Dear Alan Webb, look at what Meb just did. Why did you give up so soon?

this is Letsrun it's "DEER Alan Webb"

Track_Marathoner wrote:

this is Letsrun it's "DEER Alan Webb"

No sir. "Deer" was used so much that now you gotta go with "Dear" to be ironic and hip.

If Ryan Hall's slow times can help an American win, just think of what Webb's really slow times can do!

Triathlon is a much younger sport, so there is more room for advancements in training knowledge, and therefore improvements in finishing times. Even cycling technology has plenty of room to grow, which will have an impact.

I love running, but it's a dead sport. There are limits to human ability. Setting world records is rare now. Look at the 2011 Boston marathon, as an example. The planets had to align for it to happen. In 50 years time, most running records will have been set by dead people. El-G is 39. Is anyone going to break 3:43 in the mile by the time he's dead in 2055? Very unlikely.

I don't blame Webb for moving on.

dead sport wrote:

Triathlon is a much younger sport, so there is more room for advancements in training knowledge, and therefore improvements in finishing times. Even cycling technology has plenty of room to grow, which will have an impact.

I love running, but it's a dead sport. There are limits to human ability. Setting world records is rare now. Look at the 2011 Boston marathon, as an example. The planets had to align for it to happen. In 50 years time, most running records will have been set by dead people. El-G is 39. Is anyone going to break 3:43 in the mile by the time he's dead in 2055? Very unlikely.

I don't blame Webb for moving on.

why running should be about breaking records?

winning is more important. Meb won Boston and nobody cared about what the record is.

dead sport wrote:

Triathlon is a much younger sport, so there is more room for advancements in training knowledge, and therefore improvements in finishing times. Even cycling technology has plenty of room to grow, which will have an impact.

I love running, but it's a dead sport. There are limits to human ability. Setting world records is rare now. Look at the 2011 Boston marathon, as an example. The planets had to align for it to happen. In 50 years time, most running records will have been set by dead people. El-G is 39. Is anyone going to break 3:43 in the mile by the time he's dead in 2055? Very unlikely.

I don't blame Webb for moving on.

Setting world records is rare because no one tries. Of course, you chose to ignore the marathon performances lately as well as the sprinting performances.

Meb had lots of struggles, but there were plenty of signs that he still had it along the way. Meb has been able to drop 61:30 half marathons and win US champs between disappointing marathons and DNS marathons.

Webb has just not even been close the past few years. He was plainly a shadow of his former self and had no business trying to compete on an international level. There were no signs that Webb still had any of his old speed. It is perfectly reasonable to expect the guy to call it a career and move on.

Triathlons are a good place for former single sport competitors. It has mostly been swimmers and cyclists up until Webb. It will be interesting to see if he can make the transition.

Not only Meb. Look at Lagat as well. It is just defeatism that says that you are getting too old in your early 30s. Teg had something of the same attitude for several years already.

Up to the chemists to devise some new undetectable EPO-like substance....then the world records can fall anew.

If you look at a 100 year long graph of running records, you see them start to level off in recent decades. Sure, the sprint and marathon records have been set recently, but the gains get smaller all the time.. Records used to be set by large times, now they are very small. Soon they will be insignificant, and then pretty much non-existent. You can't fight the power of natural limitations. Do you really think humans will be able to run the mile faster and faster until eventually we can run it in less than a second, with enough training and knowledge? The only game changing factor with natural limitations on man is evolution, and that is an extremely slow process in terms of our perception of time. It will be a long time before we evolve better traits for running, and it probably won't even happen because it's not necessary for our survival as a species anymore.

Sports have ages. In running we've pretty much reached mastery. Interestingly, we mastered it before we had the science to really understand what was going on. Lydiard helped figure it out empirically, through trial and error. We know how much volume is appropriate, what mix of types of runs, and even how to sequence the phases for particular race distances. All that's left is controlling minutia.

It's not all about records, it's also about how fun and interesting the process is. Running is a very tough sport to get into because it doesn't provide a lot of entertainment. And now the joy of learning HOW to run fast is pretty much gone. Anyone who can read 10 books and is willing to quit their job can probably self coach themselves to 90% or more of their genetic potential in running.

I'm just saying the joy of pioneering the sport is gone. Triathlon as a sport is in an earlier part of the the cycle.