Shalane is tough as nails. But seeing her race against Vivian and Sally puts things into perspective. Kenyan women are cranking out sub 14:40 performances like they are training runs. T-ru and Meseret, when healthy, could do the same. US has some 5k/10k talent, but the E. African train has left the station.
Precious Roy wrote:
Shalane is tough as nails. But seeing her race against Vivian and Sally puts things into perspective. Kenyan women are cranking out sub 14:40 performances like they are training runs. T-ru and Meseret, when healthy, could do the same. US has some 5k/10k talent, but the E. African train has left the station.
Flanagan could have been at least competitive with them if she'd stuck with Cook. He had her right on Defar's heels almost immediately after she begun training under him. And the next year he took her to the Oly bronze.
She's hasn't been the same runner since leaving him. Her loss.
Not the best year for Schumacher's athletes. Any ideas why?
Of course, better to have an off year before the Olympics.
*stipe wrote:
Not the best year for Schumacher's athletes. Any ideas why?
Of course, better to have an off year before the Olympics.
No cryosauna?
But seriously, yes it's not been a good year for the "other" Nike group in oregon. Props to Shalane for finishing. I can think of a few athletes who'd be off the track in no time if they were nearly a minute down from the leaders.
[/quote]
Flanagan could have been at least competitive with them if she'd stuck with Cook. He had her right on Defar's heels almost immediately after she begun training under him. And the next year he took her to the Oly bronze.
She's hasn't been the same runner since leaving him. Her loss.[/quote]
She won a Bronze medal at the World Cross Country Championships this year. Things can't be that bad under Jerry Schumacher. She's just having an off period. She has plenty of time to recover and prepare for the Olys.
Bump.
Still, a hell of a runner.
She was saving herself for Z.....oh wait.
Pretty much all the Oregon (area) athletes have been having a rough go of it except Centro, Farah and Fleshman (Symmonds status quo)
Fleshman was out December into April. I'd say she's had a rough year, too. But she still made the best of it and managed to finish 7th at World's despite not having a proper base.
Shalane was not out December to April! She ran a few indoor races including an attempt at her American 3K record. In late March she place 3rd at the World Cross Championships, arguably a better performance than her Olympic Bronze.
Despite coming off her first marathon and her world cross effort, Shalane's track season was filled with solid performances in 1500, 5000, and 10,000. She obviously ran out of steam towards World's, but to act like she accomplished nothing over the last 10 months or since she left Cook is flat out humorous.
"Shalane was not out December to April!"
Um, yeah, but Orbitboy was talking about Lauren FLESHMAN, not Shalane FLANAGAN.
What's the point of correcting imaginary mistakes?
Last place , 15th.
Well New York second and the XC Bronze are making her the most successfull American distance runner of the time, if you look at both men and women.
Although, her Beijing performance is still striking. 30:22 makes her Alltime position 17. Seems like coach Cook did no bad job! Will she ever have a performance like that again on the track?
Agreed. The comment in the letsrun Zurich recap ("Flanagan has been tremendous on the roads and XC the last year, but has not run great on the track since her Olympic medal in 2008 and her coaching switch soon after.") is inaccurate.
Check out her performances post-Cook here at the bottom of her bio on the USATF website:http://www.usatf.org/Athletes/Bios/Flanagan_Shalane.asp
A US indoor record of 14:47 in 2009, 14:49 last year, 14:46 and 14:45 (coming within a half second of her 5K pr) this year, and running 30:39 for 10K this year, which is the #2 time in the world in 2011, #3 time in the US all-time (behind her own 30:34 and 30:22 from 2008), and faster than any other US woman has ever run.
I think it's fair to say she hasn't improved since leaving Cook and her 5K times seem to have plateaued, but she's clearly still one of the best female runners in the world on the track and off.
Shalane needs to decide what she wants to be, a marathoner or a track athlete. Very few can excel at both other than maybe the 10K and marathon. She's getting older and not likely to be as competitive at the track distances. I think she should concentrate on the marathon. IMO she did great at New York and I'd like to see her do more 26.2.
Statet of obvious wrote:
She was saving herself for Z.....
Those were my thought exactly. But maybe I was wrong.