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I'll be very cynical & suggest that Nike will have had their say.
Isn't he supposed to be wearing some kind of new Nike "Supershoe" on Sunday ?, maybe in a few weeks I'll be able to fly through the streets of London in my own pair of Nike Mo-Flo's they only cost me £300 quid guv a bargain.
Yep, I was right......................
The real reason ££££££££££££$$$$$$$$£££££££
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/10306178/Mo-Farahs-super-shoes-could-lead-to-world-record-challenge-in-London-Marathon-says-his-coach.html
You folks all know far more about this than me but Mo is a very talented athlete: top of the tree at various distances up to HM. I just wonder if he might do something astounding probably mere wishful thinking. Wouldn't be surprised to see him leading around 20m thanks to crowd support but then he might suffer. Ah what do I know?!
Haircut it will be then! Should get to Expo around 5.30pm tomorrow if anyone else is around.
Super shoes? Biggest pile of BS ever. Sad that the sport gets subverted in this way. Same kind of nonsense that has people saying in interviews that they thought they might die during a cool half marathon for lack of water.
HR, you say he's "top of the tree" , how many World Records has he got to his name ?
Listen, I like him as a man & if he gets more young kids in to athletics then that can only be a good thing, but it winds me up some of the nonsense that you hear getting spoken about him in the British media, I regularly hear him described on TV as possibly the greatest distance runner of alltime & there are people in the studio who should know better than to not pull people up when they come out with stuff like this.
apart from that Go Mo! lol
Ah maybe on the WR side of things Steve but he has a pretty impressive recent record on medals and wins. Current 10,000m Olympic and World champion as well as current 5000m Olympic, World and European champion is pretty dynamic?
I thought the manner of his 10,000m and 5,000m double Golds marked him out as one of the greatest British athletes in my lifetime: I'd put him alongside Coe and Ovett in that regard and just to be a tad empirical there is only one other athlete in history to have been Olympic and World champion at 10,000 and 5,000 at the same time.
Not a bad medal rush which I think means 'top of the tree' was a reasonable epithet?
I suppose the thing which fascinates was Salazar's comment a couple of years ago that he thought the marathon would be Farah's best distance. We're about to find out!
Ha! So Mo and I will share something... we will both be wearing highly customised Nikes on Sunday. I expect his 25-strong design team ended up taking out most of the heel material with a Stanley knife too
As for the ££££££££££ -- if I was blessed with his talent, I'd not be averse to making some cash out of it, so long as it didn't totally lead me down a path I'd later regret. After all, you need to bank it before you retire as an athlete.
Why do women wear crop tops? Well, I have to admit I am new to the game. This Saturday was only the 2nd time ever in my life that I'd worn one. The main benefit I find is that women usually sweat on their lower backs. Maybe men do too, I wouldn't know. It's nice to get a cool breeze around the middle to cool things down a bit. Also, we have to wear two layers on top, so just cutting down on weight and density. That said, I'll be in my vest for the marathon. Gel belts and bare skin don't sound like an ideal combination to me.
Haircut. Yes. Booked in for Friday in London for a dry cut. That should get me a little closer to race weight
Only two days of carb depletion and although I'm less hungry I am really craving sugar. Tomorrow will be a more balanced day before it all swings in the other direction on Thursday.
Also cutting down the caffeine little by little. Not feeling the effects too much yet, but I still had 2 mugs of coffee and a mug of tea to get me through today.
What's with the paprika?
However.... What a competitor he is. A few years ago I thought he was yet another British loser. How wrong I was.
I can see him doing very well, but maybe he would have been better to run further than 13 miles last year to find out a bit more about the race? Or maybe not? One thing's for sure - he'll need more than competitive spirit on Sunday.
Latest odds of running -8/10 on, odds of finishing 10/1.
Don't really understand the Mo - bashing. He is unquestionably the greatest British distance runner of all time - the medals prove it. How will he react to 26.2? Who knows. He was 1 sec behind Bekele over 13.1 and he pulled out a pretty impressive debut in Paris.
If he's making some money out of Nike then good luck to him
For me, I believe that he'll break SJ's 1985 mark (which can only be a good thing), and I suspect he will be in the hunt with a couple of miles to go.
If he tries to take it to Mutai & Kipsang too early ( truly amongst the greatest runners on the planet ) I can see a DNF!
