Ruiyong is going down a dangerous slippery slope! Please be careful not to continue validating, without FILTER, his thoughts, words and actions!

 Before we get into a new topic of discussion today, allow me to reproduce some words of wisdom from the world of proverbs!

"Listen to advice and accept discipline, and at the end you will be counted among the wise." Proverbs 19:20

"The way of a fool is right in his own eyes, But a wise man is he who listens to counsel." Proverbs 12:15

If Ruiyong has or will have any wisdom from this point onwards, it would be because he started listening to our, or at least some of our advice that came from a combined total of 30 and more years of experience and knowledge with life in general, notwithstanding distance sport, which has usually been our primary domain of discussion and analysis. But a recent facebook post by Ruiyong on 'racing to deceive' has gotten us extremely uneasy and worried about how possibly deep he has sunk into the pit of ethical and moral depravity! This post has been reproduced below in its purest origin, just in case he deletes that post for fear of whatever repercussions. 

Disclaimer: Our views here for this post only are not intended to be pragmatic due to the nature of what we intend to write about: morality and ethics. They are instead intended to be absolute and decisive according to what we view as absolute and decisive. This is therefore also our bias. This bias, or view, is exclusively ours and ours only! We do not intend to claim that we have the best advice/bias on the planet, and that Ruiyong has to only listen to our advice/bias, in full or partially. We do not come, in all humility, from any appearance or lack thereof of ethical and/or moral high ground despite trying to be decisive and absolute in our views, and every one of our readers can be safe in the belief that all our hearts and minds are in 'the right place' FIRST AND FOREMOST, 99% guaranteed(since nothing is 100%). That really means for 99% we have as close to pure a desire as possible to simply and ably impart sound and absolute ethical and moral advice, according to what we view as absolutely ethical and moral, to a man we believe is going down a slippery slope slowly but surely to depravity and/or some sort of destruction, so that his distance career could in all probability become a warning lesson throughout the generations and generations of Singaporean distance and/or non distance athletes.

Here is Ruiyong's facebook post below before we delve into what we do best---CRITICALLY ANALYSE FOR THE TRUTH!

"The traditional Asian adage "Always Be Humble" is cliched. It does not always apply.

As much as training is about humility and honest hard work,
Racing is about deception.

Deceiving yourself - to believing you're faster than you actually are.
Bluffing your opponents - to fearing you're better than you look on paper.
Lying to your body - that no matter how bad you think you're hurting, you can always give more.

And no matter how much everything tells you to stop, you can go that one more mile.

Want to be always right? Just go into every competition saying you're not as good as everyone else, or you can't hit a certain mark. You can't jump this height. You can't throw that far. You can't run that fast.

You will always be right.

Want a shot at upsetting the odds? Psyche yourself up. Psyche the others out. Then hit them with all you have.

That way, at least you have a chance."

Let's now analyse the rhythm of the words in Ruiyong's post, and strain our ears to hear the heartbeat of the 'truth' we are about to put forth! Ruiyong says there are 2 categories concerning distance sport---racing and training. While he says, and we therefore assume he believes as well, that honesty and humility, or truthfulness, should apply in training, you should throw these infinitely beautiful, eternal and time-tested virtues out the window when you race?!!? He justifies these with SEEMINGLY(beware!) logical explanations such as "believing you are faster than you actually are", "making your opponents call your bluff that you're better than you look on paper", and "lying to your body so that no matter how bad you think you're hurting you can always give more." Anybody who truly possess wisdom and knowledge will know that the double virtues of honesty(truthfulness) and humility(meekness) are footstools and foundations of love, patience, kindness, thoughtfulness, forgiveness, respect, dignity and integrity, and always reliably with 100% guarantee(in a world where nothing is 100%!) work perfectly--providing you have FAITH to use these virtues in the first place, which one must provide for out of his/her own willing mind and heart! This brings us to the question--might Ruiyong have a lack of a willing mind and heart and therefore lack of a certain faith then? If Ruiyong cannot carry through the virtues of honesty and humility in racing, and instead have to rely on calling bluffs and other self-deception techniques, then he certainly has a lack of a willing mind and heart and therefore a lack of faith. If he cannot carry through the virtues of honesty and humility, if he cannot stay TRUE and be TRUTHFUL at all times whether in racing or training, might he be guilty of also lacking the other accompanying virtues that lay on top of honesty and humility, such as love, respect, dignity and kindness etc? Yes, to a high probability! When the foundations of truth and humility are missing, those on top of these will likely collapse under its own weight as well!!! Can we therefore say he lacks patience and therefore love for the sport because he is willing to believe a self-made delusion "that he is much faster than he actually is in training", and that this delusion is one of the primary causal effects of his lack of love, patience, respect, integrity and basically all of the virtues spoken of above? Yes to a high probability as well!

It's seems clear, to us, that for all the love of the sport that Ruiyong claims he overflows hitherto, that could not stand up to the weight of our analysis! Something doesn't add up in his love for the sport! You should be starting to then question his motives and intentions for wanting to do what he is doing and saying, whatever he is doing and saying!

Let us try another angle of analysis: we have thought about this momentarily and wondered if Ruiyong might have gotten confused over semantics(ie, confusing the definitions of deception or deceive, which is of something bad or evil in nature, with something of good nature such as thinking positively in a moderate and realistic sense, and/or self-defense in the sense of defending one's own turf and not allowing your opponents to think for even one moment that you are 'easy meat'. 

According to the Cambridge English dictionary, 'to deceive' can mean any of these 3 things, and we will be 'judging' Ruiyong's theories for 'racing to deceive' against the background of these 3 conditions below, AS WELL AS ONE PARTICULAR CASE STUDY!

1)deliberately cause (someone) to believe something that is not true, especially for personal gain.

2)(of a thing) give (someone) a mistaken impression.

3)fail to admit to oneself that something is true.

Case study: Haile Gebrselassie raced an Olympic 10000m final on a moderately injured Achilles Tendon, against a Paul Tergat in extremely fine form. The twist: Will Haile uphold honesty(truthfulness) and humility(meekness) in his quest for a 2nd Olympic gold, in front of the watching eyes of Paul Tergat, or will he ditch them and employ 'dirty' deceptive tactics to lure what you and I suppose would be an unsuspecting Tergat into a trap so that Tergat lets down his guard for the race! (though we think Tergat, a Kalenjin, is made of better spirit--ethics/morals than that!)

