Brown’s limit is like 3:59.9 and 3:39.9 in the best shape of his life. So him running 3:55 is quite bad but not surprising since he’s pretty much only focusing on 800m. Even David Rudisha’s best 1500 was like 3:45.
Brown’s limit is like 3:59.9 and 3:39.9 in the best shape of his life. So him running 3:55 is quite bad but not surprising since he’s pretty much only focusing on 800m. Even David Rudisha’s best 1500 was like 3:45.
Those are his PRs but he probably would’ve lowered those if he’d had a proper final NCAA season in 2020. That’s basically been the whole point of his post collegiate push is to take that next step that he feels he’s capable of. It hasn’t gone well and the worrying thing is that season by season he’s getting worse. The idea that this 1500 was so bad is because he’s focusing on the 800 is missing the point that he’s getting slower across the board. I would hope a guy with 1:49 and 3:39 PRs doesn’t have to sacrifice his 1500 strength to get into 1:52 shape. But, as I’ve pointed out in other threads, he’s cherry-picking the parts of training that he wants to focus on instead of making a nice training stew with a portion of everything he needs. Sweat Elite today posted a workout with Neil Gourley and it was a monster: 6x 600 & 5k pace, 5x 400 @ 1500 pace, and 4x 200 @ 800 pace, with 1k tempos before and after. This is to prep for a 5k race but they’re touching on basically every relevant race pace Neil will run this year (he closed the last 200s in 24). Spence would do well to incorporate this kind of pace variety and play with his own balance instead of having Ari prick his ear and then tell him he needs to drop to 5:40s because he’s push 2.4 mmol.
Brown just needs to train like an 800 guy. Clearly he has no base for 3:39, he’s not going to become pro, he’s not going to get another yearlong semi pro contract. He might as well train his peak 800 abilities , since 1:48 is a lot closer than 3:39 at this point. He clearly has some descent speed if he can get 1:52 one week and only a 3:55 next week. Train his strengths, fill in some 1500 work to get into mid 3:40s shape, and go for a 1:48.
Brown just needs to train like an 800 guy. Clearly he has no base for 3:39, he’s not going to become pro, he’s not going to get another yearlong semi pro contract. He might as well train his peak 800 abilities , since 1:48 is a lot closer than 3:39 at this point. He clearly has some descent speed if he can get 1:52 one week and only a 3:55 next week. Train his strengths, fill in some 1500 work to get into mid 3:40s shape, and go for a 1:48.
totally and he can drop the silly lactate testing while he's at it- leave that for the pros who are really maximizing their performance potential and pushing the limits of endurance... TAS has so many simple more efficient and effective ways he can improve that he is just leaving on the table, not seeing the forest for the trees
Norwegian threshold training works when you do lots of volume at threshold, high mileage and add a quicker session once a week . Spencer is not doing high volume at threshold or high mileage. He's running 60 miles a week. At that volume he should be running 5 min pace or faster for his longer stuff when he is fit regardless of what the lactate meter says. He's not doing enough 1500, 3k or 5k specific work following his base period. Seems like he's running lots at 5:30 pace (slower than 17 min 5k pace) and some sub 30 200s every now and then. Useless training. Thought Ari was a smart guy who would be able to sort him out. Surprised how clueless he is. Unbelievable a 3:39 guy can be a full time athlete and run so slow. What a waste of talent. It's a shame as he seems a nice guy and his videos when he was in college were entertaining. Needs to commit fully and get a proper coach or he will keep being disappointed. Otherwise may as well just enjoy running as a hobby. He should be able to run 3:55 running a few times a week.
Colin Sahlman and Nico Young just ran 3:49 (Colin won) in their conference championship this week. every race is not a PB race or even necessarily a fast race (think Centro), so without knowing more, it’s hard to say 3:55 was a bad run.
Once I ran a race and shortly after starting I had to take a dump. If I had tried speeding up, I would have dropped a hot steaming mess in my shorts and possibly down my leg. Since it wasn't an important event worth staining my shorts over and I didn't want to drop out, I finished over 20 seconds slower than I was capable of. You don't really know what is going on in one race unless you ask the guy.
Lactate meters are not as plug-and-play as many athletes on Youtube seem to think. I believe even what you eat/how long before it you eat has an impact. You need really solid lactate threshold testing before you actually know what your individual data means. Otherwise it's like picking someone else's heart rate threshold and using that as your own.
Those who appear to use it with more rigour have a huge team behind them. (Norwegians, some top triathletes with a huge sponsor that can fund proper lab testing, etc).
Once I ran a race and shortly after starting I had to take a dump. If I had tried speeding up, I would have dropped a hot steaming mess in my shorts and possibly down my leg. Since it wasn't an important event worth staining my shorts over and I didn't want to drop out, I finished over 20 seconds slower than I was capable of. You don't really know what is going on in one race unless you ask the guy.
My take, I'm glad that he's out there regularly racing again and showing up. A lot of YouTubers seem to find any excuse not to race so I'm glad to see him back at it, even though this is clearly far from his potential at this point. The splits suggest a bit of a meltdown on the last lap, if I had to offer a completely non-expert bit of advice, I think his running posture has got a bit worse recently compared to a few years back. This is just based on memory from a recent session so might be an unfair criticism but he looked a wee bit more hunched than I remember. Perhaps this is leading to his form breaking down quicker during the race and costing him significantly more energy at the end. Something he might look into anyway, can't hurt.
The eyeball test tells me he'll never get back to college times. Does not have the physical tools/talent, despite his efforts. Part of talent is the ability to withstand training and not break down. Spencer has not shown durability. And he can't step on a practice track and rip off 54-second 400's with ease. That's the pure running talent side of the equation. Maybe try replicating his Georgetown training to have any hope of progress?
Lactate meters are not as plug-and-play as many athletes on Youtube seem to think. I believe even what you eat/how long before it you eat has an impact. You need really solid lactate threshold testing before you actually know what your individual data means. Otherwise it's like picking someone else's heart rate threshold and using that as your own.
Those who appear to use it with more rigour have a huge team behind them. (Norwegians, some top triathletes with a huge sponsor that can fund proper lab testing, etc).
I don’t even understand the point of the meters. Let’s be honest, if you’re at a high level as a runner you should have a pretty good feel for what a tempo/threshold effort is. The meter just seems like a fancy gadget that isn’t really needed for most people.
I find it odd that he didn't post any runs to Strava in the 2 days leading up to the race. Normally he's been putting his easy runs on Strava, so it's possible he's had an illness the past few days and tried to fight through it in the race. Let's wait until he posts the video for this race before we make any assumptions about what happened.
I find it odd that he didn't post any runs to Strava in the 2 days leading up to the race. Normally he's been putting his easy runs on Strava, so it's possible he's had an illness the past few days and tried to fight through it in the race. Let's wait until he posts the video for this race before we make any assumptions about what happened.
Let him make his own excuses. If you are right, he should have stayed home and legitmately time trialed an 800 or 1000 this Sunday. That's what a serious runner would do. A youtuber who needs views would fly across the country and get diarrhea from airport food.
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