Official Gwen Jorgensen Prediction / USATF Half Marathon Champs in Pittsburgh Thread

Garmin_Guy wrote:

ZidaneValor wrote:

Are some of you really framing this sub-71 minute half marathon as some sort of massive failure?

Err... what? She is framing it as a failure. Watch her blog video.

Tangentially, I do appreciate her transparency. I wish we had more elite runners with web/YouTube presences. It's cool to peek behind the curtain.

Exactly. I actually really enjoy her Youtube series and hope that she keeps up with it. So many athletes in this sport seem to operate in a black box, and someone giving this kind of access is refreshing. I'm following along in the journey and help others understand what it takes to be an elite athlete.

Garmin_Guy wrote:

Err... what? She is framing it as a failure. Watch her blog video.

Tangentially, I do appreciate her transparency. I wish we had more elite runners with web/YouTube presences. It's cool to peek behind the curtain.

She's not framing it as a failure to the level of this board. She said she thought she could win, she was disappointed, and that it was a good learning experience and she still has a lot to learn.

The reaction from half the people of this forum was that she should quit and go home because this sub-71 minute race is proof she can't succeed.

Those are two different reactions.

pkl wrote:

Baltsu wrote:

It was mentioned in an interview some weeks ago that because of the achilles problems she has been able to run only 80 mpw whereas her goal is to increase the volume up to 120 mpw. She doesn't have the needed endurance yet.

You can run a great half marathon just out of 10k training, so I don't think it's just a matter of endurance, definitely not marathon endurance.

Maybe she could have run this half out of her triathlon training, with much less but possibly faster or more consistent running.

I think she is over doing it, maybe not overtraining (yet) but trying to rush things. Physiological adaptatations take time. Her body is not reacting as expected to the strees she is putting it into.

Just anecedotal but comparing gwen and myself, our indoor 5k times are the same, her 10k time is faster, but my HM time is over 1 minute faster. I have never run over 80mpw but do have a short efficient stride. She doesn't seem to have the stride or efficiency to naturally be suited for the marathon. She really lopes along and has an exaggerated look to her. Maybe after all the the mileage her stride will adjust.

Go away Sarah True.....

factorama wrote:

YouTube Queen = Gwen wrote:

Why should Gwen be getting more attention than the runners who finished ahead of her? Only because she is the self-proclaimed 2020 Oly Gold Medalist!

She is an actual 2016 gold medalist.

Were any of the others even in Rio?

Rio is over and this is not the Tri.

heyyo wrote:

Just anecedotal but comparing gwen and myself, our indoor 5k times are the same, her 10k time is faster, but my HM time is over 1 minute faster. I have never run over 80mpw but do have a short efficient stride. She doesn't seem to have the stride or efficiency to naturally be suited for the marathon. She really lopes along and has an exaggerated look to her. Maybe after all the the mileage her stride will adjust.

Why is everybody so concerned with her stride? Look at the women who are actually winning global marathon titles...few have perfect strides.

Also, a 70 minute half is good progress at this point. That's approaching fast enough to make the olympic team if other things go her way. Desi's never broken 70min for a half, and Gwen already has similar 5k-10k PRs (Desi 15:08/31:37 vs 15:15/31:55). Plus Desi hasn't touched those marks in years.

I was actually pretty impressed with her run for the following reasons:

1. She hasn't been able to run 100 mpw

2. She's still breastfeeding

3. She's 5'10"

4. She's been focused on Tri for all these years

5. She came in 4th and less than a minute behind

I don't see any reason to hate. Clearly she has a big upside if she can keep training and get her volume up.

It is the arrogance that is being veiled as passion. It is the cheesy videos ,and self-absorbed perception.

The one thing I love about swimming and swimmers, they don't broadcast what they do. They just get up, train, compete and then go home, nothing fancy, or fake. They aren't even fake in their interviews. They aren't looking for attention, and when they win gold they are beyond humble.

Running used to be that way. And if you notice all the runners who have time to make over the top Vlogs, they really aren't good runners. The elite runners are too busy training and putting in the time and work - They don't have time for all that narcissistic stuff.

She's not arrogant. I've seen some of the videos and she seems nice enough, not arrogant. So what if she has big goals? Maybe she needs to make those goals public to stay motivated? I do the same thing, but on a smaller scale.

VLogs, podcasting, social media is all fairly new media. The sport is adapting to it, and it the athletes on the fringes are the ones gravitating towards it first. Convince me how when an athlete has a team around them doing video (it's clear Gwen isn't doing to late night editing on these things) and the sport becomes more accessible to fans that it's a bad thing.