As documented in Haile's biography, "The Greatest", Haile landed in Sydney with one great concern---not to show any sign of physical and/or mental weakness to his greatest rival for the gold--Paul Tergat. As a result, his injury was a tightly secured affair, with no journalist privy on the matter, except for perhaps Haile's wife, and agent Jos Hermans. So from the press conference for the race to the race warm up at the practice track and call room race lane assignment, Haile did one thing he knew he had to do---NOT TO SHOW ANY SIGN OF PHYSICAL AND/OR MENTAL WEAKNESS to Paul Tergat. Haile even made sure to do some powerful strides within watching distance of Paul Tergat at the practice track. QUESTION OF THE DAY: Is any of what Haile is doing intending to deceive? That means, does any of Haile's actions satisfy any of the 3 conditions for deception above? Let us see!

First: Does the lack of presenting any signs of physical and/or mental weakness akin to deception? NOPE! CLEAR NO! That is the realm of DEFENSE, or SELF DEFENSE! Footballers have all sorts of worries on their minds, from personal worries like family and finance to universal ones like mortality knowing their playing days are numbered! Do they show this worry, or have the need to show this worry on the football pitch just because they don't want to deceive their opponents in that they are worry-free and mentally 100%? NOPE! They weren't even asked a question by their opponents if they had a worry on their minds, why the heck would they voluntarily present their mental struggles and worries in a free-for-all revelation to their opponents who are probably also strangers to them! Nobody in their right minds, including athletes, will present any hint of mental and/or physical weakness WITHOUT BEING ASKED A QUESTION! BECAUSE THEY ARE DOING SELF-DEFENSE! This begs the question: what if somebody asked 'how are you?' before a football match, and you do indeed have some physical and/or mental weakness/problem? The right thing to do would always be the ethical and moral way: BALANCE the TRUTH of your weaknesses with the need to also SAY THE TRUTH to your enemy(your opponent)!!! It's all about balance, it has always been about balance in anything and everything, an issue I spoke about in my previous posts! So you might say something like "oh well i've had some setbacks recently, but I'm looking forward to giving my best shot in this match and hopefully progress to the champions league finals!" While being careful not to reveal the 'setback' you have! This is saying the truth, WITH LOVE AND CARE! Truthfulness always accompanies the virtues of love and care, no matter the circumstance! This is something Ruiyong obviously have no clue about based on his beliefs above racing!

Haile then took some powerful strides in front of a watchful Tergat! Is this akin to deception, since Haile knows the existence of the injury, and is then trying to put on a seeming theater show for Tergat, to show Tergat his lack of an injury? BUT TERGAT DOESN'T EVEN KNOW HAILE HAS AN INJURY, OR NOT!!! Haile isn't trying to change the belief and/or attitude Tergat has towards him, since Haile already knows that Tergat DOESNT know the existence of his injury!!! Definitely NO DECEPTION ON HAILE'S PART!!! What Haile had been doing is this: SELF DEFENSE, AGAIN!!! Haile is making sure he doesn't lose the aura of invincibility already gained long ago from years of championships gold medal racing ability, THAT IS SELF-DEFENSE. If you are a lady and walking down the street with an expensive handbag and somebody snatches from you something that is ALREADY YOURS and you defended with kung-fu kick, THAT IS SELF- DEFENSE! Defending what is already yours, and already gained. Haile isn't trying to gain something more than he already gained by using a method of deliberately trying to cause someone(Tergat) to believe something that is not true, because 1) Tergat doesn't at all know Haile is injured 2) Haile isn't trying to gain anything except to conduct maintenance on what he has ALREADY HONESTLY gained with his gold medals in the years 1993, 1995, 1997 and 1999!!!

So since Haile's doing and speaking doesn't satisfy the first 2 conditions of 'deceiving', let us see if he might be guilty of the 3rd conditions---failing to admit to oneself that something is true. Haile went into the race knowing he had an injury, he admitted his weakness personally as well as with his coaches and agents, and knew after the race he needed to go for reconstructive surgery on his Achilles tendon. At no point in time did he deceive himself or view the injury with much less respect than he should, which was why he employed the tactics he employed during the race, which was to sit and kick only at the last moment---in the last 100m! Instead of the usual last 250-400m! Of course you could argue that he shouldn't have raced in the first place knowing the destruction it will cause his achilles, but heck, distance running is his first and only professional job ever, and his existing and surviving depends solely on his ability to run fast and perform, and for a man of his talent and ability, he has a pretty solid exception to risk his personal health and safety for the sake of a chance at retaining his OLYMPIC GOLD! The highest athletic honor in the universe! Haile's circumstances are completely different from a certain Ruiyong racing and training on an injured plantar at the world championships 2 weeks ago! So Haile hasn't deceived himself in any way, although there is legitimate argument that he shouldn't have ran the race.

Bottomline: the legendary distance runner in the entire universe---Haile Gebrselassie, a runner who is an example to millions of distance and non-distance athletes alike, shows us that it is completely 100%(in a world where nothing is 100%) possible to race with 100% truthfulness and therefore 100% humility! If our young singaporean distance athletes do not take after the best in the universe--Haile's ethics and morals, what will they take after? Ruiyong?!? We strongly advise against that after all the analysis we have done for you! Make no mistake, Ruiyong---Haile was so humble in that 10000m race in Sydney, that he mentioned in the aftermath that he was RESIGNED, before the race EVEN STARTED, to LOSING THAT RACE OUTRIGHT TO PAUL TERGAT! He only decided to race because of the cultural weight of expectations from the entire Ethiopia, A DISTANCE RUNNING MAD NATION, and his out-of-this-world distance running talent which was also his professional duty!  It was also an OLYMPIC GOLD AT STAKE! You do not come from a 1) distance running mad nation 2) do not have out-of-this-world talent 3)Not running in an olympic final 4)this is not your rightful professional duty given your academic qualifications and other educated skills!

Finally, with all of the knowledge from the analysis we have made, let us kindly school Ruiyong in his attitudes and mindsets towards racing, so that he does not mislead the entire distance running population, of whom some might be partially or completely blind or taken over by the supposed ILLUSION propagated by a SEA Games marathon GOLD medallist!

Wrong and misguided statement by Ruiyong in black, and adjusted for ethics and morals in red:

"Deceiving yourself - to believing you're faster than you actually are." 

It depends on how much faster you BELIEVE you actually are as compared to your training evidence! If you are training with paces of 1:10:00 for the HM and believe you can run 1:03 on actual race day, surely my dear friend, you are DECEIVING YOURSELF(DELUSION!). However, if say, you believe you can run in the region of 1:09 or even slightly under 1:09, that is positive thinking done realistically and moderately, and you are in no way deceiving yourself! As mentioned above, deception is of an evil and bad nature, and in no way under any circumstances in your life in general should you be deceiving anybody including yourself. WHITE LIES included!! A lie is a lie, a deception is a deception!

