Not Done Yet: Mary Cain Has Been Injured in 2017 - Planning On Racing Again in 2018

In my humble opinion, Mary Cain is done with racing. She is smart enough to realize that she will never be an international star. Training to be a great runner has to come from the heart. And I think that Mary loved being a high school star. But doing the training when nobody is watching is very different. I think Mary is done, injury or no injury.

not encouraging at all wrote:

What kind of injury takes you out for 15+ months?

Burnout

Not familiar with Decker's disappearance. Kind of assumed she was competing on the national/world stage from teen years on. Can you elaborate (how long was she out, injury, burnout, etc.?)

runn wrote:

Mr. Mann wrote:

I am happy to hear this! I think she will race well, and after a year of consistent training/racing she will shine again. Talent like that doesn't go away. And Mary Cain is exceptionally talented.

Mary Decker had a similar experience- greatness very young, disappeared, came back strong.

I hope Mary is successful.

10th Mtn Miler wrote:

Not familiar with Decker's disappearance. Kind of assumed she was competing on the national/world stage from teen years on. Can you elaborate (how long was she out, injury, burnout, etc.?)

runn wrote:

Mary Decker had a similar experience- greatness very young, disappeared, came back strong.

I hope Mary is successful.

Decker had definite injuries. She was still always good even when she was performing sporadically and half crippled.

She didn't run like crap when there was nothing wrong with her.

There was nothing wrong with Cain when she started performing poorly. Her talent was just diminished for whatever reason.

Basically like a person suddenly getting old even though they are still in peak health.

She has not lost an ounce of talent. However, the combination of Salazar getting her to run like a robot despite her previous mechanics being exceptional, along with the fact she never had to watch her weight in HS is what this boils down to.

Can she get her elastic stride back? That will be difficult.

Can she figure out how to be healthy and reduce her weight for top competitions? This is something people like to pretend we can’t talk about, but in a power:weight sport is absolutely critical.

Let’s be real, please wrote:

She has not lost an ounce of talent. However, the combination of Salazar getting her to run like a robot despite her previous mechanics being exceptional, along with the fact she never had to watch her weight in HS is what this boils down to.

Can she get her elastic stride back? That will be difficult.

Can she figure out how to be healthy and reduce her weight for top competitions? This is something people like to pretend we can’t talk about, but in a power:weight sport is absolutely critical.

Personally, I would consider some of those items to fall under the 'talent' umbrella. It is very difficult to keep every little thing moving in the right direction.

entrep9900@aol.com

wrote:

In my humble opinion, Mary Cain is done with racing. She is smart enough to realize that she will never be an international star. Training to be a great runner has to come from the heart. And I think that Mary loved being a high school star. But doing the training when nobody is watching is very different. I think Mary is done, injury or no injury.

I hope she can come back, the talent is still there. You do make a good point though about the training. That is why most elites train in groups, to help on days when they don't feel like doing the monotonous tasks like stretching, weights, PT, chiropractic, treadmill training, etc. The running workouts are the easy part but all of these ancillary tasks can be boring and when training alone can be easily skipped.

Let’s be real, please wrote:

She has not lost an ounce of talent. However, the combination of Salazar getting her to run like a robot despite her previous mechanics being exceptional, along with the fact she never had to watch her weight in HS is what this boils down to.

Can she get her elastic stride back? That will be difficult.

Can she figure out how to be healthy and reduce her weight for top competitions? This is something people like to pretend we can’t talk about, but in a power:weight sport is absolutely critical.

^^^this^^

She had egregiously bad running form when she was fast, but put on the "freshman 15" right on schedule. Weight is the deal-breaker here.

The comeback will be hard and difficult for Mary. Her body has probably changed during this layoff. On the other hand, the only runner who has been consistently consistent since the age of 12 (yes 12!) has been Jordan Hasay. She is now opening up yet another chapter in her running career focusing on the marathon. Does anyone know of any other runner that lays claim to such consistency? I remember a young gal named Brianna Jacuciwizc (sp.?) who was supposed to be the next Mary Decker, the equal if not greater than Jordan. Never heard of her after the age of 14 when puberty struck.

tianobarto wrote:

Let’s be real, please wrote:

She has not lost an ounce of talent. However, the combination of Salazar getting her to run like a robot despite her previous mechanics being exceptional, along with the fact she never had to watch her weight in HS is what this boils down to.

Can she get her elastic stride back? That will be difficult.

Can she figure out how to be healthy and reduce her weight for top competitions? This is something people like to pretend we can’t talk about, but in a power:weight sport is absolutely critical.

^^^this^^

Nope. Talent comprises the whole package. Being a certain shape with certain mechanics and power weight ratio is part of talent.

When that changes permanently it eats into the talent level.

It really is no different from aging.

Cain trained a certain way and performed well and then training stopped working for her.

Yeah Buddy wrote:

She had egregiously bad running form when she was fast, but put on the "freshman 15" right on schedule. Weight is the deal-breaker here.

Regarding the form, this is something many people have touted as a problem, but her results and an understanding of biomechanics clearly proves otherwise.

Try watching her 800 relay leg at NBNO when she was a freshman. Phenomenal form.

I agree that the major deal-breaker in her decline was weight.

xcvxcvxcv wrote:

she'll have had time to re-light the fire and without the fire, no amount of talent is going to bring her back.

it's all about the fire, at her level of talent.

Rapheal Spectrum wrote:

The comeback will be hard and difficult for Mary. Her body has probably changed during this layoff. On the other hand, the only runner who has been consistently consistent since the age of 12 (yes 12!) has been Jordan Hasay. She is now opening up yet another chapter in her running career focusing on the marathon. Does anyone know of any other runner that lays claim to such consistency? I remember a young gal named Brianna Jacuciwizc (sp.?) who was supposed to be the next Mary Decker, the equal if not greater than Jordan. Never heard of her after the age of 14 when puberty struck.

Francie Larrieu is the oldest and youngest Track Olympian for the USA and she didn't start running until she was 13.

Let’s be real, please wrote:

Yeah Buddy wrote:

She had egregiously bad running form when she was fast, but put on the "freshman 15" right on schedule. Weight is the deal-breaker here.

Regarding the form, this is something many people have touted as a problem, but her results and an understanding of biomechanics clearly proves otherwise.

Try watching her 800 relay leg at NBNO when she was a freshman. Phenomenal form.

I agree that the major deal-breaker in her decline was weight.

Her form was perfect for her imperfect structure. All of her idiosyncracies were to counterbalance the fact that her skeleton is not perfectly straight like those with great form.

See for yourself. About 6:45 into this video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jgRe5Lar4Nk

Let’s be real, please wrote:

See for yourself. About 6:45 into this video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jgRe5Lar4Nk

I may be confused, but I think you are using this video as proof of her perfect form? Her form was never good, and it's not good in that video.

But man, that video does remind me of how good she used to be.

I was hoping for a little bit more insight into Cain and what's been going on for the past year, besides a one sentence response from her agent.

Obviously a whole year off is a pretty big deal after a slow downward spiral. It will be very interesting to see if she can return to a competitive level in the near future.

Raysism wrote:

Let’s be real, please wrote:

See for yourself. About 6:45 into this video.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jgRe5Lar4Nk

I may be confused, but I think you are using this video as proof of her perfect form? Her form was never good, and it's not good in that video.

But man, that video does remind me of how good she used to be.

It's as good as her structure will allow. In fact it is pretty good.