scorpion_runner wrote:
Renato Canova wrote:The secret ingredient in the supper is to believe that is possible to train hard in the right direction. Marathon is 42 km long, you can't prepare the distance thinking that 3 times 3 miles at Marathon pace is something specific (total distance, including 1 mile of recovery, 11 miles, not long enough for a HM too).
And, if you want to run the full distance at 3' per km pace (4'49" per mile), you can't run the long distances (which are already too short) at 5'30" per mile (that doesn't have any connection with the pace of the race).
The reason is very simple : you can't look at a final goal if you don't have the physiological possibility to reach it.
If you like to stay in some apartment with 10 rooms, with the cost of one million dollars, but you have only 100,000 dollars, the solution is easy : YOU CAN'T, and need to chose an apartment with 2 rooms only.
It's not exactly to say WE CAN : we have instead to say IF WE HAVE TALENT ENOUGH, AND WE HAVE TRAINING ENOUGH AS VOLUME AND INTENSITY, WE CAN.
Too many times athletes and coaches are not able to know, and analyze, the first part of this statement.
I think you are missing his point. He is not talking about being able to do the training. He is referring to the recovery. To run 42km at MP 30 days before the actual marathon race can be brutal, and is basically running 2 marathons in a month. How can one recover from that, and still be in peak form for the marathon race without possibly taking some type of PED? That is what he is stating.
The Kenyans are basically running 2 marathon races in a month. That is a lot of muscular stress in a short amount of time. That's why people were finding what Kipchoge did so hard to believe, including me.
Renato, to add onto scorpion's question, can you please explain what types of workouts, including long runs, these marathoners do for the 2-3 weeks between this hard 40km run and the rest period before the race? It seems like after doing that 40km run there isn't a whole lot more they would need to do other than rest. Thanks in advance