"Bluffing your opponents - to fearing you're better than you look on paper."

As mentioned above in our analysis, you never get anybody to call your bluffs, never deceive, never deception! Never, never, never try to make gains by deliberately causing somebody, by your words or actions, to believe something that is not true(ie looking better than you look on paper!). That is not ethical or moral. As presented to you above, Haile didn't do any such 'dirty' thing. Question is, who is your mentor, and what has led you to conceive of sport in such a 'cheap' and 'dirty' manner! I wouldn't be surprise if you would resort to drug-taking, given the kind of ethics and morals you carry in this sport.

"Lying to your body - that no matter how bad you think you're hurting, you can always give more."

Again, clear cut self deception and delusion, if you are talking about injury! You telling yourself during your half marathon world championships race that you can hold out till the end of the race despite an acute pain injury is nothing short of mind-bending depravity. If you are referring to the 'pain' of lactate accumulation, you also DO NOT LIE for one moment to yourself that you are not feeling that pain! I cannot believe you are writing such a statement if you were referring to lactate pain. Ask any elite professional athlete on the planet, and they will tell you that the key to surmounting the pain is FACING AND ACCEPTING THE PAIN HEAD ON WITH COURAGE AND WILLPOWER. That is different from lying to your body, which I perceive as---ignoring the pain, or that the pain doesn't exist, WHICH IS NOT TRUE!  The pain exists, accept it, deal with it, but don't deal with it by lying or deceiving yourself thinking that the pain doesn't exists. Similarly, if you have a problem in life in general, you face the problem with courage and will power head on in a collision course! You do not lie to yourself that the problem is smaller than it is, or worst, that it doesn't exist in the first place, because you will then be digging yourself a deeper pit to sink into! That would then be a delusion!

So get out of the delusion, come back to Singapore for treatment and do not loiter in England any longer. Accept, with all TRUTHFULNESS AND MEEKNESS, that your Rio Olympic journey has come to an end, and work towards Tokyo 2020 for the sake of those who care about you!

If you want to have a shot or chance at Tokyo 2020(qualifying only, not top-ten), do it only with truth, humility, and in both racing and training, and outside of distance sport in your life in general as well! If it can't be done, it can't be done, nothing to be ashamed of. Don't do anything 'at all costs'. That will likely tempt you to deceive, to lie, and to get into an agreement with evil, to your demise. Then refer to the first 2 proverbs at the top of this post again.

It is opportune to repeat once more, to all his sponsors, agents, sports associations and people in top management levels in these associations that Ruiyong is going down a dangerous slippery slope that you probably haven't been concerned enough to heed against. Please be careful not to continue validating through the pathways you have been using to validate him, without FILTER in the form of the words and advice we have provided above to him.

Longevity and health in distance running (2)

As promised in this post, we go on and discuss why, if you love the sport of distance running, you ABSOLUTELY MUST have the desire to protect your distance running health, and express outward evidence that you do indeed desire to protect this health all the way till you leave the face of this Earth! Otherwise, we question your 'love' for the sport, that you are perhaps deluded in some aspects of the love for distance running sport, and would need guidance to be brought back on the right path. And we think Ruiyong needs some real guidance on how to conduct his mindsets and attitudes towards distance running sport.

1) In distance running sport, the INDIVIDUAL comes first. Considerations for safety, health, integrity must always come first. This is a little selfishness but a good selfishness to have. A good ego to have as well. This is something that must be taught and glorified in all forms of sport education. THERE IS SO SUCH THING AS SACRIFICING YOUR SAFETY, HEALTH AND INTEGRITY for the greater good of say the country's pride, honor and reputation. This isn't an patriotic act, just in case you are tempted to think that way---it is in fact a perversion of the good sense of selfishness or ego.

2)Once considerations for the INDIVIDUAL have been taken care of, we may then discuss about how well he/she may serve in the various areas of his/her life or career. If he/she were a professional distance runner, he/she may then consider how he/she may make his/her country proud and bring honor to her by perhaps showing great sportsmanship and ethics/morals. If he/she were a professional lawyer, he/she may consider how he/she may conduct his/her profession in such a way where he/she does not defile both the morals and ethics society demands he/she should know, as well as expecting the same from his/her clients, and then also show masterful ability to balance the safety, health and integrity of himself/herself and those of his/her clients, whatever that means in the profession of law.

3)Let's say you find while doing your professional job that you have to sometimes, or, all the time trangress some safety, health and integrity, or society's ethics and morals(assuming you know what they are), or been asked by those of your clients to start trangressing ethics and morals in the name of perhaps more rewards such as money or gifts, and you give in to that temptation, THAT IS CORRUPTION OR PERVERSION OF THE GOOD SENSE OF EGO AND SELFISHNESS, as defined above. You now have a bad ego, and you are selfish in a bad sense as well! Similarly, if you a professional distance runner and find yourself having to make the decision during a race when you suddenly acquire a serious injury with clear and acute pain signals emitted, and you failed to stop the race and drop out immediately to protect your health, safety and integrity, which is the ethical and moral thing to do, YOU HAVE CORRUPTED YOUR OWN BODY PHYSICALLY, MENTALLY AND EMOTIONALLY, BECAUSE YOU GAVE IN TO TEMPTATION AND SELF DENIAL TO KEEP RACING!


As everybody already knows, our very own local athlete Ruiyong has failed to uphold the proper ethical and moral considerations of his sport, and failed to therefore protect the safety, health and integrity of his own mind, body and spirit. This is regretful but unsurprising concurrently. Seeing how clouded his mind in thinking he has the wheels and body to run a 2:18:xx marathon, we do not find it any surprising that he can be equally clouded in failing to protect his safety, health and integrity! If you are cloudy in one area of life, there is a sometimes high probability that you are also cloudy in another area. This cloudiness is another way of describing DELUSION.


You might then ask, can a professional distance runner continue improving his personal best times and and run better and faster without sacrificing his/her safety, health and integrity, or perversing his/her own good sense of the ego and selfishness? Absolutely yes! And the key is obviously to not deceive or delude yourself at any point in your life as a distance professional or amateur runner, which means to always be working within the bounds of reality and realistic targets, which also means working within the bounds of societal expectations. What do I mean by working within the bounds of societal expectations? If you are a mum with say 2 young kids, and also hold a full-time stressful day job, but then also want to become a professional distance runner, don't become a professional distance runner in the first place, but you may work towards just becoming a good HEALTHY(READ INJURY FREE AND HAPPY) distance runner who makes sure she leaves enough family time and energy for her young kids and romantic dinners with her hubby, as well as enough time and energy for her full-time professional day job, and if that only allows her to run 3:03 for the marathon in the best weather possible, she SHOULD BE content with that time. She mustn't steal time from family and her kids, reapportion time from her romantic dinners with hubby, or frequently go off early at her professional day job, just so that she can put in training to only run 3:02! NO, THAT IS IN FACT  ALREADY DELUSION OR CORRUPTION of her mind and body, because she has perversed good ethics and morals and spoil the balance between what is only her hobby and family and career.

