Post marathon Blog Post from Paul Pollock

Myles Splitz

https://www.ppmarathon.com/uncategorized/my-body-feels-young-but-my-mind-is-very-old/

HigginsJ

"Maybe it was the change of diet to the Japanese cuisine of fish and rice in the lead up"

Is this not a very very odd thing to allow happen, for us beginners everything I read is about honing what you eat and sticking to it, not trying something new in the week/day of the marathon.

TFBubendorfer

HigginsJ wrote: »

"Maybe it was the change of diet to the Japanese cuisine of fish and rice in the lead up"

Is this not a very very odd thing to allow happen, for us beginners everything I read is about honing what you eat and sticking to it, not trying something new in the week/day of the marathon.

Getting the food he is used to in Japan may have been impossible. He wasn't travelling with his own personal chef after all.

average_runner

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

Getting the food he is used to in Japan may have been impossible. He wasn't travelling with his own personal chef after all.

Wonder did Callum Hawkins have his own personal chef?

Johnny_Fontane

reading through it, when he said he was in trouble at mile 8, im thinking, good effort. Then he runs a pb and 2.15 :rolleyes::rolleyes:

HigginsJ

TFBubendorfer wrote: »

Getting the food he is used to in Japan may have been impossible. He wasn't travelling with his own personal chef after all.

I don't know that but he has an agent and to quote himself

"As one of only a few international athletes, we were treated like kings, and I cannot be more grateful to the race organisers and their friendliness."

To me this would indicate that had he/his agent put in a bit of ground work then maybe they could have got stuff they would be used to at home. It's just an odd thing for an elite athlete to allow to happen. If you or I were flying to Japan for a marathon we might be stuck but you would think he might have pull to get some stuff in place.

Myles Splitz

HigginsJ wrote: »

To me this would indicate that had he/his agent put in a bit of ground work then maybe they could have got stuff they would be used to at home. It's just an odd thing for an elite athlete to allow to happen. If you or I were flying to Japan for a marathon we might be stuck but you would think he might have pull to get some stuff in place.

[/COLOR]

Happens all the time with elite athletes, not as glamorous as you think. "Treated like kings" could be as simple as a put up in a nice hotel and meals covered, not getting foods imported to a southern Japanese island.

To give you some perspective I have worked with someone elite athlete (World medalists etc) who were delighted with being given a bed, meal voucher for local Italian restaurant and a few therapists (myself included) doing pre and post race massages and treatments.

HigginsJ

Myles Splitz wrote: »

Happens all the time with elite athletes, not as glamorous as you think. "Treated like kings" could be as simple as a put up in a nice hotel and meals covered, not getting foods imported to a southern Japanese island.

To give you some perspective I have worked with someone elite athlete (World medalists etc) who were delighted with being given a bed, meal voucher for local Italian restaurant and a few therapists (myself included) doing pre and post race massages and treatments.

Thanks for this.

Cracking performance all the same.

El Caballo

Johnny_Fontane wrote: »

reading through it, when he said he was in trouble at mile 8, im thinking, good effort. Then he runs a pb and 2.15 :rolleyes::rolleyes:

I think he was looking a running something a little quicker than that tough, probably in the 2:10 range and 5 minutes at that level is pretty huge. If he was in that shape, 2:15 would feel grindy and a four minute positive split for an elite is a decent leak of time and pain I'd imagine.

Having read the Blog before seeing the thread on here I don't think he was saying the issue was solely down to nutrition. He was more surmising that may have had something to do with it, or maybe the travel or maybe just a bad race. I took it in the context he was more thinking out loud and was still unsure.

For someone who struggled with injury he now has a couple of Marathon cycles behind him and while the race did not go to plan albeit running a PB it would seem likely we could expect to see a decent progression from him perhaps down to around 2:12 in the next year or 18 months.

Tombo2001

I find with PP that rightly or wrongly he always has very high ambitions as to what he might achieve. He ran a PB here - 2.15; maybe he didn't feel great, but its still his PB. To give it some perspective - it makes him the 28th fastest Irish marathon runner in history.....In recent years Martin Fagan and Mark Keneally have both run over a minute quicker, Sergiu, Clohissey and Seaward have all run quicker - albeit on the 'fast course' in Berlin. The recently deceased Jim McNamara ran quicker 30 years ago, and John Treacy's national record is 5.5 minutes quicker.

He's saying he had a bad race - he had a split of 66 minutes; 69 minutes - I don't know if that's a hugely negative split for a Marathon - but maybe he just didn't feel great because he went out too fast. Its one thing to do a 65 minute half marathon when you know you have a mile left at the end of it - quite another to do it when you have another 13 to go.

OOnegative

Down to run the Barcelona Half on Sunday.

Testosterscone

OOnegative wrote: »

Down to run the Barcelona Half on Sunday.

Joined by Dooney and Travers

Itziger

Dooney, 1.04.57
Pollock, 1.05.40

24th and 28th places.

Itziger

3 Brits in the top 10. resurgence in British distance running?

OOnegative

Itziger wrote: »

3 Brits in the top 10. resurgence in British distance running?

Sure Mo has been at it for years Itzi!!! Ben Connor ran well I believe, haven’t seen any results but he’s been coming for past few years, doing well over XC.