That was a great interview, she is an amazing woman.
I liked her comment about why she was doing a second Boston Marathon:
"the one time I ran it, it was off really limited training off a stress fracture, so I didn’t really get the full experience because I crashed and burned pretty hard."
Made me laugh, crash and burned was my full experience at the multiple Boston marathons I ran!
I bet this "secret weapon" is Ryan Hall's stash of testosterone and HGH that he publicly admits to using now for bodybuilding
HaHa just look what all the HGH has done to her midsection.Turtle gut of peace.
You guys are just mean plenty of other women runners have that distended abdomin with visable abbs. Just look at Blessing Okagbare for another example.
Secret Weapons? hahaha. I've been running 50 years and can honestly say there have been ZERO meaningful training reveals in that time. Distance running training is realllly simple. What's changed? Equipment and PEDS. Those are her 'secrets'.
This looks like proving the old adage that you simply can't teach an old dog new tricks.
If we look outside of Africa, we see that the 1980's performances are still very competitive today, among non-Africans. What "equipment and PEDs" has done in the last four decades for them, is a good indication what "equipment and PEDs" can do for athletes. Nothing much changed in four decades, until the latest shoes.
What has changed in the '80s, starting with domination in World Cross Country, was the introduction of a new class of athlete that was both lightweight, and adapted to high altitude.
Secret Weapons? hahaha. I've been running 50 years and can honestly say there have been ZERO meaningful training reveals in that time. Distance running training is realllly simple. What's changed? Equipment and PEDS. Those are her 'secrets'.
This looks like proving the old adage that you simply can't teach an old dog new tricks.
If we look outside of Africa, we see that the 1980's performances are still very competitive today, among non-Africans. What "equipment and PEDs" has done in the last four decades for them, is a good indication what "equipment and PEDs" can do for athletes. Nothing much changed in four decades, until the latest shoes.
What has changed in the '80s, starting with domination in World Cross Country, was the introduction of a new class of athlete that was both lightweight, and adapted to high altitude.
I'll give you one free outside the box training idea (from a fellow outside-the-boxer).
ROWING
I first used this just out of college...it is one of the most aerobic activities there is and with the monitor right there in your face it is easy to maintain/control your power output.
Most runners are skinny and lack power so getting a good workout from an indoor rower won't happen over night...but if you stick with it - it it will happen.
It is a great way to get a good workout without pounding the legs. At one point in my training i would run a hard workout one day and row the next day (with 0 or very little running). This allowed me to get more quality training and not be tired.
When i first started i was just trying to row at 2:00 per 500 meters. Most days i would just go 10 minutes. and that was a pretty good workout. you get better from there.
My first thought was also some form of cross training. Training methods haven't reached their end form, and will continue to evolve. We know from other sports like cycling, skiing, and speed skating that athletes continue to benefit from a high volume of easy training, so they train in the 25-30+ hour per week range vs runners in the less than 15 hour range. See the thread last month on the unique training of the Olympic speed skater that trained huge hours on the bike and then set world records speed skating.
Already, some runners do add easy training hours by adding lower impact activities. Rupp is famous for adding hours by running on the lower-impact Alter-G. In really old LR threads (when Japanese women were winning Olympic marathons and medaling in the World Championships frequently), people frequently noticed that Japanese runners training in Boulder were doing a lot of extra hours walking. Allie Ostrander always got into great shape coming out of injury training mostly on a stationary bike or elliptical.
You could argue that the best runners in the world don't cross train, but that would likely be because their top competition isn't doing it - yet. In the future, it may (or may not) prove to be a necessary step to keep up with the competition.
Just speculating, but I think walking, maybe particularly up steep hills/mountains, could potentially be a great form of cross training.
I think this is what she's doing: What is Rucking? – GORUCK
I've built up some decent endurance (broken down mid 50's former D1) getting in 5 milers with a 30 lbs pack. Do some light intervals one day/long run another day. Add a couple of heavy weights days. Works great for old guys.
I imagine it would help a genetic freak training at the highest levels even more.