The point I am getting at is this: you do not destroy the balance between the various aspects of your life so that you may run faster and better, because running faster and better isn't your professional job, and a case could be made against you that you are indeed egotistical and selfish if you insist on running faster than the balancing of the various aspects of your life would naturally allow. Let me explain further: if you are already achieving a perfect balance in family, career and running, perhaps your family is prospering and happy, you are also doing well in the office and people are happy with your productive output, and you have ran a fantastic marathon of 3:03 as a lady, STOP THERE! Dun look for any improvements IF IT COMES AT THE EXPENSE OF SPOILING THE BALANCE! If you have to neglect the school soccer matches or birthday parties your young kids want you to be present at, just so that you can get in supposedly more rest and recovery so that you may have a greater output at training so that you may run 3hours flat for the marathon as a lady, DON'T DO IT, THAT ISN'T NATURAL! The natural thing to do is to be with your kids and spouses, or be working at your professional job! Your running hobby would have become your obsession, which isn't natural. So do just enough running---train and race hard and whatever timings result from your efforts are what it is! If somebody runs faster than you, say an American lady your age runs 2:44, she is simply more physically gifted than you are, and you simply accept it. This isn't defeatist attitude! Do not attempt to usurp the delicate balance that is your life. How does it apply to Ruiyong specially?

As Ruiyong doesn't have a career or family(wife+kids) yet, we will be speaking of 'balance' in terms of his attitudes towards injury and national patriotism!

At the world half marathon championsips, Ruiyong made the bad decision to even start the race knowing his plantar has re-emerged in kenya, and then making another bad decision to continue racing despite sharp, severe and acute pain setting in. That is a double corruption to the safety, health and integrity of his own mind and body, and therefore a corruption of society's ethical and moral values. Ruiyong has also selfishly and egotistically manipulated the balance between national pride and his own health and safety. Ruiyong has conveniently, by his corrupted self and ego, overlooked his own safety and health in favor of national pride and honor, and this act then brings a bad name to those who truly do bring real national pride and honor to Singapore. He is a terrible example for the young teen and youth runner anywhere in the world.

There is no point in destroying the balance so that one may achieve better results. This is similar to the concept of 'win at all costs', and such a concept is deluded and corrupted, and we see many instances of this in our sport today, most recently Alberto Salaazar's scandal here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/athletics/2016/03/16/ethical-grounds-only-way-to-pursue-alberto-salazar/


It must be infinitely better for Ruiyong, to remain as a 2:26-2:40 runner well into his 50s, sensing how much he says he 'loves' the sport of distance running, while maintaining the balance in all aspects of his life! We cannot forsee(after considerations from the type of society we live in, the weather conditions, the amount of talent Ruiyong has, and many more factors) that, while maintaining this balance, he can actually become top ten olympics 2020 or be running 2:18:xx 2:17:xx or 2:16:xx, because many things are going to come along his way as he grows with more responsibilities and sensibilities to balance and manage, and it only gets more complicated to balance, rather than easier. Besides, he will age and he will slow down. This brings us to another point---examples of 30-something or 40-something runners who are still breaking marathon pbs are obviously heart-warming, but WHAT NOBODY TELLS ANY OF YOU IS THIS: THE PROBABILITY OF ANYBODY BREAKING THEIR MARATHON PB AFTER 35 YEARS OLD IS NOT HIGH, LIKE PERHAPS 10%, AND IN THIS 10%, MORE THAN HALF ARE PROBABLY PROFESSIONAL, and we have no idea if they are doing it ethically and morally. The chances are they are not!

At the end of the day, we just don't believe a SINGAPOREAN 3 hour male marathoner already training very hard and well, will one day run 2:30:00 or even 2:40:00 ethically and morally, a few years down the road. And we don't want ANYBODY to try to be so foolhardy to prove this statement wrong, because that is not the point of this post, and he/she could bring himself/herself untold physical and emotional hurt.

Feel free to provide some comments please.

Longevity and health in distance running(1)

In today's post, a couple of us are going to analyze a specific theme--longevity, using Ruiyong's career as a context.


An interview was conducted a couple years ago with Haile Gebrselassie and his wife. As everybody already knows, Haile is one of the greatest distance runners in the universe(not a hyperbole) and everybody recognizes the sheer precocity(or genius) of the words and ideas that spring from his heart and mouth! So let us get to what was gleaned from the interview. One of a couple journalists on a visiting trip to the capital of Ethiopia asked the both of them if they have any designs for all or any of their 4 children to one day be as great as Haile in the field of distance running? This was what was said, with lots of room for error in transcription and semantical translation:

His wife replied first:

"Both of us are very affirmatively united in the fact that for all four of our children, education come first. We do not say we are very against our children pursuing running as a career, but we would much prefer them to set their sights on getting a good education so that they may get a 'proper' job and be useful to society."

Haile corroborated:

"Yeah, you know being a professional runner is a very tough job and I am very thankful and blessed to be where I am and what I achieved but I was just very lucky that God chose to bless me in this way. His blessing isn't the same for everybody, otherwise any average runner will become like me. I and a few others like Bekele, Tergat, and El Guerrouj are one in a billion and the reality is it is very hard to succeed in distance running. You have to have no other choice, no education, no other means of surviving, and if you are feel very strongly for this you can bring your whole mind and body to focus on succeeding at running, but even this faith is very tough and I recognize that I am just lucky. It could have been anybody not named me(Haile)...."

"Running for health and fun is something I strongly recommend, and I have a strong connection with, because it has benefited both my mental and physical well-being. But running for a career is a different thing, and I would very much prefer if today's youths, if they have a chance and the resources, to stay in education and pursue a good one. That way they have a better chance of success and more stability, they also contribute more to society."


Barring transcriptional errors, one thing is pretty clear from the interview, Haile says: DON'T get into professional running, that should only be your last resort---that is you do not have any income and zero or negligible education, and you are very desperate perhaps in great poverty and you just want and have to make money to survive, and if you come from East Africa where genetic and environmental conditions naturally predispose you to likely have an infinitely better chance of success(read olympic medalling potential and world beater) than perhaps some young teen/youth from Singapore or Malaysia. Singaporean teens and youths: get yourself interested in your books and subjects and learn them well, even if they have little relevance to your career in the future. Because they do one very good thing for you---they train your mind to think critically, analytically and creatively so as to give you a very high probability of success in whichever area of work you want to specialize in the future! A good or educated brain/mind is infinitely easier to cultivate than a good set of biomechanical and biocellular parameters.

Do not get into professional distance running, the road is closed, says Haile Gebrselassie and therefore myself as well. Also by Haile, you can't be as useful to society as a professional distance runner as compared to perhaps some other professional jobs in the world. Your only usefulness as a professional distance runner is probably to inspire and encourage other average runners to be a professional runner by fawning over your relative celebrity-like status, but this is counter to what Haile recommends, and Haile is a man of great distance running experience! I respect him, you respect him, and we do the same with his opinions and ideas.

Bottomline: If you are a Singaporean distance runner in your youth, teens or early to mid twenties and dream or think of wanting to become a professional distance runner, YOU DO NOT KNOW WHAT YOU ARE GETTING INTO!

There is an old proverb: BECAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH(DESIRE) FOR! The things you desire are often times based on a very biased set of world-view and beliefs filtered by your own ego and pride, and you continually and stubbornly grant yourself those world-views and beliefs without any external moderation or guidance from more experience human beings on earth such as Haile and some others. Ryan Hall, if I can recall in some interview last year 2015, also uncannily said the same thing:"Becareful what you wish(desire) for" and he was having some regrets about how he conducted his professional running career and getting into situations he wished or desired to have so much but encountering some accompanying roadblock that simply cannot and never will be avoided no matter how hard he tried to dodge because they come in a package, and that it threatened him and his career time and again which all led to his demise and downfall at the end of his retirement. This concept of 'becareful what you wish for' can also be applied to not only distance running or sport, but any part of your life as well. 


As somebody with vast knowledge and experience with the sport of distance running, I can also guarantee one thing from statistical evidence. It is infinitely easier to train for and conquer Mount Everest, barring bad weather and avalanches, than it is for you to succeed(read as winning an olympic medal in any distance event) in distance running as a professional runner. This is not slighting all Everest adventurers and conquerors and their achievements, but statistics say so. You have disproportionately more Everest conquerors in every 4 year olympic cycle than you have medallists in the distance events. And to win only Olympic gold is even more rarefied.


But here's the thing: running as a hobby and passionate pastime is totally agreeably and pleasurable. And in our next post soon enough, we look at why the career of professional distance running is not all rosy and glamorous as it appears on the surface. We explain to you why it is better to run a 3hour marathon for the rest of your life and not look for improvements to that at all, than to keep trying to train harder and faster for better and better times, like perhaps to go from 3hours to 2:50, and then from 2:50 to 2:40, and then from 2:40 to 2:30.

We obviously will also explain to you why it is infinitely better for Ruiyong to remain running in the region from 2:26 to 2:40 for the next 20 years well into even his 40s and 50s, than running, by a miracle(and not by proper physical preparation because he has demonstrated none!), a 2:18 in London on an injured plantar foot that is GUARANTEED 100% not to be able to heal in time for London marathon on the 24th April, but have to be forced to retire early in say 2017 or 2018 because he had destroyed his body by causing disproportionate wear and tear by not being physically ready to handle 2:18.

Devastation and disbelief in Cardiff

Renato Canova once said there are 2 types of breakdown that can potentially occur at the limits of distance running performance. They are:

1)Mechanical breakdown or failure
2)Physiological breakdown or failure


Let me explain number 1. Have you ever been in a hard run or race and felt like your breathing was pretty relaxed and easy but your muscles and/or tendons and/or ligaments are feeling strained and/or weak and/or on the verge of spasm/injury? You are experiencing mechanical breakdown, and this means one thing--your mechanical system(biomechanics) is not ready to handle the load(read speed) of the effort! But your physiological system is ready to handle it!

Let me explain number 2. Have you ever been in a hard run or race and felt like your muscles, tendons and ligaments are very light and bouncy as if you could float in the air and there is absolutely very little inertia in your stride-steps, but your breathing is kinda more labored than your muscles seem to allow, and your heartrate isa little too elevated as well. You are experiencing or close to experiencing a physiological breakdown if you keep up the intensity and don't reduce it. But your mechanical system can handle it!

Let me explain why number 1 and/or number 2 exists! The 2 failures don't necessarily occur always in pairs, and athletes often times experience exclusively either one or the other, and sometimes both at the same time as well. There are easily attributable reasons for that below:


1. Lack of race specific training is one:in this case for Ruiyong's half marathon race he very probably lacked race specific threshold runs of about an hour, something i discussed about earlier and saying that his threshold runs were severely underdosed in terms of pace and intensity.

2. Lack of fundamental aerobic base is another, and mishandling mileages is another guilty party: in this case Ruiyong suddenly jammed up his mileage from 100km a week in Singapore just before he left for Kenya to whip up his mileage to 160km within 1 or 2 weeks in Iten! We cannot believe his total callousness towards his own health, safety and integrity, total callousness towards wisdom and advice. What, in the world, is Ruiyong doing? And, WHO does he think he is or try to be? If that is not enough, training properly for a fantastic half marathon require a minimum of 3 months in assumed good health, but Ruiyong has short circuited his training to only half of 3 months---6 actual weeks of real training in kenya. We are deeply saddened by the state of affairs surrounding Ruiyong, and we need to get the word out to as many people as possible, to retrieve all their support for him back with immediate effect, including our very own sports association and governing body, his sponsors H2O, Oakley, and new sponsor Aasics etc. And those who are close friends with him should talk him into giving up London and Rio for now and prepare for a long rest and recovery. And to know there is NO SHAME in doing so, only exceedingly altered egos for not doing so. He has in all likelihood incurred some serious enough damage on his plantar to be beyond repair, a CAREER ENDER!


3. Then overestimation of physical and/or physiological capabilities on race day is yet another:starting faster than he thought he could handle. In this case Ruiyong's mechanical system broke down terribly under an overestimation of his abilities gotten from training, because he incurred a severe plantar injury that mightn't have happened if he really knew that he was perhaps only capable of an average 5k split of 16:10 or 16:20(68:30 and higher) for the half marathon in his present day form.


All in all, Ruiyong's post race report clearly expressed his biomechanical breakdown after only a meagre 5km at a speed(15:47) that isn't even all that fast given he is supposedly in the 'BEST PRO SHAPE OF HIS LIFE FROM ALL THE BEST WORKOUTS AND RUNS IN ITEN!' But clearly the truth couldn't be any more clearer from the mechanical breakdown---his mechanical body is SIMPLY NOT READY OR 'NOT TALENTED' ENOUGH to handle a 66:30 half marathon which gave the signal warning of pain in his plantar heel area, and definitely physiological breakdown would have been lingering around the corner as well.

