Clearly Webb is burned out mentally - he's been world class since he was in high school. I say he either take a year off and see what real work is like, or switch to trail running or the 800 or winter biathlon. Anything other than the 1500.
Clearly Webb is burned out mentally - he's been world class since he was in high school. I say he either take a year off and see what real work is like, or switch to trail running or the 800 or winter biathlon. Anything other than the 1500.
dg wrote:
Clearly Webb is burned out mentally - he's been world class since he was in high school. I say he either take a year off and see what real work is like, or switch to trail running or the 800 or winter biathlon. Anything other than the 1500.
This is really what I was hitting on. If things don't turn around this season, he needs to somehow push the 'reset' button. I'm not saying he should never go back to the 1500, but he definitely needs to get out of his normal routine for awhile.
i think most people would think that is kind of ridiculous. if you can't figure out why your race car won't run correctly, you don't junk it and take up motocross. you have the mechanics work on it to figure out what's wrong, then fix it, and keep on racing. we don't webb to pull a jabe jennings.
So Webb wins at the Drake Relays in 4:00 flat- Front page says WEBB WINS AT THE DRAKE!! but nothing about being all washed up. Hmmm? interesting. But when he runs the equivelant or maybe a tad bit faster this past race....then somethings wrong? how do you figure. And...Zatopek was in the 50's/ Clarke in the 60's/ and Pre was 70's. oh ..and Bannister was 50's as well. I could say Steve Scott is 80's/ and Bob Kennedy is 90's....and now we have Webb of today. But ....Jim Ryun is still by far the Greatest!!! :-)
In 2007 he did have that bad Pre 2-mile race where he was 12 sec. slower than he'd run 2 years before, came back to win USATF, run 3:30, 3:46...
MAYBE last weekend was just an awful day. He looked out of it from the gun...like that 2-mile at Pre.
Right now Lagat and Manzano are looking really good (throwing out Leo's dreadful 3:57). Lomong looks a little flat compared with past years (3:39, 1:47). Myers could surprise.
Well Billy, this is Letsrun. Folks are quick to jump on and off any given bandwagon. But you don't seem to know track very well so let's explain a little of the subtleties. Yes Drake was a win, in an equivalent time. The difference was that it was a Win and the weather was bad (cold, wind, rain). It was also a tactical race, not Webb's forte. There was some caterwauling about slow time, but he more or less got a bye. Finally that was more than a month ago; early season.Now, what 5 weeks later and less than a month from USATF Nationals, under ideal conditions with a better field, Webb gets his ass handed to him and finishes a distant 9th. He ran at the level of an NCAA qualifier, hoping to make the final and score a point or two at the championships. That's gotta hurt. And it brings to question: WHAT is going on with the mystery that is Alan Webb?
Billy Mills wrote:
So Webb wins at the Drake Relays in 4:00 flat- Front page says WEBB WINS AT THE DRAKE!! but nothing about being all washed up. Hmmm? interesting. But when he runs the equivelant or maybe a tad bit faster this past race....then somethings wrong? how do you figure. And...Zatopek was in the 50's/ Clarke in the 60's/ and Pre was 70's. oh ..and Bannister was 50's as well. I could say Steve Scott is 80's/ and Bob Kennedy is 90's....and now we have Webb of today. But ....Jim Ryun is still by far the Greatest!!! :-)
Anyone else notice that Krummenacker was doing a distance-based training program before switching to coach Luiz de Oliveira's much more speed-based training, and then had his breakout year followed by another decent year and then started to fade. Webb had his distance-based training year and 10k PR in 2006 (and mediocre 8/15 racing) and then went to a more speed-based training cycle in 2007 and was one of the top 8/15 runners in the world, and now has started fading. Maybe some of these 8/15 guys need to look at a two year training cycle of building endurance one year and speed the next?
What does this have to do with the Drake relays. He just got toasted by a handful of US runners.
Thanks. The point is exactly what it is, and also a hypothetical.
1) The set does not reveal full information, yet a common assumption is that it does
2) Speed side capability is a key factor.
When was the last time a runner managed 350 for the mile without 146 800m best? Rupp for example, could complete the same 10x800m session mentioned earlier but never touch 3:50 in the mile. At best Rupp can manage a 1500 which is double his 800m best. On the other hand if Shaheen can click off 800m in 147 at the end of some extraordinarily tough session, it does not ensure he will be taking down Kipketer's 800m mark.
wouldn't it be crazy if webb ended up winning gold in berlin? if that were to happen, which right now i give a < 1% chance of happening, i would go nuts. not in a bad way, just crazy nuts. i hope it happens. can i dream?
Webb winning the gold would be funny, but it is not probable. Still, looking at his checkered career anything is possible. I would be just happy to see either Lagat, Myers or Manzano in the finals. Since the outstanding 2007 campaign US miler’s prestige has taken a dive. We are back to just hoping an American makes the finals. In the days of Scott, Spivey, Maree, and Byers we knew at least two American's would be in the finals. The question then was if they would medal. Both Scott and Spivey did eventually medal in the World Championships, but fell short in the Olympics. Both Spivey and Scott on the Olympic teams they made appeared in every Olympic final. Even the unsung Jeff Atkinson managed to make the 1988 Olympic final. The following year he posted a respectable 3:52 mile, and recently just lost his American indoor 1500 record to Lagat.
Today's US 1500 meter runners know how to post fast times, but they still lack the racing savvy to consistently make World and Olympic finals.
I guess we can't complain since the once great UK milers are pratically invisible. However, Andy Baddeley looks very good. We will see if he is the next Cram or just a fade out like Webb.
The only Constant with webb is that he is inconsistent? You can speculate about a season, but not a career! and sometimes you can't speculate about a season because he pulls a race out of his a**. The guy is a wild card and doesn't fit what all of our systems of what a "miler" should be...so why do we keep trying to put him into a category. You focus on the mile your not impressed with his consistency, but you look at his range in other distances and his resume looks pretty impressive. Many people are just frustrated with what they think webb "is" and what he should or should have accomplished. Think outside the box with this guy...new set of rules. don't write off his career.
Eric B wrote:
Just read the first page or two of this thread and maybe this has already been brought up but...
A serious question whose answer may answer Webb's ails: Does anyone know how is training is going? If he is only running 30 miles per week or something and showing up at meets (just enough to keep a pay check from Nike), it could explain why his racing is considerably more crappy than normal and why he looks out of shape/clunky.
If I could spend a few hours per week on my job and still make a decent pay check, I would consider doing the minimum during times of burn-out or other life issues.
Why don't you read the whole thread, then you'll know what has been discussed. Oh yeah...too much work, better to post without a clue.
irun, this is a mind we are talking about, not a machine - any runner over the age of 18 knows that mental strength is half the battle - it looks to me that Webb has just lost the fight and needs to step away before he can get it back. It worked for me - I barely ran in my 30s - I was burned out, didn't care. I took up cycling, summer biathlon and other things - then when I turned 40 I got all fired up again and I'm as fast now as I was in HS.
I am the only one who thinks if Alan Webb never runs a fast time again, I wont care? The dude ran 3:46. 3 frickin 46.
In the last 10 years, only a few runners have really captured my attention...I watched his 3:46 over and over again.
Everytime he races, I will watch for the chance for him to run fast again. Good luck AW.
So you are admitting Webb is a one shot wonder. Hey, a 3:46 is great a great mile time, but couldn't he at least run a 3:35 1500 today? Why is he running NCAA times now.
I want to see Webb run a sub 13 5000, which he is definitely capable of. It would be a shame for someone with his talent to not make a serious effort at the longer stuff.
Someone coming to the rescue.... new coach
I dont know much about running the mile but Webb looks really muscle bound for a miler. He looks more like a pole vaulter. All that upper body strength is OK for sprinters but at the mile distance, I think its overdone, IMHO.
As the story goes he followed Michael Stember into the weight room. There was a wager on who could bench press the most. Six months later Webb left the weight room and was muscle bound. McDonald provided the final nail in the coffin