Is Laura Muir the best current pro who is not a full-time professional runner?

Runningart2004 wrote:

Anyone remember Bob Kempainen? He was a med student during his best running days.

Bob had an arrangement where he was allowed to take breaks during his Med School so he could hit intense training cycles. A large part of the reason he left high-level training and racing behind is that he recognized that to be a good doctor he had to dedicate himself to it full-time. It wasn't possible to do both for long.

Aberdeener wrote:

She is going to burn herself out before London WC, mark my words.

it doesn't sound like she's getting enough recovery and she races too often.

She should be looking at a guy like Farah who instead of racing every weekend goes to prolonged training camps in Africa multiple times a week. Why should she be racing three times as much as him?

And on top of that she doesn't just race, she goes for a PB every race.

As much as everyone love her gutsiness, it can't possibly be good for the long term.

I agree, but she is not racing a whole lot, but she does appear to be going to the well each time. Nobody can compete at a championship level multiple weekends. However, if she takes a long break and eases back into things late April or early May, she should be ok.

CellarDoor wrote:

He is a good runner, but hasn't achieved anything spectacular yet. Not quite comparable to Muir.

Has Muir REALLY accomplished that much yet? Her NR of 3:55 is obviously noteworthy, but, other than that... it's 7th at the 2016 Olympics and 5th at the 2015 world champs.

Racing constantly and always going for PBs reminds me of other runners who clearly were doping and yet no one will accuse her of doping?

I would date her

It's called making hay while the sun shines. Coe used to race a lot too.

I might be in the minority here, but I don't feel as if school counts as "not being a full-time runner". You can pick your class schedule and have ample time to run around that.

Tirunesh Dibaba is a police woman for her regular job. http://www.tadias.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/dibaba_cover1.jpg

Right, like all those guys with full time US Army jobs.

douglas burke wrote:

Tirunesh Dibaba is a police woman for her regular job.

http://www.tadias.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/dibaba_cover1.jpg

Lebron James is the best pro who is not a professional runner.

Her 3:55 is already an astonishing achievement.

Dibaba is the only one that has ever run a faster time and is generally considered clean.

CellarDoor wrote:

He is a good runner, but hasn't achieved anything spectacular yet. Not quite comparable to Muir.

Kawauchi has a world record in protected sub category - in fact he demolished the previous world record by over 20 mins. He also has an open category world record.

dgfdgd wrote:

Relative to their genders, Muir is a much better runner.

For people who have to run races in suits, Kawauchi is the much better runner as he has a world record in this protected sub category.

For undergrad classes, sure, I see what you're saying though there's quite a bit of variability there. Coming from a medical student though, professional schooling is pretty full time work. You may in your preclinical years have some flexibility in your schedule to still carve out decent time to train, but after that you're working normal hospital/clinic hours and then studying into the evening/night

CellarDoor wrote:

Her 3:55 is already an astonishing achievement.

Dibaba is the only one that has ever run a faster time and is generally considered clean.

Really? Dibaba is clean? and Jama Aden is who? and he was busted with what? Malaria medicine? 25 athletes and all were clean - after how many hours they have been tested? And how many world records his athletes have set on 17.02.2016?

Ever seen this before? O yes, Jessie Owens. Well then it is possible since he was clean for sure at that time. So nothing strange here. My mistake.

Laura Muir spent months in South Africa? Interesting.

Team Sky riders also like to spent some time there, despite all the recent new training facilities UK athletes have in UK, from lottery money as people here suggest (regarding their huge improvement in recent years - all natural of course since UKAD never caught anyone - why then they even exist, Brits just don't do it - hey NIKE see this)?

So the best UK athletes with all possible advanced training facilities from lotto money spent months abroad in probably even more advanced training facilities, right?

OK. Fine.

Maybe down there they don't need to answer to doors bell, maybe people don't use it down there same like in Ethiopia and Kenya? Lucky guys to not having them.

Asking wrote:

https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-_tE08cy2uYU/V7UDkjqL19I/AAAAAAAAARg/9CBY143rIUcLA0qHbvtUj5Cfrem8whFpwCLcB/s1600/kenyan-police-officers-win-gold-Rudisha.jpg

Don't run from the police in Kenya.

Kipsang is also a heavily occupied businessman who also runs for the police.

Being an indoor champion is like saying you got a free toy in your happy meal. big deal!

So travelling to the Southern hemisphere (where it's summer) during the miserable British winter has nothing to do with that particular choice of training location?

ck3237 wrote:

Bill Rodgers worked in a hospital and ran up to 200 miles one week.

Ron Hill worked full time and ran good marathons.

The good thing about a marathon is not many races so not many off days have to burned from the work schedule.

True. But there are races other than marathons. Hill raced nearly every weekend and was frequently off to the Continent for cross country races, was on British teams for international track meets, as well as marathons. Getting time off from work to go to races was a real issue for him.