But rather than accepting this fact or even half of this fact like a true distance running warrior, he decided to use an excuse card saying his shoes weren't good enough, or supportive enough. And blamed the plantar recurrence on that shoe, than admitting that his plantar was incurred most probably to the lightning quick and suicidal pace that he is in no mechanical and/or physiological shape to handle! There is a saying " it isn't about the shoe, it is about the runner". If one is a great runner, it doesn't matter the type of shoe he wears, heck, he could even be running barefoot and winning the race, like Abebe Bikila, who you wouldn't think is one for finding excuses for failure and poor performance. He should be taking a leaf from his old friend Eliud Kipchoge who ran and won berlin with even less supportive shoes than he did, because his insole was totally misplaced and dangling in the wind causing him not only less foot support but so much more resistance to motion but still ended up running close to 2:04 flat! What is going through Ruiyong's mind right now?! We totally wonder............

If he blames the weather, we give that to him, but he cant be blaming plantar, shoes, hills, hard road surface for his failure to live up to the billing of a potential olympic marathoner, which is obviously worth another half marathon national record, in fact a severe thrashing of Mok's 67:08. He is always in the business of thinking he can or could, always in the business of dreaming way too big to overestimate his capabilities so that it becomes a very real delusion! Why?!!? Everyone knows he is very disappointed with his close to 68 flat time, but to run to excuses for protection stinks completely of dishonor, irresponsibility, cowardice. If he wanted to blame plantar, he shouldn't have ran the race at all, he shouldn't even have been to kenya to prepare for a marathon training cycle and shouldn't have had any plans to try for olympic qualification at all, KNOWING HE ONLY RECENTLY HAD A PLANTAR INJURY AND KNOWING THE DEPRESSING HISTORY OF ATHLETES WHO HAVE HAD PLANTAR AND TAKE PRETTY LONG TO RECOVER! If he wanted to blame the hard road surface, when is a road half marathon not ever on a hard road surface, and aren't all roads the same tarmac of the same chemical constituents such as bitumen and cement? Didn't he know what he signed up for and so it brings us back to the question of why didn't he terminate all his olympic qualification plans for the year in the very first place to save himself all this unwelcomed and disagreeable circumstances? Why?!!?

Why?! Quite a few of us have been speaking about a buzzword--ego. Is his ego bigger than his physical talent and/or ability? We think so, to a very high probability!

*FYI The winner Geoffrey Kamworer ran an almost identical time of 59:10 as 2 years ago in Denmark, despite the so called 'bad' conditions, which was really only 'bad' in the last 3-4km when rain and wind started pouring and howling respectively. What was even more impressive was he fell at the start of the race and listen to this---scrapped both knees with what appears to be deep wounds with soft tissue and some whitish bone exposed! He gave no excuses in his post race interview and mentioned the injury didn't so much as bothered him at all. When asked about the wind and rain he was equally nonchalent about it and never once rue how badly it affected his race. That is sportsmanship, that is warrior-like, but he obviously has way more talent and better guidance and training from Renato Canova than Ruiyong has ever had.

**FYI If there is anybody more prepared for the wind and rain it is those runners who have trained and ran at altitude and Ruiyong is one of them. The winds are stronger and faster higher up in the sky and Ruiyong must have been used to winds at the kamariny track and dirt roads of the valleys and mountains. And the severe wind and rain only manifested late in the race for Ruiyong, around the 17km mark of the race, with only 4 kilometres to go, and with such a supposedly highly trained athlete just coming back down from altitude like Ruiyong, the wind and rain shouldn't slow him down by too much.


We recommend all his close friends to persuade him to change his plans about London and Rio. We recommend all his sponsors to seriously consider even sponsoring such a foolhardy and callous individual who justifies doing Singapore proud by continuing to complete the race with a serious plantar injury and pain. There is absolutely no pride, and we are totally embarrassed that he has messed up ethical and moral values upside down and gotten his priorities all wrong.' Nation before self' is only for individuals who are fit and healthy. Soldiers put the country before their own lives only if they are battle ready and have the weapons and tactics at hand to face the enemy in battle!!! No soldier goes to battle half-fit and half ready or with a half-weapon, or with some severe or even moderate injury or illnesss and feels proud of that when he dies on the battlefield or worst--tries to get his mates and commanders to feel proud of him by getting them to sympathize with how loyal he is to the nation!!! That is (foolish)^1000.(excuse my hyperbole). Ruiyong is similarly trying to get yours and mine, our sympathies, he is trying to use the emotional keycard and take advantage of all of yours and our emotional vulnerabilities as human beings, in the name of nationalism and loyalty, so that you will continue to blindly buy into his delusion and invest your resources such as time, money and energy into following something that returns a virtually non-existent probability of success. Does any investment trader invest any time or money into a low probability trade or a trade that has no chance of success? NOPE! 

I hope all of us get the point! Ruiyong is so deluded in his Rio and Tokyo Olympic plans that he has even deluded the morals and ethics he is supposed to have learnt so well given very aristocratic education in higher institutions in Singapore and USA!


We are at our wits end, please spread the message and share this blog on as many accounts and pages as you can. You probably are doing more national pride and honor by sharing this than continuing in your support and belief of Ruiyong's chances of qualifying for Rio, or even breaking the national record of 2:24:22 for that matter, given how he has destroyed his plantar organ during the half marathon race.

World half marathon championships is finally here!

In this post, we provide a pre-race debrief about Ruiyong's chances of getting a medal at these championships and also check out the likely weather conditions for the race.


Temperatures are likely going to be in the vicinity of 10 degrees celsius or lower with terrible rain and wind with the result that one could feel cooler than 10 degrees celsius. In a long road race like the half marathon, weather conditions are heavyweight factors in determining how one would likely perform during a race, and big rain and wind don't normally produce very fast times although there are couple rare instances in the history of distance running where athletes run beyond belief and beyond expectations in such conditions. To save time and space, I will use just one example--Paula Radcliff's 2002 commonwealth games 10000m performance of 30:00, in wind, rain and reasonable cold, while leading from start to finish all by herself. That was an incredible performance to this day, if we considered in addition that if we suppose we could omit the then world record of 29:30 by the just recently self-confessed Chinese doper Wang Junxia, Paula would have produced a 'legitimate' world record of 30:00 under such difficult conditions. (You may assume Paula to be a clean athlete beyond any reasonable doubt despite there being some allegations recently about her 'weird' values in her blood samples from many years back!) A couple other examples, in fact many more, exist of distance athletes who ran incredible times under tough conditions, whether these conditions be too cold, too rainy, too windy, OR, too hot, too humid! And any credible and reasonable distance expert or even beginner would agree to define 'incredible' as something that minimally satisfies the condition of at least matching one's personal best or better yet, breaking it. However being 'better' doesn't always necessarily mean breaking one's pb because there can be other possible outcomes, in view of a myriad other factors like weather conditions, that could foreseeably justify a 'better' nametag.

