Awards - Thread of the year

ecoli

Sorry about the delay on these folks unfortunately been a very busy time

Here are a list of the threads of the year as nominated by you. As such if something is not there you didnt nominate it so don't give out but hopefully there is enough quality for everyone to have a choice of as there are some great threads on the list:D

Kenyan Rift Valley Training Q + A
Boardsies marathon plan by debate
Renato Canova's training ideas
DCM Novice Mentored thread

*Also a notable mention to the Big 8 thread which recieve nominations however was actually outside the window to be eligible for this awards

pconn062

I'll get us started rabble rabble, where's the quality rabble rabble!

Seriously all quality entries, I'll be voting for Kenyan Rift Valley training, a truly great thread!

donothoponpop

Thanks ecoli for getting this up, (and the other polls- if you want to appreciate the hard work ecoli does on this forum vote for him over here ).

I nominated kiwirunners training diary in Iten, and I'd like to expand on why this should be voted thread of the year...

First of all, we're very lucky. To have someone doing this month-long training experiment with Kenyan elites at Iten, and sharing it with Boards. That's the sort of quality this forum needs. But here's the real useful thing- everyone on the forum, from the fastest Olympian, to the most recent jogger, at some stage dreams what it would be like to compete at world class. This thread gave us an insight into what world-class means. Kiwirunner races at the top 1% of the forum here- he's "elite" compared to most everyone who reads and posts here. But over in Iten, he was laughed at as a runner, very much considered a casual jogger indulging his hobby (I know he won't mind me describing him thus). He was back of the pack- wheezing from lack of oxygen in the first few days, before starting to aclimatise. The junior girls who left him standing in the first couple of days, gradually became his training partners, as he improved at altitude.

What was really insightful, was to give Boards a glimpse of what training means at the highest standard. You want to know how the 800m world record holder trains? Here's the session he does. You want to know what competition means? Here's the standard being set by runners who will make money by winning marathons worldwide, or coming 7th and spending the rest of their life in penuary. But all of this is applicable to anyone training on this forum, who wants to better themselves, and get faster. To my mind, that sort of improvement is what this forum is all about.

There was so much great insights in that Iten thread, that could be used by anyone. I think it was head and shoulders above anything thats ever been on the forum on the 4 years I've been reading it, but whether or not you vote for it, read the thread. It'll be the best thing to help your training you can read here.

(Cheers and kudos to Jase (kiwirunner) by the way, for first agreeing to write it;):D)

thirstywork2

My own fav is Marathon plan by debate.Great to see so many views and shows how many diffen't ways to train for a marathon at differn't levels.

T runner

I'd have to go for the Iten thread by Kiwirunner also. I read it after reading the excellent IT article and there was no comparison. Staying with kenyan athletes seems to have meant that all evidence was available to assist his insightful perception. His overall belief that speed must be developed through the earlier part of a career and later extended for distance running is born out in modern individual marathon cycles where sped work is developed early in a marathon cycle in support of race specific extensive running later in the cycle. That was covered in Ecolis marathon thread which would have been best thread otherwise. Well done D'pop too for spotting that all the ingredients for a great thread were present. All of us benefitted from the narrative including the author himself I'm sure.

Pisco Sour

How Stamford Bridge's 4 minute mile thread didnt make this list is a mystery to me. The undisputed highlight of the year on A/R/T.