Success in the 10,000

by Dan Grimes

The 10,000 meters is one of the events in which American men have had little recent success. Since Billy Mills won the Gold medal in 1964, we have been shut out of Olympic medals. The recent domination of this event by Africans has many people believing that these East African runners have a genetic advantage and that European and American distance runners will never succeed against these talented and intimidating athletes. The world recordholder, Kenisa Bekele, combines a devastating kick with unbelievable strength. Can American athletes compete at this level? I would argue that they can. We only need to make a few changes in our focus and training.

When I was a competitive athlete, I did a repeat 600 workout, where I would run my first 600 at my 10K race pace and finish my last 600 at 1500 meter race pace. I knew I was ready for a good 10K when I could run my first 600 10 seconds slower than my last 600. In other words, my 10K race pace was 10 seconds slower than my 1500 meter race pace when covering 600 meters. After examining the personal records of a few top athletes, I have found that this is true for most 10k men (I have not yet done a similar comparison for women). For example, of all the athletes I could find 1500 PRs for, Kenisa Bekele is the fastest 10K runner at 1500 meters with a PR of 3:32. At this pace, he is covering every 600 meters in about 1:24.8. Using my 10-second guideline, this would mean that his 10K PR would be about 26:20 (his actual PR is 26:17). Haile Gebrselassie’s PR is 3:33, which is about 1:25.2 and would give him a 10K PR of 27:26 which equals his actual PR.

How do the Americans stack up? Galen Rupp has a 1500 PR of 3:44 or about 1:29.6, which would give him a PR in the 10K of about 27:40 (actual PR 27:33). Dathan Ritzenhiem has run the 1500 at 3:43, equating to a 10K predicted time of 27:33 with an actual PR of 27:35. Jorge Torres has run about 3:42, which would give him a projected PR of 27:28 with an actual PR of 27:42. I was unable to find a 1500 PR for Abdi Abdirahman. The only runner who seems to exceed this limit by much was Meb Keflezighi. He has a 1500 PR of 3:42. Doing the math with this PR gives a 10K of 27:28, yet Meb has run 27:13.

If we assume this 10-second rule is true for everyone, it would indicate that American 10K runners are doing pretty well given their 10K potential. In fact, Rupp ran 27:35 at the Olympics which is 5 seconds faster than his 1500 PR would predict, which, I believe, was one of the best performances in the entire race. But, Galen couldn’t be in a fight for a medal simply because his foot speed over 1500 is not at the same level as the world’s top 10K runners. I think that Alberto Salazar, Galen’s coach, knew this was true, which is why Galen ran so many mile races this last indoor season.

What does this all mean? If we are limited in the 10K by our 1500 meter ability, we are not going to see American men medal at 10,000 meters in the Olympics until we get 3:35 or faster 1500 meter athletes running the 10K. Unfortunately, American men consider themselves 1500 meter runners if they can run 3:40. Most of these athletes should probably be 10K runners or even marathoners. Many of our 800 runners should be running the 5K or 10K, and even some of our 400 men should be running the 800 or 1500. We simply don’t have our athletes running the events they should run.

Additionally, I think our training programs are focusing too much on distance and not enough on speed, power and biomechanics. Coaches are so focused on developing strength that they forget to develop the speed necessary to compete at the world class level. Jim Hunt, my old coach, believes speed work should be incorporated in all training phases and that biomechanical training needs to be incorporated in high school and collegiate programs. Making both of these changes would improve the next generation’s 1500 times and with it their 10K potential.

Unfortunately, I find resistance to these ideas among many high school–level coaches. There are “old school” beliefs that changing the form of an athlete is counterproductive and that people run in the most efficient manner for their own bodies. If this is true, why do we change long jumpers’ form or discus throwers’ form? Wouldn’t they also throw and jump in the most efficient manner for them? I have noticed, however, that the finalists in the Olympic 800, 1500, 5000 and 10,000 run with the same basic mechanics. They have their feet under their center of mass, and they have a very quick turnover rate. If this is the proper way to run and we don’t teach our young athletes to have this form, what are their chances of medaling in the Olympic games?

As I see it, there are at least four things that need to be done:

1) Emphasize biomechanical training for youth, prep and collegiate level runners. Our high school–level coaches need to learn the basics of biomechanics, and they need to know and teach drills that develop proper mechanics.

2) Move our top 1500 meter runners up. Bernard Legat fits this mold well, yet he is African–born and some might want to leave him out of this conversation for that reason. Will this idea work with our next–fastest finishers from the Trials? I am not sure since both Leo Manzano and Lopez Lamong are not yet sub 3:35 runners. I can only think of one athlete who fits this mold. Matt Tegenkamp has a 1500 PR of 3:34, which gives him a 10K potential of about 26:30. Interestingly enough, Matt was very close to medaling in the World Championships 5K in 2007, the only American–born male to get close to that in a number of years. Will Matt move to the 10 and could he be competitive at that distance? Alan Webb’s potential is also interesting.

3) Develop our top 10K runners’ 1500 speed. Is it possible for an athlete like Rupp to develop a 3:34 1500 ability when he is training as a 10K runner? Is there a system that can develop both the speed and strength necessary for Olympic medals? I believe this is possibile. We have found that American runners do not develop at as young an age as East Africans. We have no 18-year-olds running 27:00 for the 10k. Our top runners are working so hard to catch up to the strength of these African athletes that we concentrate only on high mileage. Is it not possible for American runners to work on drills, biomechanics and power even as they develop that mileage strength? Should our top runners be combining plyometrics, speed development and form drills with the long runs of a marathoner?

4) Finally, for the future of the sport, we need to develop a third option: change our thinking about what kind of speed is necessary for successful 10K running. We need our top high school 800 runners to be thinking of the 10 as an option right out of high school. And, we need our high school and collegiate coaches working on developing the speed potential of our top young talent by working on biomechanics and power, as well as endurance. Too many runners do not move up in distance at a young enough age to be competitive at the world level. Many great distance runners are running the 800 and not the 5K or 10K. How many Olympic Trials 800 meter qualifiers should have been running the 10K? If we can change the thinking of the next generation of runners, we might have some 10K athletes with the speed necessary to be potential medalists.