With that, and after analyzing all of Ruiyong's training in Iten so far, we expect him to still be in solid half marathon shape whether or not there is strong rain or wind. Granted, he is also now a newly minted 'professional' runner, and his existing and surviving are supposed to be intricately related to the sole act of running his best and fastest possible on a RACEDAY, whatever that race may be, just like what a professional runner should do. All his training hitherto in Iten, after intense examination, seems to suggest he is capable, PHYSICALLY, to reproduce the form which saw him ran 67:21 last year in September or faster, something which I haven't explicitly mentioned yet. The only thing I have explicitly suggested in all my previous posts was that Ruiyong's training doesn't at all(read zero) suggest he is PHYSICALLY capable of running in the 2:18 region in London next month. As to whether he is MENTALLY ready to reproduce another 67:21 or faster should not even be a question of debate, because after all, he is a full-time sponsored professional runner, and it is required of him to be able to produce solid performances on demand, just like how you would expect a professional transport service like SMRT to produce 99 percent quality in transport service!(since nothing in the world is 100%) With that said, word has got around to our ears that Ruiyong has seemed to lost his Nike gear sponsorship with Nike Singapore for some reason I would prefer not to mention yet, and is now walking around the team hotel in Cardiff, and for the past few weeks in Iten, in Aasics gear. Everyone knows Aasics is no second rate substitute in terms of gear and apparel for distance runners, and Ryan Hall the holder of America's fastest marathon time to date was an Aasics representative for all his professional career, producing also many other star-studded performances on the roads. The engineers and mechanics at Aasics are not more inferior than those at Nike and addidas, and the same can be said of the quality of their R&D and technological support. There should not be a difference at all, in Ruiyong's ability to give a solid performance whether in Nike or Aasics gear.


With how Ruiyong has been going about social media proclaiming almost throughout the ends of the earth how he is having best workouts, best days, best '_____' and many more bests, we obviously have to take him at his word and similarly expect a 'best' half marathon whatever the conditions, rain, snow, shine or fire! We hope to be stoked for him, and we have evidence to suggest we can be stoked for him because all his training in Iten throughout the past 6 weeks have been uncannily geared towards running a great half marathon than a great marathon. Would we be surprised if he ran 66:30? NOPE, absolutely not, and that's a 100% given that nothing can be 100% in this world! Would he be able to therefore say run 3minutes slower for a half way marathon split next month in say 69:30(assuming he already has ran 66:30 tomorrow), and keep that up for another half marathon in 69:15 so that he breaks 2:19:00 and qualifies for Rio, that is almost a definite NO, a 99.9% NO. It isn't such a simple thing to add 3minutes to your half marathon pb for a half-way split and think that is supposed to work out perfectly. There are many other factors to consider before one can determine how slow of a half-way split one needs to minimally negative split the whole marathon race by 1 second, while assuming best practices for marathon racing must always produce a negative split of at least 1 second, just like how one would also assume that best practices for 800m running must always produce a positive split of nearly 1 second as well, for obvious reasons I would not discuss here.

Do we hope for a new national record tomorrow(current record by Mok Ying Ren in January with 67:08)? As a singaporean, just like all my singaporean friends, we can't wait for a new one, obviously! And we hope Ruiyong is up to the task, especially since we have already provided everybody above with great reason to believe he has, whether consciously or unconsciously, been in a rhythm of training that seems to support half marathon racing! We are not sure if he knows it, or whether he knows it but isn't saying it. Having said that, there is always a small or big chance our analysis could be wrong, given we don't have every single workout or run he did in Iten, and the ones we did analyzed were only those 1,2 or 3 specially documented workouts by Ruiyong on his facebook page, and we assume they could tell a pretty accurate picture of his overall goals and what kind of shape he is rounding into, because he says those were 'best' workouts or runs ever in his life.


As far as I have tried, I have hopefully answered most questions about what to expect from Ruiyong tomorrow in Cardiff, with one question left that is situated right at the top of the post. Is Ruiyong medalling? Absolutely not, this one was obvious.


We wish him all the best :)

Let us EVALUATE Ruiyong's TEMPO RUN?

In this post we analyse Ruiyong's most recent tempo run in Iten.

As any serious or moderately serious distance runner would probably know, tempo runs, also called lactate threshold runs, extend the body's ability to tolerate a higher lactate accumulation which is done by forcing the body to recruit or convert more exclusively slow and fast fibers respectively into fibers that are a mix-pot of both fast and slow, so that one can run fast for a long time, rather than simply running long and very slow, or very very fast for very very short.

To analyse Ruiyong's tempo run, we use the Jack Daniel's Running Formula(a book) as a guide instead of the Renato Canova marathon model. The reason is because Renato Canova's model is such a highly specialized training model that all sorts of training his athletes do are done in sole support of the main specialty events his athletes race. Ergo, he doesn't differentiate very specifically between tempo runs, steady-state runs, moderate runs, cruise intervals and even long runs, like Jack Daniels do. Canova only has 4 types of runs in his model, mainly, regeneration, fundamental, special and specific, and if what you thought you were doing was called tempo run today, he doesn't really care what you think because he only cares about how that run would be defined in his model! And many of us here might not be cognizant of what all these names mean, so it wouldn't be a good idea to use them, even if I were able to explain all of them. In any case, Jack Daniels also has a world reknowned marathon training model, as well as one for every type of race distance available on the planet. Jack Daniels' philosophy revolves around not one specific specialty event like how Renato operates, but rather he has broad definitions of types of training for runners of wide-ranging abilities with no view of what their specialized event might be, and he classifies them generally as tempo runs, easy runs, moderate runs, progression runs, long runs, cruise intervals that anybody can do etc. Many of us are more familiar with these categories and we shall take a look at the tempo run.


Jack defines the tempo run as some pace you could hold anywhere between 50-60 minutes. Ruiyong's half marathon pb is 67:22, 7:22 outside 60minutes, but for administrative convenience, we shall use 67:22 to be a rough estimate of his lactate threshold(LT) pace, which turns out to be 5:08-9 per mile. That means, tempo runs are preferably run at around these paces, for Ruiyong. Let's do altitude adjustment for Ruiyong and find out that 5:08 at sea level is approximately 5:20 at 7800ft, and Ruiyong should be running his tempos, anywhere between 50-60 minutes at 5:20 per mile, if he is trying to extend his ability to tolerate higher lactate accumulation which I presume allows him to run a faster marathon time, like perhaps 2:24, not to even mention anything about 2:18:45, which is what he thought he could or hoped to run in London!

