Kersee being a sprint coach for so long, I would assume she is doing minimal mileage and some sort of complex program. It was figured out 70 years ago that the 800 is more aerobic than anaerobic and 800m runners need a volume phase.
70 miles or 115km per week for 10-12 weeks. And that isn’t even that high of volume. But she needs at least that and no racing or no deep anaerobic sessions during that phase. Long runs of two hours. She probably is running 25 miles a week….. would for sure be interesting to know. A club coach could get her to sub-2
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Kersee being a sprint coach for so long, I would assume she is doing minimal mileage and some sort of complex program. It was figured out 70 years ago that the 800 is more aerobic than anaerobic and 800m runners need a volume phase.
70 miles or 115km per week for 10-12 weeks. And that isn’t even that high of volume. But she needs at least that and no racing or no deep anaerobic sessions during that phase. Long runs of two hours. She probably is running 25 miles a week….. would for sure be interesting to know. A club coach could get her to sub-2
I know it’s been said a million times, but what he has done to Athing Mu’s career is simply disgraceful. Olympic champ, world champ, American record holder all before the age of 21. She switches over to Kersee and falls off a cliff. MAYBE a top 15 800m American woman now. Sure, it’s not entirely fair to blame Kersee, Mu has allegedly been dealing with some mental/confidence issues as well. I just really want to see her do well again and I don’t see that happening if she stays with him. With there being no worlds next year I doubt we’ll get to see her run anything. Maybe we’ll get lucky and Kersee will put her in another 5k, but I doubt it.
I think the strangest thing about all this is that you could take someone with a 50.xx 400m and a 4:03.xx 1500m and just train them like an English club 800m runner, and they would run somewhere in the 1:56.xx - 1:57.xx range.
I was nowhere near as quick over 400m and very slightly faster at 1500m and ran 1:57.5 as a very amateur club runner - albeit a hard training one - who in a season would do anything from 4x400m to 3000m s/c.
She says she's been injury free, so I'd love to know what type of training is taking that kind of talent, and producing a barely sub 2:00 effort (although my impression today that she hadn't killed herself - she looked less exhausted that some in front of her).
I'd pay money to know what her actual workouts consist of.
Yes and how much training did you need in you to knock out a 2.02 (5s off pb, same as Mu yesterday)? Hardly any. We're talking weeks not months.
All this blaming of Kersee ignores the real issue. Kersee has coached Syd to multiple WRs and global titles. Clearly, his coaching has worked for her.
Mu is an adult and highly paid professional athlete. If she is not happy with her coaching situation she can change it. At some point she has to take responsibility for her own career.
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renowned you can lead a mu to a track but you can't make her run
Does anyone think that if she ran 3 more races in the next month in Europe/DL/CL she couldn't chip it down to 1:57?
She won't though. She only likes competing when she is easily dominant. She doesn't push herself hard enough in training (and has selected a training environment where she is top dog and presumably mainly runs time trials against herself). No way is she going to put herself amongst top competition and travel and stay in hotels to run diamond league races (which is what she should do since she hasn't qualified for the worlds).
She seems to be a very unmotivated athlete. I would assume she would be the same in modelling too, and any modelling career is going nowhere as she doesn't stand out amongst actual models and is too old now, unless its tagged to her fame as an Olympic gold medallist. And thats too long ago now. Being tall isn't enough.
So I hope she's made enough money because being here in 10 years time with a 33/34 year old Mo giving interviews about how she thinks she can still make qualify when is just doing it to scratch a living is depressing.
All this blaming of Kersee ignores the real issue. Kersee has coached Syd to multiple WRs and global titles. Clearly, his coaching has worked for her.
Mu is an adult and highly paid professional athlete. If she is not happy with her coaching situation she can change it. At some point she has to take responsibility for her own career.
A rock could have coached Sydney to all those accomplishments. It takes a special kind of coach to actively impede an athlete's progress and make her demonstrably worse.
