Something I hear more and more from NCAA athletes is that they're taking it day by day. A few NAU guys have brought it up, saying they just focus on doing everything to the best of their ability on that specific day, and not worrying about the future. Trust the process. After winning XC, Mike Smith said no one even mentioned nationals until regionals. I think that was also where some of the hesitation on letting Nico chase the 10k standard came from. Valby mentioned it too in her post 5k interview, saying she was just taking it day by day, and she was focused on getting a lot of recovery in tomorrow (meaning the day between the 5k and 10k).
I think the idea is that you should only focus on today, and maximizing what you can do today, and if you do that every day, you'll get better results than if you're constantly worrying about doing things perfectly every single day for the next 6 months. There's probably something to be said for not worrying about a race that's a few weeks or more away, particularly when you have 30+ laps to race before that. Wastes mental energy, causes unnecessary stress, etc. Let your coach worry about the long term plan. Trust that your coach will make the right plans for you. Focus on executing that plan today.
Small side tangent, but that's made me give some more grace to the pro athletes who aren't doing ideal things to qualify. There were a bunch of athletes upset about XC qualifying you for the 10k, and there were a bunch of people upset at athletes for not just doing a couple of easy races and getting a qualifier. But from an athlete's perspective, they have full faith in their coach (and people here often say that you have to trust your coach) to do what's best for them, and their coach probably doesn't want them to worry about qualifying, because in the long term they'll do worse. Realizing that made me more sympathetic to the athletes, and also harsher on the coaches lol. I could be wrong though idk tbh,
This seems like an attitude for a previous era if you want to make a US team. If she's made the decision to not worry about the Olympics this year and just focus on her collegiate season, fine. But if the Olympics are a goal, you cannot just go about your season with blinders on and trust that if you race well, things will work out. The standards are too hard and the points system too complicated to just trust the process and assume things will fall into place if you race well.
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Come on bro. LA ‘28 is going to be her Olympic year, always was. She’s going to win the 5K. Sign a big deal. Work towards Worlds.
All upside and no downside. She‘ll almost certainly win. And if she runs under 14:52, her contract would be even greater. And if she wins in a worse race that won’t hurt
All she has to do is abstain from eating at a Portland burrito truck.
She's had a great college career, especially this past year, but she's not ready for the U.S. pros, much less the international level. 14:52 doesn't cut it.
14:52.which just happens to be the NCAA record...TWICE.
And if you think that is her current ceiling, I have a training program by a Magic Swedish Online Coach to sell you 😊
Yeah, you identified yourself as a resident perv. Also, where did race come into play on that one? Like what was the point of race having anything to do with it? Or does racism just need to be incorporated in your online communication?
Because she is busy focusing on the task at hand. What good does it do her to think about facing East African killers in Paris while her job is to beat a bunch of US college runners?
This seems like an attitude for a previous era if you want to make a US team. If she's made the decision to not worry about the Olympics this year and just focus on her collegiate season, fine. But if the Olympics are a goal, you cannot just go about your season with blinders on and trust that if you race well, things will work out. The standards are too hard and the points system too complicated to just trust the process and assume things will fall into place if you race well.
She's already Olympic qualified in 5000 based on world ranking.
She is very close in 10000. A top 3 at Usatf, with time under 31:30 probably gets her in. Standard is of course even better, but unlikely.
The 5000 heat and final come first, then 5 days later the 10000.
Parsing through all the chatter, they are indeed relaxed about Olympics, but will still give it best shot. Based on what happens there, they can plan out her 2024/25 goals, schedule and training. She really is in a no lose situation, and will run better anyway with low stress.
She tried to hug or acknowledge everyone on the 5k after, it seems. You know, those lackluster hugs that happen cause everyone else is dazed and just wants to lie down on the track. Give her credit for trying.
I like her goofy interviews. The one after the 5,000 seemed tame. Maybe some of the chatter wafted over to her and she toned it down. If she weren't fatigued, she could've pushed the two-tenth of a second to get the Olympic standard.
This seems like an attitude for a previous era if you want to make a US team. If she's made the decision to not worry about the Olympics this year and just focus on her collegiate season, fine. But if the Olympics are a goal, you cannot just go about your season with blinders on and trust that if you race well, things will work out. The standards are too hard and the points system too complicated to just trust the process and assume things will fall into place if you race well.
