Alan Webb crashes and burns....in early season road races..

Manzano is going to eat Webb's lunch for breakfast this season. Mark my words.

stop making excuses for webb. mentally, he's a pile of stool right now.

If he ran fast y'all would be talking about how he's going to peak too early.

The fans seem to have a harder time swallowing the concept of a bad race moreso than the athletes. I'm sure he'll move on from this point, it's not the end of Alan Webb's world.

Maybe Youll Get Lucky wrote:

If he ran fast y'all would be talking about how he's going to peak too early.

a lot of people keep brining up this point. however, there is a big difference between running fast and running decent, and so far he has done neither. i don't think anyone would accuse him of peaking too early if he had finished like 5th today, or at the US 8k champs

In all honesty, Webb is still Webb.

I think he's obviously missing a part of something if its all true.

He could have finished the 5k but didn't. the 5 and 8 would have both been subpar for him. But don't worry, he's specialty is not the 5/8k.

Its the 8/15/mile. He could still probably run 3:50/3:32 the shape he's in now with 2 weeks.

In 4 months he'll be much improved. It appears as if he is using these races as training stints- non-direct answers, shifty, he's just in the race just to be in the race. Seems like a mental game to me, so folks discount him. Good plan.

Maybe they won't see it coming.

"The season" is in August in a sh!thole in NE Asia.

Who won USATF 1500 last year, who got 2nd? How did they finish in Osaka?

A lot can happen...We dont see Lagat kicking himself because of some silly road race results.

IF AW had run 23:xx and 14:00 that wud have been perfect. Better to achieve the training goal and drop out so people leave you alone.

Seb Coe said <8:00 for 3k indoors means you are in shape. If a double Olympic gold medalist believes a modest time like that indicates worldclass fitness for the 15/8, then AW is generally at that level of fitness.

What nobody seems to understand is - there are 1-2 races a year for AW, BL etc that matter. Everything else - XC, road races, indoors, The Penn relays etc. is fun, a good indicator of fitness, but ultimately meaningless.

I think this is good for webb, maybe he won't peak in June this year. Leo will be good eventually, but coming off a college season I don't see him doing well at the olympics.

Exactly. Webb has gotten to the level where World Championships, Olympics Medals and World Records are what matter. Everything else is fluff.

thurston howell, III wrote:

stop making excuses for webb. mentally, he's a pile of stool right now.

Right, because you can comment on his mental state. He'll be fine for what matters. As for Manzano, Webb has a PR 10 seconds faster than him and Manzano has never beaten him. I don't see it happening this season either.

Webb has learned he can't run a 15/5 double. It was a good exercise and now he can concentrate fully on the 15 (and possibly the 8).

On the flip side you think his confidence is through the roof?

Overreaching and overtraining is much more apparent an olympic year. We will see uneven performances from many athletes striving for olympic glory. Some people will cheat and some will just crash and burn...

There is plenty of time for Webb to repair himself, better to crash now than later. It's good to 'fail' sometimes, just look at El Guerrouj and Lagat both had sub-par performances leading up to their doubles. It takes off some of the pressure and at the same time it motivates them to prove for themselfs and everyone else. And who knows, maybe Webb and his coach planned this scenario to happen just to take the pressure off.

bombing this race is not what is concerning, it's the fact that he's questioning his training. i find quite troublesome that the olympics are coming up and he's not confident in his training.

Yes, Webb is the worst ever. Ever, I say! Let's burn him at the stake for having bad races.

This is all a laugh to Webb. I think the food poisoning was somewhat legit but not sure what happened here at carlsbad. Either way do you really think he doesn't know what he needs to do to get into shape? He just set the AR in the mile last year, ran 1:43 and 3:30 in a nice fast/tactical race.

I would almost think he is training completely through these races and would not be suprised if they were one of two workouts on each day.

webb is not questioning his training. He was having an unbelievable start after taking a break from worlds. The last 2 months he put in his most miles ever and was still able to hit some great times in workouts. Then he was finally able to get in a race at NY. He got sick, decided to run at the last minute without any energy in his system (believe me i was eating twice as much as him the 2 days leading up to the race), and despite that still finished a race he should have scratched.

He never felt like he got his legs back under him the last few weeks pushing through workouts and his miles were still high after a "down week" during NY. Now he comes to race the 5K and it appears he is in terrible shape, but all he needs is another week to recoup. His confidence will be fine after he opens on the track. He'll be back to top form and all the haters are going to hide out.

I'd love to see who Spiders Webb is and how great his running career has been. Even if he is a decent runner, he definitely has some confidence or self esteem problems if all he can do is find ways to bring himself up when he cuts others down. So basically I feel sorry for him. I don't think Alan will ever come on here and rip apart another's career.

Alan is the most personable and down to earth guy, and he's doing his best. Why not just stop now and hope for the best for him. But if you continue to ramble on about how he's doing everything wrong, then at least stand up for yourself and prove that you are the Almighty running god who has never had anything less than picture perfect performances each time they race.

jules

You just have to hope that this is not a result of a deeper isue, like anemia or something.

Manzano is no treat to anyone outside the NCAAs. Come on, Manzano could not even make it out of the first round of last year's World Championships.

Who honestly cares if he had a DNF; It would be cool to have seen him get the AR or the win, but ultimately I care about two races for Webb, the trials, and the olympics. He could training through them as I don't see why he would want to peak for one of the road races anyway this early. Dead legs is a good sign because he is training hard - he just needs to recover.