I don't think that would be quite the shoe launch that Nike are hoping for lol
I'm with HR (a bit) Mo has proven himself to be a double double winner at the highest level. Some athletes (like Paula) end up having run a fast time or two but failing on the biggest of days. Pro athletics is a bit boring for me, but I give top respect to someone that can deliver on "the" day, esp under the weight of expectation Mo had. I doubt that there's many athletes out there that would swap a double Olympic gold (or a single, or a double world, or a single world) for a world record.
evening snack of toast, cereal and chocolate birthday cake here. no paprika though ! Was wondering do you think that Jonesy bothered with carb depleting/loading or do you think he had a bag of crisps with each pint during the week before a big race?
Taper shmaper. Had a cracking track session this evening. Threshold miles, 5 x 1600 w/ 30s recovery (closer to 40 on a couple with people faffing about). I thought getting close to 5:20 would be a good target, so delighted to feel genuinely comfortable and threshold-like with: 5:18, 5:18, 5:19, 5:19, 5:16.
This evening's paprika went into an omelette with bacon, cheese and shallots. Sauteed potatoes to keep the glycogen levels up. Ha!
Olympics & World Championships are way way down the list of priorities for the top Marathon runners compared to the World Marathon Majors, I don't think there's any doubt about that whatsoever.
Even if that were true, which is debatable, give him a chance: he hasn't raced a marathon yet.
Steve6 - The Olympics and Worlds are part of the Marathon Majors!!
Regardless of what you think about Mo and his talent/morals/correct place in the pantheon of British runners etc, I think it's just hugely exciting to have a Brit who at least has a sniff of a chance of being involved at the sharp end.
PP: That's a great session off of such short recoveries. You'll be in pretty good nick the next time you run a race in anger.
I dont know any top marathon runners so cant ask them, but I'd be surprised if that was the case.
All I'm saying is if you want to cut through the smoke & mirrors & study the numbers, he's nowhere near World Record breaking pace at any distance he races at hence he's not on the top tier as opposed to the likes of Bekele, Mutai & Kipsang.
The best runners in the World are the World Record holders, I'm not sure how anyone could seriously argue against that ?
Olympics & Worlds are part of the World Marathon Majors ? That is news to me, when did that happen ?
You can't knock Farah for his double gold achievements and the fact he did one of them in London with that pressure was even more impressive IMO. I don't get the comparison between 5k/10k Olympic and world doubles against the marsthon, they're different events and challenges completely. He deserves credit for what he's done so far and as HR he hasn't done the marathon yet.
Sure he's not the greatest distance runner of all time but he's damn good, comes across well and so what about the endorsements, they all do it ffs. I can't see him winning on Sunday and he may well blow up badly but he's great for British athletics and we as British often have a knack of feeling uncomfortable celebrating an athlete/personality whereas it's the norm in other countries.
Apparently Haile is pacing at aged 41 or whatever, im sure I read that. Will be an interesting race to watch.
I can!!!
World records are (rudisha aside) broken with the help of multiple pace makers. I have always been more impressed by the ability to perform, when it matters, relying only on your ability.
and here's the link for the majors thing...
http://worldmarathonmajors.com/UK/series/article/24/
Listen I've already said I like him as a person & if he gets more young kids in to athletics then obviously that's a good thing, I just dont think he's top tier & the thing that really winds me up is when I hear people making comments on TV about him being "possibly the greatest distance runner of alltime" & no one pulling them up on it when theres people there in the studio that know what a load of rubbish it is but go along with it.
Haile Gebrselassie : 27 World Records
Mo Farah : 0 World Records
Anyway, that's more than enough from me I think, I'm going downstairs for another lager.
Believe it or not, I wish Mo all the best for Sunday.
Go Mo!
Spot on Ryan.
One reason I'm taking your Mo bash with a pinch of salt Steve is that you can't seem to decide why you want to have a go at him. First it was because he is earning £££££, when, I would point out, the Marathon Majors have a huge pot - they are chasing $1million don't forget, then it was because he hasn't apparently performed at the highest level, then it was world records. No-one on here would question for a second how brilliant Haile Gebreselassie has been so that's another redundant argument.
To me, and I guess a lot on here, Ryan has hit the nail on the head: the ability of someone like Mo Farah to perform when it really matters competitively by winning a series of gold medals including the distinction of being only the second person in history to hold the 10,000m and 5,000m Gold medals at Olympics and Worlds places him right at the top of the athletics pantheon.
Anyway a day of revision classes followed by Expo. It was good to have a discussion about something other than the taper