Webb Heading off to Europe for Some XC Races, He's Going to Skip Indoor Season By David Monti (c) 2006 Race Results Weekly, all rights reserved January 21, 2006
Exactly
five years to the day after Alan Webb became the first U.S. high school
athlete to break four minutes for the mile indoors, he boarded a plane
to head off in a radically different direction: international cross
country.
The 23 year-old Reston, Va., athlete left today to do
two races in Spain, the first time he will have run cross country in
Europe. His first race is on Sunday in the 18th Cross Internacional
Ciudad de Valladolid, and the second will be a week later in the 23rd
Cross Ciudad de Haro. He is expected to face top athletes like
six-time European Cross Country champion, Sergey Lebid of Ukraine, and
four-time individual medalist at the IAAF World Cross Country
Championships, Gebre Gebremariam of Ethiopia.
In an exclusive
telephone interview with Race Results Weekly yesterday from his home,
Webb said that he was using these races to prepare himself for the 4-K
event at the 2006 USA Cross Country Championships next month in New
York City, and to build strength for his outdoor season on the track.
"I've
used cross country my whole career to get stronger for my track
season," said Webb. "In the short term, to get me ready for U.S Cross
Country. Last year I didn't have any cross country races before (the
USA Championships), and I think that hurt me." He then added: "This is
my tune up for New York."
At last year's USA Cross Country
Championships, Webb finished sixth in the 4-K on the first day of the
two-day competition, but did not finish the 12-K the following day,
stepping off the course at only 5 kilometers. In 2004 he finished
eighth in the 4-K and fourth in the 12-K. Even though he qualified to
make the national teams both years for the IAAF World Cross Country
Championships, he declined selection, and he's leaning that way this
year, too."
For
now, it's a 90% chance I'm not going to do it," said Webb citing both
the long trip to Japan and the late date for the meet in 2006 (April 1
and 2) which is "chipping away at the outdoor season," he said.
And
unlike the last two seasons, Webb will not be running indoors at all,
skipping both the U.S. Indoor Championships and the IAAF World Indoor
Championships. Webb, and his coach Scott Raczko, decided that in order
for him to be as prepared as possible for the national cross country
meet --his primary first quarter goal-- he needed to skip running
indoors, citing the incompatibility of the training.
"This is
totally a planned thing," Webb explained. "We decided this a while ago
that we wouldn't do any indoors this year. I'm not going to loose
anything by not doing indoors. I don't think I'm missing out on
anything. It's a long term thing; there's always time to do stuff.
If I do something, I want to go after it. I'm starting to pick and
choose more selectively."
With no major outdoor championship for
Webb this summer (the World Cup comes in September at the end of the
season), Webb has decided to focus on the European circuit where he can
run fast.
"Basically, I'm putting my eggs into the Grand Prix
circuit," he said. "My goal for the year is to do the Super Grand
Prixes and the Golden Leagues and do those top-tier meets. Those will
be my focus. I'll use those for my championship effort. Those are the
meets to run fast. This is a better year to really run fast."
Asked
if he had been given a preview of the courses he was about to run in
Spain, Webb admitted that he hadn't, but didn't appear fazed.
"I
don't know anything," he joked saying that he was just up for the
gritty head-to-head competition which characterizes cross country. "It
doesn't really matter."
