Ben True: "Everything else is just gimmicks" Theory

True whines about gimmicks while doing form drills. What specifically is he referring when he says gimmicks? Cross training? Weight training? It's unclear and comes across pretty stupid.

watch videos of Rupp & Farah lifting - tons of single-leg stuff where they work on driving the opposite knee up - all geared towards developing balance/coordination/power & helping them run fast.

Canova always talks about how everything you do in training should be done to support the specific goal (be able to run X pace over Y distance in your goal race) - AlSal's lifting & other supplementary stuff is designed with that in mind. he's not just in there putting them through the paces because it's something they "should be doing" or "should do because others do it". it's done with purpose.

adfadf wrote:

True whines about gimmicks while doing form drills. What specifically is he referring when he says gimmicks? Cross training? Weight training? It's unclear and comes across pretty stupid.

Gimmicks are the things other people do.

Perfect post!

jvhv wrote:

adfadf wrote:

True whines about gimmicks while doing form drills. What specifically is he referring when he says gimmicks? Cross training? Weight training? It's unclear and comes across pretty stupid.

Gimmicks are the things other people do.

Maybe Ben True and Sam Chelanga should use some gimmicks. I've never seen two runners open up a season so strongly and then faded into B-Class American distance runners.

blue blue blue collar wrote:

On his most recent Flotrack episode - "Sam (Chelanga) and I are of the philosophy that the more you run, the better you get at running, everything else is just gimmicks" - Thoughts?

(Not sure how Salazar would take this one)

So how much do they actually run?

Super ZIPS? wrote:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/local/2013/11/09/washington-a-world-apart/

North Yarmouth, ME is in the 84th percentile in terms of salary and education. Surrounding towns range from 65%-91% and drops off considerably from there. The area surrounding Ann Arbor has considerably more wealth/depth than that of North Yarmouth, ME.

Why did we pick Ann Arbor?

84% is strong, but it's nothing like growing up around Bridgeport, CT or the 'burbs of Boston. And for anyone who has visited Maine, you know they have to work for everything. Not too many inflated 6/7 figure finance jobs for anyone willing to work 13 hour days.

Right, hard to beat Bridgeport.

Kipketer_Pumpkin_Eater wrote:

Top Shelf wrote:

With those non-gimmicks Farah should have easily eclipsed the Marathon time of Jones who had bad food, little sleep and lived at sea level.

Yeah, Mo Farah, what a slouch! has been dominating championship track 10ks and 5ks for awhile now. 3:28-mid-high 1500m, on the all-time list. 2:07 marathon. The man is unique in his accomplishments, all-time, and definitely unique among people walking in this age. I guess those gimmicks didn't work for him? Steve Jones was a marathon specialist. You can't compare the two. Steve Jones has no double gold medals on the track to his name.

Jones was not a Marathon specialist. Neither was Lopes. They just happened to run it well with 10k/Cross Country training.

I can compare the two because Mo was using all his gimmicks to try to beat the record set by Jones.

He could not. He did not even beat the time Jones ran in his debut.

Orly wrote:

Koneko wrote:

Cut the blue collar crap. True grew up in the lap of luxury in one of the most wealthy areas of Maine. Dude has had everything handed to him.

North Yarmouth, ME:

The median income for a household in the town was $60,850, and the median income for a family was $65,000. Males had a median income of $42,986 versus $29,179 for females. The per capita income for the town was $25,180. About 0.6% of families and 2.3% of the population were below the poverty line, including 1.2% of those under age 18 and 3.3% of those age 65 or over.

Ah, $65,000/yr for a family. The lap of luxury.

My brother's wife is from Yarmouth. There are some very wealthy people in that town, don't fool yourself. Kinda like the Westchester County of Portland.

^Yarmouth and North Yarmouth are two different towns.

Why would Steve Jones not be considered a marathon specialist? Since you know the facts better than I, can you share a synopsis of his career and what distance (track distance, cross country) training and racing he was doing that would qualify him as not a marathon specialist? If you look on common sources of information (contemporary magazines, IAAF, wikipedia), the conspicuous facts are continuous participation at a high level in marathons.

