The ELEPHANT in the Room about Jakob: He has stopped Improving

The someday is in reference to the future. He hasn’t done it. He could probably do it tomorrow. Yes I never implied he couldn’t. But you see some morons would say this showed he improved. But even you can see this would not be proof of improvement.

First race(?) of the season that he looked completely bored in and still ran 3:32 and you think he can't get better?

I'm sure he'll be properly motivated and prepared for Wightman later this season.

Last summer, losing W.C. 1500m to a 1:43/1:44 800m man; winning 5000m, it is logical improvement will be seen possibly as a 5000m runner.

It's got to be very hard to drop one's times when you are at Jakob's level of excellence but I believe he will do so. This was his first race of the season and it was great. My favorite Jakob win was what he did in the 5K at Eugene. Against a great field Jakob had a water break and made the win look routine. That was amazing since there were many very good runners in that race. He's a great champion and I think he will improve his already fast PBs.

Jakob is a more obvious doper than El Guerrouj - and he's probably been doping from a young age, at that. However, now that he's been and still is a star, he'll never test positive.

Nobody not on drugs runs a 1500m time around 2(800)-4.5s.

He can run 3.5s faster and he will not have gotten any better. That's a lot of time.

Some people pause for a couple years like Jakob and then take a step forward. For a lot it is sign they are close to maxing out. Last couple years have been a bit odd with COVID and championship schedules. But at a certain point he needs to run faster.

Exactly. Even sauced they can’t beat him

More like the 160 pound gorilla in the room.

What if he does double thresholds 3-4 times a week and never does sub-1500m pace except on hill sprints? If you don't work on your 800m pace, you're not going to maximize at that distance.

3:27 maybe, but Jakob's top end may not allow him to dip below 3:26. When Wightman beat him in Eugene, he didn't seem gassed, he just couldn't run any faster.

I agree he reached his peak in the 1500 already. Fortunately nobody else runs 3:28-29 as consistently right now, so he can still win, but I don't see 3:27 happening. He has room to improve in the 5k, and even steeple or 10k though

I wish I could give this 4 thumbs up. His training is tailored to be the best competitive racer in the world, rabbited or not. 3 years ago, he was training strength to defeat a front running Cheruiyot. After 2022 WC, he's been developing speed to hold off the Wightmans and Nuguses of the world.

Training to be the world's fastest time trialer does not guarantee success in championships. Jakob is going for 3 x Oly Gold.

He ran 3:46.46 for the mile last year which was his fastest mile ever to date. He just needs someone pushing him regularly to see what he can really do. As an example El G was lucky in that respect when he ran 3:26.00 because he had the likes of Bernard Lagat and one or two others who really challenged him and pushed him to the line.

That is his base training.

I agree. He has sustained acceleration but not instant bounce and recovery. That's why it will be one Farahesque dictating victory after another from the front. He learned twice in 2022 that he can't allow anyone past him late and hope to regroup...the world indoor 3000 final and obviously the outdoor 1500 to Wightman.

I look forward to the day Jakob concentrates more seriously on 5000 and up. It's beyond laughable that we still have threads here salivating over those fields as if it's one giant after another. It reminds me of last year in Eugene when I nearly hit the floor in a seizure of laughter just before the 5000 final when the announcer gushed that any among 7 or 8 could win.

No, he has been self coached for a long time now (post olympics). But Gjert is training his teammate Narve Gilje Nordas (did just pb 3.34 making him the best non-Ingebrigtsen Norwegian 1500m runner ever).

he set the 1500 WR indoors in 2022….

He still has three more years to run personal bests in the 1500 and 5k. At some the point the steady progression was going to stop from natural adolescent development. So now it takes a perfect training segment / race conditions to knock off seconds or even tenths of seconds from personal bests. The great thing is that he had years to do it. Most can’t get to his level even when they’re 25.