch ran about 34 races last year.

Montesquieu wrote:

At the end of all of those races, he ran two sub 2:11 marathons with only two weeks in between. Has anyone else ever done that? And I'd love to know his training regimen during those two weeks.

Euro runner wrote:

Even more impressive, so he averaged a marathon every 5/6 weeks throughout the year!

I read on here that this was the world record for shortest time between sub-2:11s.

On a related note, how fast could Kawauchi run if he had more common sense with his racing schedule? There is no chance that this is optimal for anyone.

It may not be optimal, but keep in mind he's not doing the standard training schedule of most American marathoners (2 marathons and maybe a couple of halfs a year). His training is built around the frequent races, which are essentially workouts. Just instead of doing crazy workouts off in the mountains somewhere, he's doing them in races.

Raptured wrote:

On a related note, how fast could Kawauchi run if he had more common sense with his racing schedule? There is no chance that this is optimal for anyone.

Who gives a ****! The guy is fun to follow and is highly marketable. I bet he's having a lot of fun doing it too. Take note sponsors. I don't even know why sponsors bother sponsoring elites who only run

FishySmelling wrote:

Christian Hesch ran about 34 races last year.

"In America we have lots of schools, and a lot of mass shootings at them. In Japan they have lots of schools, so they must have lots of mass shootings at them."

Brett in Tokyo wrote:

Tokyo Marathon, Tokyo, 2/26/12 - 2:12:51 - 14th

Kasumigaura Marathon, Tsuchiura, 4/15/12 - 2:22:38 - 1st

Dusseldorf Marathon, Dusseldorf, 4/29/12 - 2:12:58 - 8th

Gold Coast Marathon, Brisbane, 7/1/12 - 2:13:26 - 4th

Hokkaido Marathon, Sapporo, 8/26/12 - 2:18:38 - 1st

Sydney Marathon, Sydney, 9/16/12 - 2:11:52 - 1st - CR

Chiba Aqualine Marathon, Chiba, 10/21/12 - 2:17:48 - 1st

Fukuoka International Marathon, Fukuoka, 12/2/12 - 2:10:29 - 6th

Hofu Yomiuri Marathon, Hofu, 12/16/12 - 2:10:46 - 1st

This is just the marathons pulled out. Honestly that is a pretty decent marathon career! Never mind a year. Three times sub 2:12, five times sub 2:13. Actually very comparable to say Brian Sell's entire career marathon production. Unreal.

This is one hell of a week:

Sydney Marathon, Sydney, 9/16/12 - 2:11:52 - 1st - CR

Nittai University Time Trials 1500 m Heat 12, Yokohama, 9/22/12 - 3:50.51 - 1st - PB

Nittai University Time Trials 5000 m Heat 37, Yokohama, 9/23/12 - 13:58.62 - 7th - PB

That's a heck of an impressive year.

In a way I love what he's doing and the work ethic he shows. In another way I wonder if he's undercutting himself and could get his marathon times down with a more selective running schedule, or could have a longer career with fewer races. Or maybe he's showing a better way to be a marathon runner, more like what Bill Rodgers and some of the guys in the 70's did. I don't know the answer.

Anyway, I think he's right up at the top of most interesting and inspiring marathon runners out there.

Part of what's interesting is that he came on really strong at the end of a year like this. I'm pretty sure the Oshu 30k was a CR. Ageo was the third-fastest half he has run so far, and Fukuoka and Hofu were the third and fourth-fastest of his marathons.

troof be told wrote:

FishySmelling wrote:

Christian Hesch ran about 34 races last year.

"In America we have lots of schools, and a lot of mass shootings at them. In Japan they have lots of schools, so they must have lots of mass shootings at them."

What does that have to do with blood doping? Way to bring up a tragedy for no reason, using it so trivially to push an agenda. You must support gun control.