Even if what I think you're saying proves to be the case, relative to Mo Farah, the conspicuous continuous participation in marathoning still stands, and Steve Jones' distance achievements don't compare to what Mo Farah has accomplished and is arguably capable of. Mo Farah is being judged from solely a marathon debut! Steve Jones did not run his lifetime PR in his first marathon and ran many marathons.

This is not any disrespect in the slightest to Steve Jones. I just don't get why Mo Farah gets disrespect. I thought his marathon debut was fantastic in the grand scheme of things. Fans should not expect debuts like Eluid Kipchoge and Kenenisa Bekele achieved. Furthermore, those athletes arguably had more time to prepare and had more time elapsed from being relatively non-competitive/not at the top in track distance. Just one summer before Mo Farah's debut he achieved double gold in Moscow and 3:28 1500m. A summer before that, double Olympic gold.

jvhv wrote:

Gimmicks are the things other people do.

POJ

Alright, it appears that like Mo Farah, Steve Jones was a 5k/10k athlete up til about the 30-year age mile stone. At any rate, if you have any sources/repositories of information (books, websites) that you could share, that would be really cool. I see your side of the argument. Steve Jones went from doing the 5k/10k focus to achieving near PR marathon form quite quickly. The age and timeline is a point of comparison. I can also see the viewpoint where fans would expect a tremendous athletic phenom at middle-distance and distance to transfer some ineffable talent and prowess to the marathon, and to be judged, whatever the case, to see what they can put out. I can see the viewpoint where Steve Jones was phenomenal and Mo Farah seems underwhelming.

I watched Mo Farah's marathon debut live. I don't know the facts on the many marathons and particularly the early ones Steve Jones ran.

But, still, Mo Farah has only ran one marathon so far. There is the theory, too, of opportunity cost in athletic ability and someone with as much high achievement and perhaps natural or trained ability in 1500m to 10k, might have a lack of leftover mojo for the marathon. Maybe Farah even went to the well, hard, all those championship race summers, as, although some of the championship races were not fast in absolute terms, the trend in the Mo Farah age has been a long, grinding, super-fast nasty finish to thin out the contenders.

Jones on an absolute perspective started off as a 5k/10k specialist. But I would say that the marathon was his best event. Since Farah has not only been personally a specialist but the world-beater and world-specialist at 5k/10k, it would seem surprising if the marathon became his best or even long-term specialty.

Another hypothesis is that going to the marathon from an early age may be a relatively new phenomenon in terms of sheer numbers and custom, which I think is mostly influenced by financial factors. Maybe Jones was made to marathon.

Some of these gimmicks might help True develop a kick like Farah, Rupp, Cain, and now Levins.

Just run baby.

Kipketer_Pumpkin_Eater wrote:

Top Shelf wrote:

With those non-gimmicks Farah should have easily eclipsed the Marathon time of Jones who had bad food, little sleep and lived at sea level.

Yeah, Mo Farah, what a slouch! has been dominating championship track 10ks and 5ks for awhile now. 3:28-mid-high 1500m, on the all-time list. 2:07 marathon. The man is unique in his accomplishments, all-time, and definitely unique among people walking in this age. I guess those gimmicks didn't work for him? Steve Jones was a marathon specialist. You can't compare the two. Steve Jones has no double gold medals on the track to his name.

yeah, lets not turn this in to a thread praising mo farah.

70s kid wrote:

strength training

good nutrition

sleep

altitude tents

these are not gimmicks

I agree with most of what you have to say but there is NO proof that altitude tents are anything more than a gimmick.

Altitude has as may disadvantages as it does advantages. Don't make the mistake of drinking the Kool-Aid

Just saying...... wrote:

70s kid wrote:

strength training

good nutrition

sleep

altitude tents

these are not gimmicks

I agree with most of what you have to say but there is NO proof that altitude tents are anything more than a gimmick.

Altitude has as may disadvantages as it does advantages. Don't make the mistake of drinking the Kool-Aid

wut

gimmicks = taking it off the crete!