Get faster by running more miles? Mo Farah did and set a world record.
|It is the question Mo Farah must have been asked at least once a day every day for the past decade. “How can I run faster, like you do?” And invariably he gives the same answer.
“Training,” says the double Olympic, World and European champion, breaking into the smile that has become so familiar as he crosses the finishing line at top athletic meets, almost inevitably in first place. “You just have to put in the training.”
“Normally in training we do that sort of distance, I pretty much do 13 miles every day. Well,” he adds with a grin, “that’s on an easy day. Don’t think of training as a chore. It’s a pleasure. Enjoy yourself.” -Mo Farah
Mo’s training can top out at 135 miles a week.
Mo Farah Sets World Indoor Two-Mile Record of 8:03.40
Double Olympic champ runs second mile in under 4:00.
as seen in Runner’s World at: http://m.runnersworld.com/elite-runners/mo-farah-sets-world-indoor-two-mile-record-of-80340
By Peter Gambaccini;
Published February 21, 2015
Great Britain’s Mo Farah claimed his first world record on Saturday with an 8:03.40 indoor two-mile at the Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix in England. He ran the second mile in under 4:00 and lowered the mark of 8:04.34 set seven years ago in Birmingham by Ethiopia’s Kenenisa Bekele, who was the Olympic 5000- and 10,000-meter gold medalist in 2008, four years before Farah accomplished the feat.
“This means a lot to me,” Farah told BBC Sport. “I knew I could go close but I hadn’t raced in so long,” he added after what was his 2015 racing debut.
Farah took command of the race not long after the first mile, and finished far clear of runner-up Paul Kipsiele Koech if Kenya, who clocked 8:13.46.
Bernard Lagat of the United States, age 40, was third in 8:17:05. According to the IAAF, Lagat’s time is a masters world record. At last Saturday’s Millrose Games, Lagat ran the Wanamaker Mile in 3:54.91 to break the world masters record for the distance.
“So many people have asked me when I was going to beat a world record. I really wanted to do it,” Farah said.
Farah followed his two Olympic victories with golds in the same events at the 2013 World Championships. His 2014 racing campaign included a disappointing eighth place at the London Marathon. In the summer, he skipped formidable competition at the Commonwealth Games but won European Championships 5000- and 10,000-meter golds in Zurich.
BBC commentator Steve Cram, a former world record holder in the mile, called Saturday’s performance “Mo Farah at his very best. That was a tough record to beat.”
Farah set the record after an altitude-training stint in Ethiopia. He is scheduled to run the Lisbon Half Marathon on March 22.