Given that it's the Halls we are talking about, her "secret weapons" are bound to consist of goofy things that aren't actually making any difference. Like Paula Radcliffe training 120 mpw and then thinking that her titanium necklace balancing her body's electromagnetic field was probably playing an important role in her success.
My personal guess is that she is working on holding her breath at the end of intervals, with the idea being that this will "teach her body to be able to run hard without oxygen". That's just a stab in the dark, though.
I mean, she's a pretty good runner obviously, but I think if she was forced to go back to regular shoes, her level would decrease quite a bit.
I used to do that in high school. On easy runs I'd hold my breath for a telephone pole or two. figured it was teaching my body not to panic without air. Guessing all I did was lower my IQ.
She’s probably doing a lot of placebo effect stuff like Rupp. If you believe it has an effect, it probably will have an effect. Any effect is better than no effect. Might as well believe in something (or many things) and be ignorant about the actual science.
I thought it was common knowledge that Sara will run like super frickin hard 22-24 milers and stuff, like really close to race pace. My guess would be that’s one of her “out of the box” ideas, especially since she mentioned what she learned in Africa, and that’s the kind of thing they do over there and with Canova all the time.
That’s too close to a race effort and should be saved for the actual marathon. It would also take at least a week to recover from. It reminds me of Ali deliberately taking hard punches to his head to prepare for his fights.
My first thought was also some form of cross training. Training methods haven't reached their end form, and will continue to evolve. We know from other sports like cycling, skiing, and speed skating that athletes continue to benefit from a high volume of easy training, so they train in the 25-30+ hour per week range vs runners in the less than 15 hour range. See the thread last month on the unique training of the Olympic speed skater that trained huge hours on the bike and then set world records speed skating.
Already, some runners do add easy training hours by adding lower impact activities. Rupp is famous for adding hours by running on the lower-impact Alter-G. In really old LR threads (when Japanese women were winning Olympic marathons and medaling in the World Championships frequently), people frequently noticed that Japanese runners training in Boulder were doing a lot of extra hours walking. Allie Ostrander always got into great shape coming out of injury training mostly on a stationary bike or elliptical.
You could argue that the best runners in the world don't cross train, but that would likely be because their top competition isn't doing it - yet. In the future, it may (or may not) prove to be a necessary step to keep up with the competition.
Just speculating, but I think walking, maybe particularly up steep hills/mountains, could potentially be a great form of cross training.
I think this is what she's doing: What is Rucking? – GORUCK
I've built up some decent endurance (broken down mid 50's former D1) getting in 5 milers with a 30 lbs pack. Do some light intervals one day/long run another day. Add a couple of heavy weights days. Works great for old guys.
I imagine it would help a genetic freak training at the highest levels even more.
This looks like proving the old adage that you simply can't teach an old dog new tricks.
If we look outside of Africa, we see that the 1980's performances are still very competitive today, among non-Africans. What "equipment and PEDs" has done in the last four decades for them, is a good indication what "equipment and PEDs" can do for athletes. Nothing much changed in four decades, until the latest shoes.
What has changed in the '80s, starting with domination in World Cross Country, was the introduction of a new class of athlete that was both lightweight, and adapted to high altitude.
You forgot EPO.
No I didn't -- I said "equipment and PEDs" -- unless you think EPO is not a PED.
No I didn't -- I said "equipment and PEDs" -- unless you think EPO is not a PED.
You said, "what has changed in the 80's" was a "new class of athlete". You left out what doping has done to help produce that new class of athlete. You always do.
No I didn't -- I said "equipment and PEDs" -- unless you think EPO is not a PED.
You said, "what has changed in the 80's" was a "new class of athlete". You left out what doping has done to help produce that new class of athlete. You always do.
You said, "what has changed in the 80's" was a "new class of athlete". You left out what doping has done to help produce that new class of athlete. You always do.
