not sure how true this actually is. www.runningwritings.com has an analysis of Canova training (for Mosop and A. Kirui) and he specifically calls out the fact that while they like to do sustained efforts at ~90% MP, they dont do a ton of continuous runs at MP. They will do intervals at that pace though.
16 of the top 26 US marathoners ran between 1972 and 1989. I would have counted Kempanian but I didn't want to get greedy but he did train like the 80's guys. Puskedra just cracked the list to push Shorters 1972 time off the list , all ran 2:10:30 or better. Go down to 6 -11 and my argument gets stronger. I am looking for an overall improvement not a handful of outliers.
6. Alberto Salazar—2:08:52, Boston Marathon, 1982
7. Dick Beardsley—2:08:54, Boston Marathon, 1982
8. Abdi Abdirahman—2:08:56, Chicago Marathon, 2006
9. Greg Meyer—2:09:00, Boston Marathon, 1983
10. Bill Rodgers—2:09:27, Boston Marathon, 1979
11. Ron Tabb—2:09:31, Boston Marathon, 1983
Read more at
What's funny is this guy keeps talking about how marathoners should not run marathon pace during their long run. Frank Shorter is known for running 20 mile long runs with the last 10 at marathon pace. He has said that numerous times. If you know all there is to know about training you should tell us what marathoners should be doing.
Has anyone considered that perhaps 4:55/mi is not MP for Estrada? Perhaps he was at 90% of MP?
COL wrote:
Has anyone considered that perhaps 4:55/mi is not MP for Estrada? Perhaps he was at 90% of MP?
Ah yes, I didn't consider that he may be in 1:58 marathon shape and therefore 4:55 pace is only 90% of that. Great suggestion.
Meanwhile Matt Llano ran a 20 miler averaging a little over 6:00 pace on Saturday. Much better indicator of sub 2:10 shape than Estradas
A long run finishing at mp is a lot different than running the whole 20 at mp. The recovery period will vary wildly from person to person. No coach can predict how it will affect their athletes. The exception being athletes usually don't repeat the workout performance in a race.
What was his mileage this week?
What about this month?
What did he run the day before? The day after?
In other words if this was in the middle of a 140 mile week with no taper and he ran another 140 mile week the week after and was running 2 other workouts a week, then it was impressive.
If he ran this during a 110 mile week and that was his only quality day that week, it is meaningless.
1:49.84 - 800m Freshmen National Record - Cooper Lutkenhaus (check this kick out!!)
Jakob on Oly 1500- “Walk in the park if I don’t get injured or sick”
VALBY has graduated (w/ honors) from Florida, will she go to grad school??
Emma Coburn to miss Olympic Trials after breaking ankle in Suzhou
Men who run twice a day and the women who love/put up with them