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ING NEW YORK CITY MARATHONNovember 2, 2010Bob LarsenNEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK Q. Does it really matter in terms of Meb's preparation who is in it and who is not in it? We talked about what the strongest field is and how there are some great Half Marathoners and all that, but is that really going to affect much how he approaches it? BOB LARSEN: How will this race be tougher than the San Jose Half Marathon, is that what you're asking? Q. I would hope it would be? I would mean in comparison to 2009. BOB LARSEN: I think 2009 was the best field they've had up until this year. Obviously, that turned out really well. But your point is well taken. You still have to run your race regardless of who else is in the field. And Meb's best races have been run when he's been patient and he's run his race, And we'll try to do that again in this race. But it's a marvelous field, the New York Road Runners have put together. If you take out any one or two people, it will still be a very, very interesting marathon. We have to adjust a little bit, obviously, to how good this is going to be. And your question about how fast the first half is going to go out, that can make a major difference in that. Q. Coming into the race last year, did you feel he was all the way back, that he was in a position to win a race like that? BOB LARSEN: Last year he wasn't quite in Athens condition, but he was close enough that, you know, I told him before the race the day before the race as good as he looked and as relaxed as he was, and as confident as he was, I thought he was ready to compete with anybody there, not necessarily was going to win it, but he would be with anybody. We talked about Robert Cheruiyot a little bit, and this year, again, he's fit. You never know in a marathon. There are so many unknowns and a lot of things you can't control. Surging and pace affect each athlete different ways. Meb has been very good at being able to handle surges and doing it in a calm fashion and saving something for the end of the race when he has been patient. And in his best races he's always been very strong at the end of the races, and we're hoping for that again Sunday. Q. Do his long runs ever involve major pace changes somewhere in the middle? BOB LARSEN: Yes. Q. And would those go on for a mile or more? BOB LARSEN: Yes. Q. Starting past the halfway point or even earlier than that? BOB LARSEN: Usually after the halfway point in workouts, but they could come at any point. Q. Because that is the kind of thing. He keeps talking about first half here, and that is exactly the kind of situation he'll be facing? BOB LARSEN: Sure. Modern marathon racing is not -- if you lined all these guys up on a very fast course in good conditions, you'd get one result as far as the time is concerned. But that's not the way we want these majors and marathon majors are now. It's really about who can intelligently handle surges and many changes in pace over the length of the course. It's like the 10,000 meters. First time I saw 10,000 meters they were surging on almost every lap. Probably was some time before Paris in that timeframe. Paris was 2005, so probably early 2000 in big international championship competitions. All of a sudden you saw 10,000 meters where it could come at any point fairly early in the race. The marathon now is much the same way. Q. Meb has reached a certain age. How many more years is he able to maintain this high level? Has he made any concessions in training based on that? BOB LARSEN: We haven't really had to adjust his training that much. I keep an eye on that. Is he recovering just as well, and I think he is. How much longer he can go, I think we have to use other people, maybe who have extended their careers to kind of compare. There have been athletes, including the winner of the L.A. Marathon, Olympic games in '84 who was, I believe he was 37. It was a Spaniard. Q. From Portugal. BOB LARSEN: And on the women's side, Dita. Dita won two years ago in the Olympic games and wasn't she 37? Q. Or 38, even. BOB LARSEN: Yeah. So are we looking at a few more years because Meb takes care of himself and is willing to put the time in on all of the stretching, the ice baths, the nutrition and all of those things. I think he can keep going for a while. Part of it is motivation, so far he's still hungry and very motivated. Q. You've known him for a very long time, since he was not even really an adult yet and all of that. And I guess one of the things that he's talked about and I think in the past you've said, you're impressed by the kind of person that he is beyond just the athlete. Obviously that makes the athlete as well. Can you talk a little about the kind of person that Meb is and what impresses you about him? BOB LARSEN: I've always summed it up as saying he's a coach's dream because he not only will do everything that you suggest and will follow it as totally as he possibly can, but then he delivers on race day. Sometimes you have athletes that will do all the workouts and do what you think is necessary but come up short on race day. So then you start questioning whether the work out is right, was the sleep right? Was the way you set up the race and the athlete's mind correct? With Meb, you're going to get what he has in his tank that day. He's a great model, and jovial. When we put our training group together, one of the things he wanted to do as we said it was better than Deena Kastor or Meb Keflezighi, we were trying to do something for American distance runners on an international competitive level. And the two people that were our leaders, Meb and Deena were ideal, because both of them were such good competitors and they're team people. So, again, from a coach's standpoint, you have somebody that helps others that he trains with, will do everything, whether it's suggestive writing or physical therapy or the coach, then he will deliver whatever you put into him on that race day. So it's a pure laboratory almost true experiment that you get results, you get feedback almost immediately because the next race you know whether this is working or it isn't working. Q. Beyond just personal satisfaction for Meb that he won last year. As far as the bigger picture of American distance running getting back to the lead, how proud were you? That was the ultimate statement that you were working for? BOB LARSEN: It was. It was gratifying. Probably as rewarding as anything a coach had ever done. And I've had the best of so many occasions during my career at each level, in high school or other groups way back. You're nodding your head, you remember all this stuff, UCLA, and then this training group. But our aspirations were very high when we put the training group together that we could get the Americans to a level that we would be competitive internationally. And to see that fulfilled with Meb, Meb and Deena and certainly in Athens. But in New York, was even in some ways more rewarding because it was a victory in the best field they've ever had in New York. Then you see all the guys coming along behind them, and other groups, training groups, a lot of people doing a great job. Q. What have you noticed even in the past year? Do you feel a different vibe simply because he won, as opposed to being a second or a third just as