I'm sure CL will be along any minute...

Steve Ovett won the Dartford Half Marathon 2 weeks before he set a British record for 1500m. A year later he won the Olympic 800m. Don't forget that Coe was almost a 400/800m runner, rather than the traditional 800/1500m specialist. His 400m best is nearly 2 seconds quicker than Ovett.

I don't believe that either approach is definitively right or wrong. Just different,