Stop being lazy and making excuses wrote:
See Callum Hawkins. Move up to the thon earlier. Before professionalism was a thing in distance running(meaning you made no money in running), there were plenty of guys knocking out 100+ MPW with full time jobs. It's all about how bad do you want it.
Does Callum Hawkins work full time? Impressed if he does.
Big Stick wrote:
John was referring to European athletes.
The US is the only place in the world where the sport is truly healthy, from High School through College and the Professional ranks. I would advise any aspiring European middle/distance runner (Ingebrigtsen's excluded) to seriously consider college in the US.
The Irish athletes who performed well on the world stage almost all came to school in the US. Irish standards have dropped dramatically since athletes started staying at home.
Coach education in Europe has left a lot to be desired. When the running boom took place there were thousands of people looking for coaching qualifications most of them had very little background in the sport. The governing bodies quickly formed or revamped their coach education programs as they saw an opportunity to keep control and make money.
The problem is that what they taught these new coaches was absolute garbage.
Exercise physiologists were consulted to form curriculum and their mantra was as a previous poster pointed out "less is more" So we have all these new coaches going into the system preaching the information they had been given, low mileage/high intensity is the best system!
It took a few years to fully become implanted but those years saw a gradual decline in standards to the present dismal place that Europe finds itself in now. How on earth do they expect Europeans running 70 miles a week to beat basically more talented Africans running double that amount?
I was asked what my favorite sports quote was a few weeks ago and answered with my own quote from 1995 " the African athletes are so good if they start taking drugs we are f----d".
+1. SpotOn!
Or he's out of touch up in his ivory tower.
amateur runner wrote:
Stop being lazy and making excuses wrote:
See Callum Hawkins. Move up to the thon earlier. Before professionalism was a thing in distance running(meaning you made no money in running), there were plenty of guys knocking out 100+ MPW with full time jobs. It's all about how bad do you want it.
Does Callum Hawkins work full time? Impressed if he does.
Before he made his breakthrough in the marathon, do you think he didn't work a second job outside of running?
Jon Treacy ran 7.45, 13.16, 27.48, 1.01, 2.09. This level was good in his day but today he wouldn't be at all competitive.
Any Euro runner wanting to be competitive will need more talent and/or superior training than Treacy.
Mopac wrote:
Jon Treacy ran 7.45, 13.16, 27.48, 1.01, 2.09. This level was good in his day but today he wouldn't be at all competitive.
Any Euro runner wanting to be competitive will need more talent and/or superior training than Treacy.
That’s absolutely fair but John was competing in the 70’s & 80’s.
You can’t measure this with watch but he won two world cross country titles as well as an Olympic silver in the marathon. His record speaks for itself.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:
Or he's out of touch up in his ivory tower.
He’s not really an ivory tower type of man but yeah if it works for you.
Ciro wrote:
Mopac wrote:
Jon Treacy ran 7.45, 13.16, 27.48, 1.01, 2.09. This level was good in his day but today he wouldn't be at all competitive.
Any Euro runner wanting to be competitive will need more talent and/or superior training than Treacy.
That’s absolutely fair but John was competing in the 70’s & 80’s.
You can’t measure this with watch but he won two world cross country titles as well as an Olympic silver in the marathon. His record speaks for itself.
And he ran that 2:09 at Boston for third place. Which most years that will get you top three at Boston, even today.
Ciro wrote:
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:
Or he's out of touch up in his ivory tower.
He’s not really an ivory tower type of man but yeah if it works for you.
The testimony he gave is, well, exactly testament to it.
Mopac wrote:
Jon Treacy ran 7.45, 13.16, 27.48, 1.01, 2.09. This level was good in his day but today he wouldn't be at all competitive.
Any Euro runner wanting to be competitive will need more talent and/or superior training than Treacy.
He ran.as fast as he had to run at the time. He was a great runner, but less talented than Carlos Lopes, Mamede and Antibo for sure, but he was a chamoionship runner.
One can think that had he been running in this era, his pbs would be more like 13.05, 27.10, 60.00 and 2.06.
Seems to make absolutely no sense considering Mo Farah's success.
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot wrote:
Ciro wrote:
He’s not really an ivory tower type of man but yeah if it works for you.
The testimony he gave is, well, exactly testament to it.
How so?
Ghost1 wrote:
Mopac wrote:
Jon Treacy ran 7.45, 13.16, 27.48, 1.01, 2.09. This level was good in his day but today he wouldn't be at all competitive.
Any Euro runner wanting to be competitive will need more talent and/or superior training than Treacy.
He ran.as fast as he had to run at the time. He was a great runner, but less talented than Carlos Lopes, Mamede and Antibo for sure, but he was a chamoionship runner.
One can think that had he been running in this era, his pbs would be more like 13.05, 27.10, 60.00 and 2.06.
How would he run those times?
Train harder, smarter, be more professional and dedicated. He was beaten by plenty of guys with similar times. There is no reason to believe he would've ran significantly faster. Yes a great competitor in his day. I am not knocking him or his great record.
Those were the standards of the time and he reached that level through hard work etc.
Nowadays though a runner running such times is basically a nobody.
I doubt any Euro/Non African runners are hitting those times today off less than 160 to 200 quality kms. Certainly the Aussies that have in recent years run faster than Treacy's times are training at that level.
So who are these athletes who aren't training hard enough?
Treacy's finest moment
I remember that race well. A good lesson to the smart arse Ovett.
I was a big fan of the gritty little Irishman back in the day.
Ghost1 wrote:
Mopac wrote:
Jon Treacy ran 7.45, 13.16, 27.48, 1.01, 2.09. This level was good in his day but today he wouldn't be at all competitive.
Any Euro runner wanting to be competitive will need more talent and/or superior training than Treacy.
He ran.as fast as he had to run at the time. He was a great runner, but less talented than Carlos Lopes, Mamede and Antibo for sure, but he was a chamoionship runner.
One can think that had he been running in this era, his pbs would be more like 13.05, 27.10, 60.00 and 2.06.
Well no because he didn't run as fast as the fastest runners of his own era. He had enough incentive to be faster then.