To be fair, it's not 100% Kersee or 100% Mu, but it's the combination of those two -- and whatever faults/issues they have -- which seems to be toxic from an athletic performance standpoint.
All this blaming of Kersee ignores the real issue. Kersee has coached Syd to multiple WRs and global titles. Clearly, his coaching has worked for her.
Mu is an adult and highly paid professional athlete. If she is not happy with her coaching situation she can change it. At some point she has to take responsibility for her own career.
A rock could have coached Sydney to all those accomplishments. It takes a special kind of coach to actively impede an athlete's progress and make her demonstrably worse.
To be fair, it's not 100% Kersee or 100% Mu, but it's the combination of those two -- and whatever faults/issues they have -- which seems to be toxic from an athletic performance standpoint.
He obviously doesn’t know how to coach Mu, but I think you’re taking Syd’s accomplishments for granted. She’s an all-time talent, but what more would you like her to have accomplished under him?
She’s not only always won Gold, but she basically breaks the WR every time she runs a world final. That’s not a given! How many generational talents fizzle out after a blip of success? Syd has continued to grow for five years under his coaching.
All this blaming of Kersee ignores the real issue. Kersee has coached Syd to multiple WRs and global titles. Clearly, his coaching has worked for her.
Mu is an adult and highly paid professional athlete. If she is not happy with her coaching situation she can change it. At some point she has to take responsibility for her own career.
Mu isn't changing coaches because she knows who her coach is isn't her problem. She knows her problem is her unwillingness to train hard.
Kersee being a sprint coach for so long, I would assume she is doing minimal mileage and some sort of complex program. It was figured out 70 years ago that the 800 is more aerobic than anaerobic and 800m runners need a volume phase.
70 miles or 115km per week for 10-12 weeks. And that isn’t even that high of volume. But she needs at least that and no racing or no deep anaerobic sessions during that phase. Long runs of two hours. She probably is running 25 miles a week….. would for sure be interesting to know. A club coach could get her to sub-2
What you wrote is a bunch of nonsense. Athing Mu is a 400/800 runner. And as a 400/800 runner she doesn't need to run anywhere close to 70 miles per week.
In fact, her freshman year at Texas A&M, the year she won the Olympic gold medal, she was only running 30 to 40 miles per week.
I can understand the blame Kersee gets here. I've always thought the 1500 stuff with her was nonsense as well. Plus her lack of running 400s has always been confusing.
But come on. It's on her. She's consistently running 6 seconds slower than her PB in the freaking 800. If she's not hurt (doesn't appear to be) that's mental and something she has to work out. It's hard to imagine a coach applying training that would make someone 6 seconds slower in the 800. As coaches we can guide the mental aspect of things but sometimes it comes down to athletes applying things that work for them individually.
I don't know the cause, but can surely the Kersee is still a good coach delusion is over for good? He has taken a 1:54 runner and made her a 1:59 one in what, 3 years????
I can understand the blame Kersee gets here. I've always thought the 1500 stuff with her was nonsense as well. Plus her lack of running 400s has always been confusing.
But come on. It's on her. She's consistently running 6 seconds slower than her PB in the freaking 800. If she's not hurt (doesn't appear to be) that's mental and something she has to work out. It's hard to imagine a coach applying training that would make someone 6 seconds slower in the 800. As coaches we can guide the mental aspect of things but sometimes it comes down to athletes applying things that work for them individually.
Mu even admitted yesterday in her interview after the race that she has not been doing great mentally. That's unfortunate but that's not Kersee's fault.
Athing is not obligated to run for anyone. Any of us, at any time, may choose to quit our jobs and find a new path in life. I hope she continues to work at becoming a better runner, and I hope that Bobby finds a more effective way to motivate and train her. At the end of the day, she is an Olympic champ, and can rest on her laurels if she pleases. She owes us nothing, and I am glad America has her.
I felt like she ran the first round like she had something to prove. But unfortunately, her fitness isn't what it was in the past. On the perfect day, she'd make the final, but get nowhere close to the team. Maybe she can round into form for some late season DL meets or Athlos.