Not Fast But Furious wrote:

I was actually pretty impressed with her run for the following reasons:

1. She hasn't been able to run 100 mpw

2. She's still breastfeeding

3. She's 5'10"

4. She's been focused on Tri for all these years

5. She came in 4th and less than a minute behind

I don't see any reason to hate. Clearly she has a big upside if she can keep training and get her volume up.

Seriously. And she just mixed it up in a half marathon with a few of the bigger names, who have years worth of road racing experience more than her.

Ordinarily I'd be inclined to agree with you, but wow does her gait look inefficient. Her shoulders are turning so much that her elbows get almost directly behind her spine. And I'm sure it looks worse than the other elites because of her height.

Any experienced coaches on here have any thoughts on her form?

This is why you have so many regular people cheating in marathon and ultra events, because of social media and vlogs. I could see if it were a vlog to talk about training and break down the different levels of training. Fans don't want to watch that, because it isn't a fairy tale. They watch that crap, and say hey, "I want to be like Gwen", instead of saying "hey, I want to be a solid runner."

I look at Gwen's form and it's terrible. I look at her body and it lacks running strength. Everything just looks rushed, with no true planning behind it. Any true runner can see that.

Raysism wrote:

reed wrote:

Why is everybody so concerned with her stride? Look at the women who are actually winning global marathon titles...few have perfect strides.

Also, a 70 minute half is good progress at this point. That's approaching fast enough to make the olympic team if other things go her way. Desi's never broken 70min for a half, and Gwen already has similar 5k-10k PRs (Desi 15:08/31:37 vs 15:15/31:55). Plus Desi hasn't touched those marks in years.

Ordinarily I'd be inclined to agree with you, but wow does her gait look inefficient. Her shoulders are turning so much that her elbows get almost directly behind her spine. And I'm sure it looks worse than the other elites because of her height.

Any experienced coaches on here have any thoughts on her form?

Why is she so skinny? This is what concerns me!

Raysism wrote:

reed wrote:

Why is everybody so concerned with her stride? Look at the women who are actually winning global marathon titles...few have perfect strides.

Also, a 70 minute half is good progress at this point. That's approaching fast enough to make the olympic team if other things go her way. Desi's never broken 70min for a half, and Gwen already has similar 5k-10k PRs (Desi 15:08/31:37 vs 15:15/31:55). Plus Desi hasn't touched those marks in years.

Ordinarily I'd be inclined to agree with you, but wow does her gait look inefficient. Her shoulders are turning so much that her elbows get almost directly behind her spine. And I'm sure it looks worse than the other elites because of her height.

Any experienced coaches on here have any thoughts on her form?

You mean a real one? Err no.

Pretend coach? Quite a few. All with 14 min 5k pbs too.

LetsCrawl.com wrote:

Raysism wrote:

Ordinarily I'd be inclined to agree with you, but wow does her gait look inefficient. Her shoulders are turning so much that her elbows get almost directly behind her spine. And I'm sure it looks worse than the other elites because of her height.

Any experienced coaches on here have any thoughts on her form?

Why is she so skinny? This is what concerns me!

YES, WHY IS SHE SO SKINNY? She looks very unhealthy on several levels.

GoodQuestion wrote:

LetsCrawl.com wrote:

Why is she so skinny? This is what concerns me!

YES, WHY IS SHE SO SKINNY? She looks very unhealthy on several levels.

Exactly. It takes years to develop a true running body, not only to be lean, but to have lean muscles. The ankles, achilles, calves must be strong with solid tension. She looks malnourished, and lacks strength and volume. She still has the same body that she had as a tri athlete.

No one is hating. We just being honest about her approach and it is all wrong. .....

Re-access, get the nutrition in, put in a good 4-5 years of marathon training, and then take a stab at the elite level. Great things take time, patience and understanding to achieve, why try to avoid that? ...especially at the marathon level.

Kipchoge said it best: " In Kenya, marathon is life, because it well take your whole like to be great."

Raysism wrote:

reed wrote:

Why is everybody so concerned with her stride? Look at the women who are actually winning global marathon titles...few have perfect strides.

Also, a 70 minute half is good progress at this point. That's approaching fast enough to make the olympic team if other things go her way. Desi's never broken 70min for a half, and Gwen already has similar 5k-10k PRs (Desi 15:08/31:37 vs 15:15/31:55). Plus Desi hasn't touched those marks in years.

Ordinarily I'd be inclined to agree with you, but wow does her gait look inefficient. Her shoulders are turning so much that her elbows get almost directly behind her spine. And I'm sure it looks worse than the other elites because of her height.

Any experienced coaches on here have any thoughts on her form?

Paula Radcliffe had the ugliest form I've ever seen and she did pretty well for herself. I'm sure a coach could fine tune it and she can make some improvements there as well. Like I said, she has a big upside.

Hey scorpion_runner, Sage made a video for you.

https://youtu.be/bdJJg8XDN0o