Kawauchi - another amazing performance

It really is amazing. We used to marvel at guys like Doug Kurtis and Kjell-Erik Stahl for cranking out so many fast marathons in such short time spans. But Kawauchi is well beyond what they were doing, which is far from a knock on them.

Absolutely. We are all fans of running and Yuki is someone although world class, he has the attributes of the common man and is easy to root for.

I hope he stays injury free for a long time because he will perhaps run some times in the future for 50k and 50M that will be hard to touch.

I remember Toshihiko Seko used to do training runs of 50 miles under the guidance of his coach Nakamura. I think that Kawauchi can probably run sub 4:50 for 50M right now. Whether he will do it, I don't know because it would most likely impact his aggressive marathon schedule.

broken arrow wrote:

Wow, a 2:10:03 only two weeks after a 2:10:53 at Fukuoka. Kawauchi is an amazing runner to say the least, his ability is world class and his recovery ability is off the charts. You just have to root for this guy, what he is doing is unprecedented.

It`s fantastic indeed! And he also put in a half marathon at 1.04 the week after Fukuoka......so 2.10, 1.04 and 2.10 in 2 weeks!

Meanwhile, the best American marathoners not named Rupp put in like 4 races a year and can't touch this guy (or the sheep farmer in Wales that races 25 times a year).

This article mentions that Kawauchi rarely negative splits:

http://japanrunningnews.blogspot.com/2017/12/kawauchi-ties-sub-220-world-record-kato.html

Is this common knowledge? I was surprised by this.

I'd love to see the splits for his best races.

On another note, I wonder if he could post a faster time if he took a break from at least marathon racing for a few months and did a good stretch of marathon specific training. His times seem to have stagnated the last few years.

Oh, and looks like he will be in Massachusetts on New Year's Day for another marathon. Probably gonna be a little different than Japan winter running weather.

Yuki Kawauchi - LIKELY DOPING - PASSPORT SUSPICIOUS - FURTHER DATA REQUIRED

Yuki faster than '2:06 guy' Rupp.

Coach Cookie wrote:

Yuki Kawauchi - LIKELY DOPING - PASSPORT SUSPICIOUS - FURTHER DATA REQUIRED

No way. What proof do you have?

vivalarepublica wrote:

On another note, I wonder if he could post a faster time if he took a break from at least marathon racing for a few months and did a good stretch of marathon specific training. His times seem to have stagnated the last few years.

Yes this has been discussed in the past and is a good topic for discussion. In my opinion I am not sure Kawauchi has the speed to run 2:05, however if completely rested and running on a fast course with ideal weather he may be able to run 2:07.

With that said, he has the ability to five minute miles (give or take 5-6/mile) for 26 miles consistently and recover very quickly, that is his special talent. Whatever it is in his physiology that allows him to do this.

broken arrow wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

On another note, I wonder if he could post a faster time if he took a break from at least marathon racing for a few months and did a good stretch of marathon specific training. His times seem to have stagnated the last few years.

Yes this has been discussed in the past and is a good topic for discussion. In my opinion I am not sure Kawauchi has the speed to run 2:05, however if completely rested and running on a fast course with ideal weather he may be able to run 2:07.

With that said, he has the ability to five minute miles (give or take 5-6/mile) for 26 miles consistently and recover very quickly, that is his special talent. Whatever it is in his physiology that allows him to do this.

I meant to state 5-6 seconds per mile in last post.

broken arrow wrote:

vivalarepublica wrote:

On another note, I wonder if he could post a faster time if he took a break from at least marathon racing for a few months and did a good stretch of marathon specific training. His times seem to have stagnated the last few years.

Yes this has been discussed in the past and is a good topic for discussion. In my opinion I am not sure Kawauchi has the speed to run 2:05, however if completely rested and running on a fast course with ideal weather he may be able to run 2:07.

With that said, he has the ability to five minute miles (give or take 5-6/mile) for 26 miles consistently and recover very quickly, that is his special talent. Whatever it is in his physiology that allows him to do this.

Special talent, indeed. Even the other elites are impressed. When it's all said and done, he will have demolished the sub-2:20, sub-2:15, sub-whatever else records.

He's his own man and does what he wants, but he has run only 2:08 with his form of training and racing. With Canova for a year on a schedule like Moen's, no reason that he could not develop to the point of beating the Japanese national record of 2:06:16 or so.

broken arrow wrote:

Absolutely. We are all fans of running and Yuki is someone although world class, he has the attributes of the common man and is easy to root for.

I hope he stays injury free for a long time because he will perhaps run some times in the future for 50k and 50M that will be hard to touch.

I remember Toshihiko Seko used to do training runs of 50 miles under the guidance of his coach Nakamura. I think that Kawauchi can probably run sub 4:50 for 50M right now. Whether he will do it, I don't know because it would most likely impact his aggressive marathon schedule.

Kawauchi has said he regularly does very long, slow runs (up to 100k) -- probably inspired by guys like Seko. I'd be interested to see him run a 50 mile. It's so different from the marathon, but he's obviously tough and should know how to fuel if he does lots of long distance training.

In many ways, Kawauchi validates Canova's emphasis on the "long fast run" as the major breakthrough in marathon training over the past 10-20 years.

It would be interesting to see Kawauchi spend a few months training to run a fast 5k/10k, then return to marathon training / racing.

zxcvxcvzxcv wrote:

He's his own man and does what he wants, but he has run only 2:08 with his form of training and racing. With Canova for a year on a schedule like Moen's, no reason that he could not develop to the point of beating the Japanese national record of 2:06:16 or so.

He sometimes run 20 x 400m at around 65-67 sec , but I think his pace at the 400s and long intervals is not fast enough. Have read he use to run around 3 min/ km at them. Had been very interesting to coach him for a year with just 6 sessions per week,speed up his distance work, and that way maximize his capacity and recovery. Then I should cut his marathons to just 3 in the year. That way I think he should beat the Japanese record 2.06.16. But we will of course never now. He goes his own way and he does it fantastic well.

coach J why are you so sure you know you could improve this incredible freak of nature? do you even coach anyone of note? total idiot

COACH J.S å ä ö wrote:

Had been very interesting to coach him for a year with just 6 sessions per week,speed up his distance work, and that way maximize his capacity and recovery. Then I should cut his marathons to just 3 in the year. That way I think he should beat the Japanese record 2.06.16.

Except that, no. You can throw speculations/dreams like this and pretend to be a great coach, but nothing never happens in reality. Besides Kawauchi is way too slow at 5-10k to break the NR.