Fun facts: of the current 10 fastest non-African female marathoners, 3 ran with supershoes (places 2, 5, and 10), 6 were pre-ABP (1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9), all achieved in the eight years between 2001 and 2008, and the only one (the 3rd fastest so far) who got her time between 2009 and 2016 (ABP but no supershoes) was banned for irregularities in her ABP (blood doping). In other words, not a single women could run under 2:20 in seven years without crashing through the generous ABP threshold. And we all know about Radcliffe's suspicious blood values, and that she could never go under 2:22 after getting target-tested in 2005.
So far, the supershoes haven’t been able to make up for the decline apparently caused by the ABP in 2009.
10 fastest non-African women 1) 2003 Radcliffe GBR 2:15:25 pre ABP 2) 2020 Salpeter ISR 2:17:45 supershoes (Kenyan heritage) 3) 2011 Shobukhova 2:18:20 ABP era, banned and DQ'd 4) 2005 Noguchi JPN 2:19:12 pre ABP 5) 2022 D'Amato 2:19:12 supershoes 6) 2008 Mikitenko GER 2:19:19 pre ABP 7) 2006 Kastor USA 2:19:36 pre ABP 8) 2001 Takahashi JPN 2:19:46 pre ABP 9) 2006 Zhou CHN 2:19:51 pre ABP 10) 2020 Ichiyama JPN 2:20:29 supershoes
Fun facts: of the current 10 fastest non-African female marathoners, 3 ran with supershoes (places 2, 5, and 10), 6 were pre-ABP (1, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9), all achieved in the eight years between 2001 and 2008, and the only one (the 3rd fastest so far) who got her time between 2009 and 2016 (ABP but no supershoes) was banned for irregularities in her ABP (blood doping). In other words, not a single women could run under 2:20 in seven years without crashing through the generous ABP threshold. And we all know about Radcliffe's suspicious blood values, and that she could never go under 2:22 after getting target-tested in 2005.
So far, the supershoes haven’t been able to make up for the decline apparently caused by the ABP in 2009.
10 fastest non-African women 1) 2003 Radcliffe GBR 2:15:25 pre ABP 2) 2020 Salpeter ISR 2:17:45 supershoes (Kenyan heritage) 3) 2011 Shobukhova 2:18:20 ABP era, banned and DQ'd 4) 2005 Noguchi JPN 2:19:12 pre ABP 5) 2022 D'Amato 2:19:12 supershoes 6) 2008 Mikitenko GER 2:19:19 pre ABP 7) 2006 Kastor USA 2:19:36 pre ABP 8) 2001 Takahashi JPN 2:19:46 pre ABP 9) 2006 Zhou CHN 2:19:51 pre ABP 10) 2020 Ichiyama JPN 2:20:29 supershoes
How many sub-2:20s were there in the '90s, when EPO was completely undetectable?
Does anyone believe EPO even works for the marathon? Maybe some die-hard "fans" do, but it looks like many athletes don't. Remember the analysis of the Coe-called "so-called scientists" that told us that only 1 out of 9 medals won in the marathon were "suspicious", or alternatively 8 out of 9 were not "suspicious", in this mainly pre-ABP era between 2001-2012, making the marathon the "cleanest" distance event, wrt. blood suspicion.
What does the same top-10 marathon analysis look like for the men? I count 3 Japanese, one American, and one Norwegian in the top-6, all post-ABP, in 1,2,3,4, and 6 positions.
... And we all know about Radcliffe's suspicious blood values, and that she could never go under 2:22 after getting target-tested in 2005.
Another fun fact: these tabloid allegations against Paula were unanimously debunked or ignored by all of the relevant anti-doping bodies that were responsible for investigating any suspicion.
In addition to the Australian scientists performing an analysis demonstrating the relative insignificance of high blood values for winning medals in the marathon, even the peer-reviewed words of the Australian scientists explained to the rest of us how not observing the 2-hour rule and spending weeks at high altitude leads to higher blood values, reaffirming what Paula, Saugy, the IAAF, and the UKAD said and wrote about how the values could be reasonably explained without doping and would be rightly discarded.
It is not unusual for an athlete competing at World level since 1992, to reach her peak by 2005, before succombing to mother time, and injuries.