Graham needs to work on his closing speed. Graham's mile PR is 3:56.63 (set last year). I don't think Graham is going to be doing any mile speed trials or fresh miles before March (had he raced the 1k this past weekend, we could have compared his 2023 1k with 2024 1k to see potential improvements).
We'll see how Graham fares next weekend if he races the 3k as planned, and if it's better than his PR 7:44.76 from last year.
Why has a Blanks not raced since Dec 2nd?
I would guess it's because Blanks and Gibby have prioritized Olympic Trials over everything else. Smartly. And are backing off on the meaningless indoor season.
Blanks ran 13:03 a week after cross country season, he wasn’t exactly track sharp. Then I assume he took a bit of a reset and will be strong and hungry by early March. Nico ran just six seconds faster after a ton of track work and a hard mile effort to really test the wheels, and he may take a reset now and start building through February and March so that he can still have some gas for this summer. So I choose Blanks.
Blanks ran 13:03 a week after cross country season, he wasn’t exactly track sharp. Then I assume he took a bit of a reset and will be strong and hungry by early March. Nico ran just six seconds faster after a ton of track work and a hard mile effort to really test the wheels, and he may take a reset now and start building through February and March so that he can still have some gas for this summer. So I choose Blanks.
I would guess it's because Blanks and Gibby have prioritized Olympic Trials over everything else. Smartly. And are backing off on the meaningless indoor season.
Rojo and Gault spoke to Gibby about Graham's schedule for the rest of the year on the podcast last week. Even for the outdoor season, Gibby said that while Graham could do a 10k for conference racing/scoring, he likely wouldn't do it for NCAAs so he could remain fresh for Olympic Trials. The outdoor focus would be 5k only at NCAAs.
Gibby also shared that Graham got sick earlier this month (some virus he said, sick enough that Graham got beat in a workout by a teammate) so I think that was part of the rationale for not doing the 1k last weekend.
But other than the 3k at Scarlet & White (and maybe a DMR mile leg if the rest of the potential squad is good enough to try for a NCAA qualifier), Graham could likely triple up at Heps (3k-5k-DMR?) for team scoring.
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grammar typo
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