Vincent Rousseau
World champion half marathon (1993) - 1:01.23
PR's:
5000m: 13.10
10000m: 27.23
Marathon: 2:07.20
Participated in 3 olympic games, but never got a medal.
His marathon training was focused around long singles and running at threshold.
Occasionaly did doubles, but he prefered to do mostly singles when training for a marathon.
He 'worked' in the Belgian military, but a colleague once said his only job was raising the flag once a day.
Average week in preparation for a marathon:
Mon: 28 km (10k easy, 15k @threshold, 3k easy)
Tue: 18 km easy
Wed: 35 km with final 5k fast
Thu: 10 km recovery
Fri: AM: 15 km easy PM: 18 km (15k threshold + 3k easy)
Sat: 18 km recovery/easy
Sun: AM: 15 km easy PM: 18 km (15k threshold + 3k easy)
His 'PED' was dark chocolate, consuming between 100 and 200 grams a day.
He quit eating it for a while to drop some weight, but got iron deficient a few weeks later.
Rousseau no longer follows athletics as close as before since he lost some of his Belgian records to known doper Mohammed Mourhit.
Another good (not great), but not very well known marathoner was Fred Vandervennet.
In the 80's he ran 25 marathons, 15 of them under 2:15.
His PR was 2:12.09 and he participated in the 1983 world championships.
His training probably resembled the training of Ron Clarke the most.
Working full time, he only ran between 75 and 95 miles per week (120 - 150 km),
all of it at a fast pace, and never running more than 80 minutes.
He had a 21km loop that he ran quite often; usually finishing around 1:06.
He currently coaches professional cyclists.