One of my favorite running videos is of Ryan Hall, from some years back. He was one of my favorite runners, although I confess that my enthusiasm wavered when he quit his coach and said, essentially, that he was going to be trained by god. A prohibitive favorite to make the 2012 Olympic Team in the marathon, as he did for 2008 (and I was among the many who got to watch the trials, in Central Park), I recently came upon a very nice interview with him by Bob Babbit at the Chicago Marathon Expo, from CompetitorRadio.

Ryan Hall Interview

 

An addendum: I never got around to a comment made by cg a bit ago on my Wasteland post of last year (which itself was prescient because I have again left Facebook and Twitter largely for the reasons identified there) in which some uncomplimentary things were said of me. Whatever. She’s probably right.

I mention this for two reasons. cg wrote,

here’s a non-running-related one that may help…so, someone like me likely can’t lift 100 lbs (arms). but for an nfl linebacker, that’s nothing at all. the point being that some exercises for some people are ‘easier’ than others.

you’ve oft stated that you think all runners should be able to run the same workouts. i would challenge you to run the ones ryan hall suggests for your pace, then. and that’s w/no other health issues.

First, in the Hall interview, he mentions doing two sets of 6 push-ups and that he barely made it (although he notes that he could still beat the Kenyans at that) and I know I barely could. Upper-body strength: It’s relative.

Second, it is true. I’ve often said, and believe, that “all runners should be able to run the same workouts”. That’s hardly novel. It is the cornerstone of Daniels, and what I did when I coached SSRMC, including cg. The key is that the pace is different and the distance-covered is different. Should everyone be running 100+ weeks? Who has the time (and I know I don’t have the mentality). But the essence of training doesn’t seem to matter to me whether one is running a sub-5 or a sub-8 pace. It is interesting, as I’ve noted, that Hall only runs six times a week.