far as American running in general? BOB LARSEN: Yes, there are more people sitting around the table right now than there were last year. I'm being facetious. But there is a lot more interest. I. Mean, a year ago, I think a lot of people doubted that he would get back to this level. We're all nodding our heads because he had been injured for a year, and it took a while to figure out what it was and for him to do a lot of work. At age 34 a year ago, you'd think maybe he can't come back. Yeah, in many ways this has been rewarding because it is an example too of someone who has come back from something that was overwhelming at that point in his career. Q. I know he's had an injury history of some kind. But is he one of these people, does he ever get when he's not injured and he's just training, does he ever get like stale patches and do you have to make adjustments for that? Because he's never really talked about that. Some people just get tired, they're anemic or whatever and they have to back off. Does that happen to him? BOB LARSEN: No. I think one advantage of being at altitude I noticed with Deena Kastor, too, and Joe Vigil was primarily the coach but they trained together. I don't think she ever got to that level where you see people declining a little bit. I think that's partly Deena, I think it's partly Meb, it's probably Joe and I have who have done this so many different times with so many different athletes. You're trying to prevent them from doing this or even going and levelling out. You're trying to keep them coming up into your biggest races. Meb knows himself well. One of the advantages of working with him for years that you anticipate how much you can give him without going a little bit beyond that. And, no, we haven't seen him ever starting to lose it. What you're really saying is overtraining, I think. Q. As it effects the individual, in this case, it's him? BOB LARSEN: We haven't gotten to that point. Usually when it comes to the race, we say, oh, we could use a couple more weeks. Sometimes we're thinking we'd really like to have a couple more weeks. But he's performed well when we're maybe just a little short of where you ideally think you want to be. And I think it's hard to hit that line right on, and it's better to be sure of it a little bit. Q. What do the ice baths do? BOB LARSEN: It's all about recovery, obviously. The faster you can recover, the more work you can do. The more work you can do, the better you can become. When you run hard, there is a certain amount of tissue damage on a minor level. And by getting into cold water, you prevent the tissue damage from overwhelming the system. So your legs feel more revived after the ice, and the next day you feel better. Q. So you've been doing this now for how long? BOB LARSEN: First time that I can remember doing it, not with Meb, but in 1988 when we were running rounds with our 400 meter sprinters back in the day of UCLA. We probably started a little bit before that. But late '80s, we were using it. Usually they didn't have it available at the meets, but let's say at the Olympic trials. But now they have big trash cans full of cold water, but in those days they didn't. We'd take the guys back to the hotel room and put them in ice baths in the bathtubs so we'd get ice and fill it up. Q. For how long? BOB LARSEN: 15 minutes, 15 to 20 minutes. That worked really well way back in the '88 Olympic trials for the quarter miles. They had to run four miles. Q. Does your body get numb? BOB LARSEN: Oh, try it sometime. It hurts. Q. All the way it hurts, all 15 minutes? BOB LARSEN: Well, it numbs, you're right. I've been in that stream up there in Mammoth where Meb and some of the other athletes sit. He goes in there every time during the summer. During the winter you can't. It's snow melt. You can imagine sitting in that or anyplace where you've got ice in the water. When you first put your leg in there, you don't think you can stand it. But you hang on for a few minutes, and it does become numb and then it's not as painful. But every time you do this, there is a lot of pain involved initially. Q. It looks a lot more fun at Mammoth than in a trash can with ice in it. BOB LARSEN: It's a beautiful scene around there. Q. Do you think there is something about the New York City Marathon course in particular? I mean, Meb has done great here many times, winning second and third, not so much in Boston or London. A tough field in Boston most years, but is there something about this and Meb? BOB LARSEN: Well, he's very strong on the hills. He's very efficient both going up-and-down hills. He's efficient on the level, too. But you throw in hills and some people aren't quite as good on hills, I don't think, as Meb is. He's physically strong. So I think just like Athens, maybe it's not that others can't do the same thing, but it eliminates some people because of the nature of the hills. Doesn't eliminate everybody, but as you get the percentages down to some guy is maybe not going to run quite as well here. We train a lot on the hills. We're up on the mountains a lot, so I think it suits his type of race well. Q. How close is he to last year? BOB LARSEN: He's in the same ballpark physically. He's been training hard as usual. The intensity is there, and we feel good about where he is right now. Q. When was his last injury and what was it? BOB LARSEN: He had a problem with the left quad before Boston, couple months before Boston. It's fine now. His left knee was swelling up a little bit, but that was after, I think, the beginning of the summer. There hadn't been any problem with that anymore. Q. I know that he's a very strong natural talent, but there's been a lot of discussion lately, and there is a New York article out now about Alberto and Dave where there's a lot of talk about changing the stride and making it more efficient and that sort of thing. Have you at any time from the first day you saw Meb, have you talked to him about form and stride at all? BOB LARSEN: Meb was very efficient when I saw him in high school already. It's kind of a natural thing. He played soccer and I think that's very helpful to the stop and go and lateral movement that he was doing in soccer. So there wasn't much to change. When people go out on the roads and run high mileage, they tend to lose a little bit of their efficiency. They get a little bit sloppy. Meb has been one that once some of these drills were introduced, he follows those drills religiously and stretching and all of those things to stay flexible enough to be able to execute his technique efficiently. More than anything, what Meb has done, and I think part of it is because he drills so much, is he is efficient all the way through the race. When we took high speed photography back in 2002, I think, at 10,000 meters, the U.S. Championships that he won, they analyzed Meb as being the most efficient of any of our American distance runners in that race. But others would occasionally run very efficiently, but he was the only one that every stride was the same. They did high speed photography the whole 10,000 meter race. So it's not just about being efficient, but being efficient over a long period of time. Obviously in the marathon with as many steps as you take, that is a great advantage. End of FastScripts |
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