Was Alan Webb the most talented runner ever?

Webb's mile is not the only basis for saying he could be the most talented ever. He has run 1:43 and 27:20 or so. He could blitz a 400 I'm sure.

I personally feel that his ups and downs would imply that he is clean. It is the guys who are almost always bringing their best that I wonder about more. Webb seems to suffer from the same cycles as Joe Blow 5k man and I have a strange respect for that.

Changing the goalposts? Crumbling under your argument much?

deanouk wrote:

Now you're changing the goalposts and adding variables. I didn't say that the 20 something was training as hard when he was a teen as the wunderkid. In fact most teen prodigys were already working as hard or harder than their adult peers when they ran their best times, e.g. Ryun, Webb, Elliott. They are not necessarily going to get any better. Others, who build up gradually in their early 20s and go on to run faster and achieve more are more talented than someone who takes everything from the well before they turn 21.

I'm guessing you mean middle distance runner. If so, no. Daniel Komen was. At 19 he ran a 3:46 mile and at 20 ran 7:20 3000 (perhaps the greatest distance record on the books). There was a time when Webb was probably the most talented miler in the world.

Ummm...Alan Webb is the person who holds the American record in the mile?!? He's not slow! HE'S NOT SLOW AT ALL!!! WAIT WHAT????????????????????????????????????????

But Alan Webb is NOT slow? WHAT????????????????????

This thread is so wackadoocrazy!!!

What do we know about Webb's training in High School and early in his career? I'm speculating he did an ungodly amount of mileage. And for a time while he stayed healthy he reaped the rewards. But now he is paying the price in the way Alberto Salazar did later in his career. I would also point out that Jim Ryun basically peaked in his early 20s and retired altogether around 27 years of age. Webb is 30.

As for GOAT. The broad ranges of times from 800M to 10000M is impressive and unique. For those of you who maintained that Rupp couldn't run a 1:47 then you should acknowledge Webb as the greatest as he ran sub 1:44 then within a year of that ran a 27:30 for a 10K.

he could probably run a 3:53 eq. in the 1500 again. he ran 3:37 last year which is pretty close, probably within a second. i'm not saying he will try though. he want to focus on distance now, which will keep him away from any fast 1500s, although it wont make him slower at 1500, as you can see by galen rupp running 3:50 as a 5k/10k guy

cook style training, never high mileage. lots of drills and strength (literally), and lots of intervals. Webb ran faster than Coe ever at mile, with very few shots while an adult and healthy, and he dropped 6.5 seconds in the mile from high school, so he didn't exactly fade away after early glory. He got injured in the 1:43.8 800m before World's in 2007, and was also sick for World's, and that cost him a gold, and then he was never consistently healthy after that.

ryan foreman wrote:

What do we know about Webb's training in High School and early in his career? I'm speculating he did an ungodly amount of mileage. And for a time while he stayed healthy he reaped the rewards. But now he is paying the price in the way Alberto Salazar did later in his career..

"On his high school training:

- 60 miles per week maximum his senior year

- trained 6 days per week

- 1 day off per week

- ran singles

- 2 workouts per week

talks about this at the very end of the interview"