Mrr82 wrote:
nuge wrote:by senior year it was lights out, four laps at that pace..
Or go out at 58.6 on a tiny indoor track....sounds like either this kid never learned his lesson all 4 years..or his coach didnt know better....obviously extremely talented...but what you are describing is ridiculous.
Well, many would say this is ridiculous but is it really? What is ridiculous is that our Olympic trials 1500m finals is a jog-in-the-park with a big sprint at the end. I commend Alan Webb in the last trials for - what it looked like to me - saying "that's it - forget this I'm going to race like a pro!" and taking off and winning with an Olympic qualifying time. Why do you think American middle distance runners are not winning Olympic medals? In my opinion one of the reasons is because of this attitude - "Go out with the pack. Don't push the pace. Just go for the win..., etc., etc., etc. When are American milers (runners) going to learn that this is not the way to race? Yes, I didn't make the Olympic team but it wasn't because I shouldn't have. There are many factors involved when you get to that level and I, unfortunately, got hurt at the worse time or simply made the wrong choices.
Maybe going "crazy" (as Mrr82 is suggesting) from the gun is ridiculous but so is sitting in the pack and not taking control over the outcome of the race - your race – your destiny. I was a miler with very quick 400 speed (47 HS, 45 college) and, yes, if I wanted to jog for 3/4 of a mile and take the race in the last 400/200 I was probably going to win - but what is the glory in that? Is a 4:20 win in a mile race worth it when the people you are racing can run 4:10? No - In my opinion. The bottom line is that I would have not run as fast of times as I had if I only went for the win and not the time. Example: In my junior year I ran 3:46.99 to win the Junior nationals. If the race would have gone faster then I would have gone faster. The point is that I didn't sit in the pack and wait until the last 400 to sprint and win - I pushed the pace and, basically, ran alone until the last 400 when someone passed me and I had to fight to get the lead back. If I would have stayed in 2nd place the entire race and sprinted the last 200 I would have probably won (based on my 200 and 400 speed) but would not have run as fast. So, is that ridiculous? I don't think so.
I was quoted once in HS for saying that "It didn't matter to me if I won a race as long as I got my PR in it" - man, was I ostracized for that statement... Of course I wanted to win all the time but I also understood that I would lose races from time to time and that the more important thing was that I continued to improve - and the best way for me to do that was to run hard from the front. If someone was going to beat me then they would have to want to hurt and fight harder than I was willing to. If I lost a race but got my PR then I was (basically) happy - not really but for the most part I was, but if I lost a race and didn't get a PR then I was ready to - well, you know what I was...
Mrr82, you say that "... either this kid never learned his lesson all 4 years...or his coach didn’t know better" - well, my coach did know better and didn't want me to keep going "nuts" by pushing the pace – until I was a Senior and he realized that maybe I had it right. The problem was that his athlete wouldn't give up - wouldn't give in - wouldn't let a race be a pathetic jog and sprint - he had a stubborn HS runner on his hands and did the best that he could. Coach Collins was an amazing sprinter in his day and a great coach – have some integrity and don't disrespect someone you have no knowledge about. My question to you is where are you getting your knowledge? Were you an outstanding athlete or an outstanding coach that has experience in judging such racing techniques or are you just on the site to generate conflict? I have nothing against you but you seem to lash out at my HS style of racing for some reason. Your comment above is based on what "nuge" said but he/she is right - I didn't lose a race my Junior and Senior year (except for XC states and one 1000m race against Miles Irish during indoors) - If you look at the paper version of this then I would say that I did the right thing...
By the way, I remember the '83 Millrose race very well and I recall that I wasn't tired at all at 58.6 and would have kept on pushing if need be - maybe I would not have broken 4 but I would have come pretty darn close to it if Miles or John would have passed me and pushed the pace. In any case, you are not contributing anything by putting down the efforts of a HS runner doing what was successful for him at the time. If I would not have had the record that I did have by the time my career had ended then I would say you have a point but considering my “track record” I would say that your opinion is in need of some reevaluation.
To the rest of the poster and reader I’m sorry for such a long response but it is what it is.
I would like to thank all of you who had such nice things to say - it was really great to read such great comments!
FYI - if you want to see what I was doing as workouts in HS then you can view these at the following address:
http://www.running2win.com/community/public-log.asp?m=Hoya&k=public- just select the year and month you want to see and you'll get my running log at the time.
Mike