El G and his finish.....

El Guerrouj runs his races remarkably even paced (55.5s)

3:26.00 El Guerrouj 7/14/98 (2:46.34) (39.66)

3:26.12 El Guerrouj 8/24/01 (2:46.10) (40.02)

3:26.45 El Guerrouj 8/12/98 (2:46.49) (39.96)

3:27.21 El Guerrouj 8/11/00 (2:46.22) (40.99)

3:27.65 El Guerrouj 8/24/99 (2:46.79) (40.86)

3:28.21 El Guerrouj 7/7/99 (2:47.0) (41.2)

3:28.37 El Guerrouj 8/8/98 (2:47.92) (40.45)

3:28.38 El Guerrouj 7/6/01 (unknown) (?)

3:28.57 El Guerrouj 8/11/99 (2:46.61) (41.96)

3:28.91 El Guerrouj 8/13/97 (2:48.24) (40.67)

3:28.92 El Guerrouj 8/22/97 (2:47.04) (41.88)

3:29.05 El Guerrouj 8/23/96 (unknown) (?)

3:29.06 El Guerrouj 8/17/01 (2:46.90) (42.16)

Would you say that his finish is because of his speed or because of his strength?

It seems that Hicham weapon is that he is so strong

that when everyone else has started fatiguing-that he's

strength allow him to turn it up one-two notches! While

he may not have picked up his speed greatly, his strength

allows him to maintain his last lap and beyond drives!

He must likely could run at least 1:44.5 and 7:30.0 in

the same season (if he tried). SPEED THRU STRENGTH.

The 1:44.5 we'll have to assume. Since the guy ran 7:23 2 years ago in his first race at the distance since 1994, the 7:30 is a given. He hasn't raced an open 800 that I know of since 1995 (1:47.18), but since he routinely opens his 1500s in 1:50 (and holds pace), it is fairly safe to assume a sub-1:45 (or even 1:44) clocking would be reachable.

I agree he is strong and fast. his relaxation is also a huge key to his sucess.

What can anyone out there recommend for relaxation tips/training to help DURING a race. Coaches are always yelling "RELAX!!!" But this doesn't really help when you are already racing and pumped up. Any ideas, or things you guys practice to stay calm and relaxed in action.

My coaches always instilled in his team- to relax

and run. This was done by training at such a pace

and intensity, that when race time came it was not

much harder than training.

Vipam

Interesting Take!,

Do you know what your coaches mean when they yell "Relax!"? Honestly, that's the craziest thing to be yelling in any situation do to the nature of the word, but especially at someone who is racing, it ruins their rhythm because of the amount of different ways it could be interpreted. Do they mean to slow down, or stay calm, or instantaneously move with the grace of a ballerina, or what?

Whatever the case, you can avoid anybody yelling 'relax' to you by developing a laser-like focus. This type of focus augments awareness of your body, I believe sports people are calling this kinesetic (sp?) awareness. This is of the utmost importance in any sport, especially running which involves high amounts of repetition, because that supreme kinestic awareness leads to graceful movement. Nobody yells relax at someone who is graceful. The word graceful has a feminine connotation to it, but don't let that scare you, look it up in the masculine dictionary and you find "efficiency". Moving from point A to point B with the least amount of energy should be a part of your daily routine.

Here is an exercise, that if used diligently for at least several months, will increase your focus on the track and off...Actually, before going on you might want to take a minute and ask yourself what you're expecting to hear as advice for relaxing. If you've thought of nothing, great, but if you have I'll just ask you to not put me in that same box.

Begin by moving your eyebrows inward and upward as powerfully as possible, then just back off barely from that. Next, with the brow still up and in, raise your cheeks up as high as possible, as if in a gigantic smile, and be sure to keep your eyes open, though just slightly. Don't actually smile here, either drop the lower jaw if you are going to be running/exercising, or pucker the lips and lightly place the molars together if in a situation where you can breathe primarily through the nose.

By raising the brow you have made a tool to keep your eyes focused in a more specific direction, thereby raising your efficiency X%.

The cheek muscles are raised until the bottom eyelashes touch the top eyelashes. By holding that position, you can use the eyelashes to powerfully increase the magnification of focus by Y. Look directly through the line where the two lashes meet. As long as both eyes are focused directly on the same point, there will form a line going horizontally where the two lashes meet. Also, you will have countless vertical lines from each individual eyelash. Now you have crosshares to line up whatever it is you are focusing on.

In the quest to learn how to move better, it is advisable to first learn how to not move at all. Pick something out in your room several feet from you, but no bigger than a square inch or two, pull out your crosshares and stare at it. Remember to "relax!" the eyes slightly so you are actually gazing through it, not staring. You want to get to the point where you can gaze through something small like that without your focus ever moving away, meaning it's constantly at the center of your field of vision, for at least as long as you will be doing a training session for, an hour or so? This is extremely difficult to pull off, likely nobody you know can do that for that amount of time. After you get past 15 minutes without moving your glance away, try doing it in public, which is where you'll be racing i'll assume. It's much tougher with people around, as the ego is quick to point out you look like a fool with your face looking all serious and staring at the same damn thing for the past half hour while everyone else is moving around like bees.

One of the many payoffs for a laser-like focus is that all excessive vertical or rotational movements are magnified, making them easier to correct and increase efficiency of movement...A couple runners that come to mind who have a similar (i'm not claiming they use their eyelashes consciously) racing face, though in the middle case not as intense, are Emil Zatopek, Amber Trotter, and I want to say Edith Masai? or whoever the winner of the womens short course cross country winner was this past year, it's like picture 65 or so on this sites photo link. Anyways, that should be enough to work on for quite some time if you were serious.

In case anybody was actually interested in my take on the power of the eyelashes but had no confidence because i've actually accomplished nothing...

from "The Second Ring of Power" by Carlos Castaneda...

...that particular gazing consisted of four separae actions. The first one was to use the brim of my hat as a visor to shade off the excessive glare from the sun and allow only a minimal amount of light to come to my eyes; then to half-close my eyeleds; the third step was to sustain the opening of my eyelids in order to maintain a uniform flow of light; and the fourth step was to distinguish the water canyon in the background through the mesh of light fibers on my eyelashes...As soon as I half closed my eyes, a bit of light that appeared as if it were coming from the tip of my hat literally exploded on my eyelashes, which were acting as a filter that created web of light.

It's always helped me and my runners to use the mental saying, "faster, smoother" as they ran. Not to say it, but to repeat it in their head.

Well, he's undoubtedly fast, I think he has a 47 sec 400m to his credit, but so is everybody else at his level. But, I think the reason he is so dominant is because he trains like a madman. I read that a he runs two hard sesions a day, go to www.mariusbakken.com and look under the Training Corner link on the side for more details. Its phenomonal