She's already Olympic qualified in 5000 based on world ranking.
She is very close in 10000. A top 3 at Usatf, with time under 31:30 probably gets her in. Standard is of course even better, but unlikely.
The 5000 heat and final come first, then 5 days later the 10000.
Parsing through all the chatter, they are indeed relaxed about Olympics, but will still give it best shot. Based on what happens there, they can plan out her 2024/25 goals, schedule and training. She really is in a no lose situation, and will run better anyway with low stress.
^This. She is going to get a ton of points from a top 3 finish at USAs and already has very good points from her NCAA performances.
On another note, the day-by-day approach isn't the worst thing in the World for college-aged athletes. There is some good evidence that some good races from the college season are very positive leading into USAs (Abby Steiner, Athing Mu, Grant Holloway, Bryce Hoppel all come to mind).
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the WA rankings, but it seems like she'd need an insanely fast Trials race to get to the Olympics based on her 10k ranking. WA Road to Paris lists the last ranking qualifier as having 1236 points. Parker's best performance is currently 1201 points (Bryan Clay) and the two best races count, so she'd need 1270ish at US nationals, which I believe equates to a win in 30:40.
I just really hope that choosing to run NCAAs in choose that won't give her ranking points doesn't bite her in the ass. But maybe she'll just focus on the 5000?
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the WA rankings, but it seems like she'd need an insanely fast Trials race to get to the Olympics based on her 10k ranking. WA Road to Paris lists the last ranking qualifier as having 1236 points. Parker's best performance is currently 1201 points (Bryan Clay) and the two best races count, so she'd need 1270ish at US nationals, which I believe equates to a win in 30:40.
I just really hope that choosing to run NCAAs in choose that won't give her ranking points doesn't bite her in the ass. But maybe she'll just focus on the 5000?
Try to understand what happens to the minimum required ranking if there are some drops into The Road to Paris list.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the WA rankings, but it seems like she'd need an insanely fast Trials race to get to the Olympics based on her 10k ranking. WA Road to Paris lists the last ranking qualifier as having 1236 points. Parker's best performance is currently 1201 points (Bryan Clay) and the two best races count, so she'd need 1270ish at US nationals, which I believe equates to a win in 30:40.
I just really hope that choosing to run NCAAs in choose that won't give her ranking points doesn't bite her in the ass. But maybe she'll just focus on the 5000?
(1) Try to understand what happens to the minimum required ranking if there are some drops into The Road to Paris list.
(2) For the 10000m, they use the average of two Performance Scores. Her Bryan Clay has a Performance Score of 1221.
(1) Try to understand what happens to the minimum required ranking if there are some drops into The Road to Paris list.
(2) For the 10000m, they use the average of two Performance Scores. Her Bryan Clay has a Performance Score of 1221.
(BTW, you might find the additional bonus points that go into determining a Performance Score involves politics, since some meets are awarded more bonus points than others.)
The Olympic Trials are a "B"level meet. The finishers will each get their Result Score based upon the WA tables and their time PLUS the Placing Score. For the Trials, the placing scores are:
if i had to bet, she's more focused on the 5k but entered as a fallback in 10k since she technically has the trials standard both. she guns for the trials 5k where she's tenths off the oly standard and ranks well. doesn't work out she does the trials 10k where she's 10s off the oly standard and poorer ranked. makes the 5k she maybe scratches 10k and focuses on her better event. she did win both at NCAA but she doesn't usually race a ton and she may be hoping to play favorites.
re no effort on the standard, she manages injuries, no? and has generally limited racing even in college. and may be proceeding on the idea of saving energy pursuing "team." i could see her then with "team" in hand at trials, risking some racing to make sure she's "standard." if you don't race a lot i could see you being concerned that in chasing the "standard" you get hurt or show up trials not as fresh and arrogantly maybe miss "team," defeating the point.
The Olympic Trials are a "B"level meet. The finishers will each get their Result Score based upon the WA tables and their time PLUS the Placing Score. For the Trials, the placing scores are: