is anyone else worried that Solinsky hasn't run a single hard race this year??

The all training minimal racing strategy is lame and bad for the sport.

Salazar's group has been doing their talking on the track while Solinsky has been doing his talking by just talking.

Hard to disagree there. He's DNFed more than finished this year, and spent more time talking about those races than he has spent actually running in them.

Solinsky: I feel like a puss...so much so I'm going to DNS at USATF and DNF a perfectly paced Diamond League race.

Solinsky ran 13:10 in march. I'm pretty sure he ran that one balls-to-the walls

is anyone else worried that Solinsky hasn't run a single hard race this year??

Yes,

I'm worried sick

I'm begining to think we might have seen his best. I'll be surprised if he runs better than his PR's......ever.

Beano wrote:

I'm begining to think we might have seen his best. I'll be surprised if he runs better than his PR's......ever.

Yes

Totally

Over

The

Hill

He's done.

Next?

He probably would have run very close to his PR in Monaco.

I am regularly in contact with Shu's group and I can reveal only this: for the past two years, Chris has been deeply conflicted as to whether he would be best suited to the steeple. Every race he has run, including the 26:59 has been shadowed by self-doubt. "Maybe I could have run an even better AR over the sticks...." "This race isn't worth finishing, it has none of the manly challenges of the striped barriers.""I know Amy loves me, but I see how sometimes she gives certain glances to the guys with soggy spikes...."

Anyway, after fumbling over the inside rail at Monaco and stumbling into the decorative flora, he has finally realized that the steeple is not for him. Ever. He has now dedicated himself to the flat events and will no more look longingly at at a trackside water pit. He is a man reborn and dedicated to running forward and never to think about hopping and splashing ever again.

It seems we have consensus:

Solinsky will be destroyed in Daegu. He hasn't felt the pain this year, and that will be his undoing.

Please, he ran HARD into that bush!

Chris Solinsky is like a thoroughbred race horse. You can't push them with hard efforts too often or they won't want to race anymore. He is saving his hard effort for the race that will actually matter this year.

Solinsky hasn't had a bad race all year, either.

The DNF's weren't races where he fell back and then dropped out.

It would be more concerning if he was finishing 10 seconds back.

But he has been right near the front in the races he completed.

toro wrote:

Solinsky hasn't had a bad race all year, either.

The DNF's weren't races where he fell back and then dropped out.

It would be more concerning if he was finishing 10 seconds back.

But he has been right near the front in the races he completed.

He hasn't competed.

Solinsky's final mile at USATFs is rightfully, repeatedly, reported but his last 2 miles were 3 seconds off the American record of 8:07. He closed in 8:10! That's quite impressive. That's not world class or a hard effort? SOme of you guys are only interested in being negative handwringers and not about reality. I don't care what the first mile was. Finishing a 5k in 8:10/3:58 is world class...

It doesn't bother me in the least. Watching him wimp-out in Monaco totally changed my opinion of him.

He and Rupp are birds of a feather - unless they have a f*Ucking red carpet laid out in front of them to race on, it's "game over".

Solinsky owes me the $2.99 that I paid to Universal Sports to watch that abortion. Rupp got chop blocked, so he's off the hook...but only for Monaco.

I'm surprised by his non-performance this season. As a professional athlete, at the very least, I'd expect he would enter and complete all his races unless injured. Even if that meant just going easy for the remainder of a race. I guess the emphasis here is on "professional". There is a lot of meaning in gestures like starting and finishing - it shows a certain dedication to the public who, after all, are the reason any money is offered in this sport. As for the World Championships, Solinsky's best hope is that his competition is worn out after a long season of running hard races.

threefeds wrote:

Solinsky's final mile at USATFs is rightfully, repeatedly, reported but his last 2 miles were 3 seconds off the American record of 8:07. He closed in 8:10! That's quite impressive. That's not world class or a hard effort? SOme of you guys are only interested in being negative handwringers and not about reality. I don't care what the first mile was. Finishing a 5k in 8:10/3:58 is world class...

I think many just like getting folks like you all riled up. Has nothing to do with handwringing or even Solinsky.

JonDCH wrote:

As a professional athlete, at the very least, I'd expect he would enter and complete all his races unless injured. Even if that meant just going easy for the remainder of a race. I guess the emphasis here is on "professional". There is a lot of meaning in gestures like starting and finishing - it shows a certain dedication to the public who, after all, are the reason any money is offered in this sport.

This ^ is an important point. Can you imagine going to a professional football/basketball/baseball... game and watching one team walk off the field mid-way through when they came to the realization that they were not going to win the game? To some extent, track and field athletes earn the lack of respect that the public shows them.

outkicking the world XC champ and getting second in a 5k against a pretty damn good field (and losing only to maybe the hottest runner on the planet right now).

the letter why wrote:

Well, what on earth would you consider world class then?