Grace Ping should've run Footlocker.

Nobody is running anybody into the ground. Don't make stuff up. Why would anyone share Grace's training with you. Again, I guarantee her training is less intense than anyone past, or present near her ability.

Grow the sport wrote:

Nobody is running anybody into the ground. Don't make stuff up. Why would anyone share Grace's training with you. Again, I guarantee her training is less intense than anyone past, or present near her ability.

Some person(s) is(are) getting way too sensitive about the question of how much Grace Ping is training. This is about the fifth time on this thread alone that someone (and it may well be the same person) has protested a bit too much.

As for Twofer's comment about the USATF JO race being a tempo run, bull.

Ping ran 13:20 for 4K on a moderately hilly, grassy course. She beat the three-time defending age group champion in her age group by 26 seconds. There was probably a "revenge" factor here as Aidyn Woodall is about the only person in Ping's age group who has ever beaten her.

This was no tempo run. This was a trip to Alabama with a purpose (and perhaps multiple purposes).

I suppose it's between Grace Ping, her parents, and her coach whether what they're doing is running her into the ground and mortgaging her future as a runner, but this is no ordinary regime.

Since it's clear Ping's presence at races can be arranged (under what terms is not clear), expect lots more races to try feeding at the trough.

"Revenge"?! LOL. 13-year od flies across the country to "settle a score" like Charles Bronson? Salty much, Mrs Woodall?

undertaker wrote:

As for Twofer's comment about the USATF JO race being a tempo run, bull.

Ping ran 13:20 for 4K on a moderately hilly, grassy course. She beat the three-time defending age group champion in her age group by 26 seconds. There was probably a "revenge" factor here as Aidyn Woodall is about the only person in Ping's age group who has ever beaten her.

This was no tempo run. This was a trip to Alabama with a purpose (and perhaps multiple purposes).

[quote]Twofer wrote:

"Revenge"?! LOL. 13-year od flies across the country to "settle a score" like Charles Bronson?

Salty much, Mrs Woodall?

[quote]undertaker wrote:

Okay, your turn.

What do you propose that a 13-year-old flies across the country less than a week after she got home from Nike Cross Nationals for? Keep in mind she wasn't qualified for the USATF JO race. She ran neither the regional qualifier nor her state qualifier, so a couple strings had to be pulled there to get her in. I have no inside information on how she got in, just that she didn't qualify in the prescribed manner.

After finishing sixth at NXN and having just completed your third extended trip in as many weekends, you don't fly to Alabama for a tempo run.

If you don't believe something like revenge (I put that in quotes to soften the evaluation just a little) happens all the time in youth sports, you are not terribly aware of the motivations involved in youth sports.

Oh and sorry, not Mrs. Woodall.

Coach G - if I were her coach I wouldn't respond to you either! For all you know, her coach IS holding her back so she doesn't 'crash' in her late-teens or twenties, and yet she is still able to run a mid-16 min 5K. Conversely, holding her back now will not guarantee that she will be an olympian or even an NCAA All-American. Why do people (like you) seem to think that everyone coaching young teen phenoms know nothing?? Its weird...

Agree - Coach G seems a bit self-righteous, eh? As if he/she is the only person to ever coach very fast young ladies. If I were Pings coach I wouldn't share her workouts and training with anyone - because its none of their freakin' business. If you do share - its bound to end up on LR boards or elsewhere, and no coach/kid needs that crap. If her coach wants advice he/she can seek it out on their own terms.

RockyBalboa wrote:

Good warmup for FL Nationals wrote:

A lot of runners do NXN as a warm up for Footlocker, either because they have to run with a team, or else they just want a race to top off their training. Reed, with his 4:04 mile speed, was obviously taking it easy the week before, like the others.

Clearly the case.

Why would you peak before the biggest race on the calendar? With National championships on the line, all NXN runners who also ran FL treated it that way. That's why they each ran their best performance of the year at FL, the exception being Worley who ran the exact same speed ratings at each. Brown produced the race of the year, not Clinger. Speed ratings confirm. Oakley may still have edged Lane at FL, but we'll never know.

Congrats to Brown and Lane as National Champions!

It is funny; I have listened to people talk about depth of the fields and such. I don't think there was much depth at all in this year's senior class. At NXN girls, Oakley dominated lesser runners, and no other girl was anywhere near her. They just weren't that good, including Ping. At Footlocker, Lane and Mareno were head and shoulders better than everyone. The depth of the XC girls was 3 and then there was a massive break. I think Oakley was #1, but Footlocker had 2 of the top 3. The rest were not anything special for XC although Kate M is awesome at 800-1500 on the track.

Among the guys, none of them amazed me. They were very good, but there was no Drew, Grant, Edward, Lucas, or Futsam. Clinger was the best of a group of solid D1 runners, but I was not overly impressed by him or any of this group. Overall the top end of the Class of 17 was subpar, and the lack of exceptionality was on display at both NXN and FXN.

Uh, isn't it public info who her coach is, and exactly what kind of workouts she does? Not too hard to find out.

We've seen this so many times before, people debating back and forth about young teen female prodigies. Two things: One, what a 13-year-old girl does in training or racing at that age may or may not impact what she can do at 18, 22 or 26. If she and her family choose to low-key it and never push herself in racing or training now, and just be ordinary or just above average, she might STILL not have a chance to be elite 4-12 years later ... and for any variety of reasons.

And if she chases records and titles now, that doesn't necessarily mean she may or may not be great later. As long as she's not extreme in training/racing and surrounded by bad attitudes, she has just as great a chance at later success (IMO). It's not like you can scientifically prove this one way or another.

FBOW, girls chase gymnastic success at young ages because their bodies can do things then that will be much harder to do later, in most cases. Why not let girls do the same in distance running? It's not quite the same, I know (no 14-15 year old girl is going to win a gold medal in 1500 to marathon), but close enough.

handelandj wrote:

Have to be in 9th grade to run FL.

THIS!!!!! NXN lost all credibility in calling itself a high school national championship; it obviously isn't. It may be an age group championship, but is NOT a high school event any longer.

Kind of like allowing Andrew Hunter to run NCAA's last year.

Nike could easily have made it's position clear & interpretable; Nike didn't.

ex D1 experience wrote:

Coach G - if I were her coach I wouldn't respond to you either! For all you know, her coach IS holding her back so she doesn't 'crash' in her late-teens or twenties, and yet she is still able to run a mid-16 min 5K. Conversely, holding her back now will not guarantee that she will be an olympian or even an NCAA All-American. Why do people (like you) seem to think that everyone coaching young teen phenoms know nothing?? Its weird...

On a different thread a while ago her coach responded. She runs about 40 miles in 6 days. That's a decent amount for a 13 year old. Granted in my opinion the over racing is much more detrimental to long term success than the miles.