Then the average pace of Ruiyong's 21.1km tempo was 5:34, 14 seconds slower than the recommended LT pace at 7800ft, according to the Jack Daniel's formula. Can this be arguably acceptable and explained away? Perhaps! We could argue Ruiyong was running for more than 60minutes, 13 more minutes to be exact since he took approximately 73 minutes to run 21.1km at 7800ft, so he obviously wouldn't be able to hold LT pace(5:20 per mile) for more than 60minutes. We can give that to him. But for a difference of 14 seconds per mile (5:34-5:20) for only 13minutes more time of running seems way too luxurious and incredibly underdosed, even at altitude. We then learned he was running a moderate tempo, as detailed on his facebook page, which is a broad category of runs also classified in the Jack Daniel's marathon model and many others from famous marathon coaches around the world. Moderate runs are intended to be faster than easy running but slower than LT pace, and since there is such a wide variety of paces to train in between easy and LT paces, there are so many variations of doing a moderate run, and equally many reasons and motives for wanting to do one. Might it be Ruiyong wants to remain conservative in training to stay injury free or is something else the reason?

For now, we should not second-guess or third-guess the reasons for Ruiyong and his coach deciding to do a moderate tempo. And if he says it's supposed to be a simulation for national record attempt in London, that is easily way more plausible than a simulation run for an attempt at directly qualifying in London in the 2:18 region, because a simulation run for 2:18 would probably be somewhere around 5:13-5:15 per mile at 7800ft for 50-60minutes of continuous running, something of a totally different dimension for Ruiyong altogether!

He has all of our full support and backing if the national record attempt is what he is after in London, and if he ceases all the misleading hyperbole on social and national media about having a 'great' shot at running 2:18.



Feel free to provide some comments please :)

Does Ruiyong have enough volume in the tank to be ready to run 2:18 in London?

Before I start this new post, a couple of us like-minded people thought it would be a good time to address some of our friends' questions on social media about why I chose, against the force of nature and popular vote, to be a 'whistleblower' and 'whistleblow' about Ruiyong's virtually non-existent chances of qualifying for Rio 2016 and to some extent Tokyo 2020.

Why would I be so seemingly thoroughly disloyal and faithless in seeking to 'destroy' a young and hot-blooded aspiration when it makes more sense to many singaporeans or non-singaporeans to give such local aspirations more mileage and credits? Except, and I really mean EXCEPT, it was never my aim to 'destroy', while the majority of hot-blooded athletes have historically not had the type of athletics career they hoped they had, whether that be as a result of injury, depression and/or unaccountable physical, psychological and emotional stalement. They might even run afoul of the rule of law too.


If anyone had been for 30 years an unknowingly diligent fan of distance knowledge and experience(or any sport), he/she would likely naturally be conferred with more than a little knowledge and appreciation of distance statistics such as performance progress trends and models, distance training science and models, and historical trends related to sport pyschology and athlete behavior. His/her faith and allegiance must naturally lie in these rigorously assessed and relatively reliable models and trends, and a select few geniuses like (for distance running) Renato Canova and Arthur Lydiard would then later go on and synthesize, make sense, test, analyse and experiment with the trends and models and produce new schools of thought and new models. But I am no genius, and I can only merely vouch for these highly reliable trends and models created by these geniuses, and so the majority of my faith must also lie in these. Can I reconcile my predominant  faith in these trends and models with my relative lack of faith in Ruiyong's Olympic aspirations? Absolutely, they are in perfect agreement with each other. I do not have a lack of faith for the sake of having one, otherwise there is no logical and rational causation to whistleblow! And I should just shut down the blog....

To be very explicit, the model I am calling to whistleblow Ruiyong is very simple and straightforward to understand. In this model, no distance athlete in the history of mankind with a pb of 31:15, 14:58, and 67:22 has run a concurrent marathon time in the region of 2:18. If this is not true, just as I am not infallible, please let it be known to me here, and we shall make sense of it together. Ergo, if Ruiyong does indeed run 2:18 in London without some disproportionate revision to his 10k, 5k and half marathon pbs, he is the first outlier in entire distance history by a shocking margin, and since at no time in his career has he demonstrated a completely rare form of distance talent, like Daniel Komen of Kenya in 1994, then this outlier is simply too good to be true,  like out of this world, and naturally one would have to suspect foulplay, if we also recall the ongoing turmoil of drug allegations against the very governing body all of us have been taught to trust and respect---IAAF.


Let's get to the analysis of Ruiyong's workout volumes on the track in the past 2 weeks. As everybody can derive from Ruiyong's facebook fan page, he recently did a 1600x8 and a 1km x12 intervals at close to lactate threshold pace. Excluding warming up and cooling down jogs, the total volume of workout amounts to no more than approximately 13km and 12km respectively. Now applying the Canova marathon model, workout volumes 3 months out from goal marathon race must start at a minimum of 16-18km, always excluding warming up and cooling down jogs, as well as, recovery or rest intervals in between the sets! These volumes are supposed to gradually increase, with intensity or pace remaining the same. 2 months out from the race, track workout volumes according to the Canova model should be in the region of 20-22km, or about the distance of about half marathon. Ruiyong was 2 months out from the London marathon race when he did that particular 1km x 12 with 300m jog recovery at slower than 5min/km.What is Ruiyong possibly doing, running only a mere total volume of 12km of interval work, 2 months out from London, whereas the high probability Canova marathon model would suggest knocking out almost twice that volume and with a rest and recovery interval of about 3:45 per km(for 3;15 average split-set). Questions abound about the quality and quantity of Ruiyong's physical preparations to run a 2:18 marathon in London. It only gets more incredible by the hour and day WHERE he is getting his confidence to run 2:18 from? Is he getting it just by virtue of being stationed in the land of the champions-Iten? Is geographic location supposed to be the formula that cuts through all the hard work, just magically by being in the land itself, or on the mountain itself, whilst doing, according to the Canova marathon model, incredibly underdosed workouts and long runs?!

Only time will tell but Ruiyong would be unquestionably well-served to abandon any Olympic aspirations and focus on simply breaking his personal best time of 2:26:01 in small but safe and conscionable increments. The pride and honor of Singapore shouldn't take precedence over the health, integrity and safety of our athlete, neither should it run into conflict with well-tested trends and models.