I saw something on social media a few days ago, and hesitated, at the time to say anything.
The only reason I say what I’m about to say is maybe there is a lesson here. But maybe not. And even so, hindsight is 20-20, so I’m not trying to be a brilliant hack.
Monson has to be gutted, so at the risk of making her feel even worse, I’ll proceed, but understandably, she may hesitate to share stuff on instagram in the future, which would be unfortunate, because I find training posts from the pros interesting.
But I may be all wet, in what I’m thinking, so I’ll put it out there, and let you speculate. What I’m referring to is slide 6 of this post:
Hopefully Monson will return even stronger for Tokyo Worlds next summer, then World XC in Tallahassee four months later. She may have only missed a severe hiding in Paris.
Rehab from this surgery is 8+ months (same surgery Aisha Praught-Leer had). Zero loading on the leg for several months, including complete immobilisation. So she will be lucky to race on the track next summer, let alone qualify for World's.
Man this sucks. Monson is 25 years old, coming off a career year. This would have been her prime Olympics. Just brutal timing.
It also means that the US will only have one woman with the Olympic 10,000m standard at the Trials: Weini Kelati. Katie Izzo is also currently in line to earn a spot based on cross country ranking but no other Americans have the 30:40 time standard.
I'd put a slight pushback on that bold. This may have been her prime for any remote chance at sneaking a medal in the 10k, but I think her best championship distance may be the marathon. In which case, 29 yo is still in the prime regime for that distance. I kinda hoped she would've done the OMT this year and she has a very reputable training parter in Obiri.
does Parker Valby try again to get the standard or does she focus on the 5K?
It doesn't just change things for Parker Valby. This changes things for other women as well. Now that only one US woman has the 30:40 Olympic standard, I wonder if a clever meet director sets up another "The TEN" type of race, with pacers and wavelights.
What's the name of the 10000m race Paul Chelimo ran last year? That gets a lot of Europeans going after the standard. Isn't McColgan running that? In May I think
As far was women's T&F goes, I feel like we live in the dark ages of sports medicine. We should not have to think that catastrophic injuries are inevitable, like that those that have sidelined Monson, Schweizer, and Abby Cooper. I hope the Palmers can protect Valby - it's not at all clear to me that extending her range to the 10k is the right way to go. Going for 10k puts extra physical stress on her when the 5k seems to be her most comfortable distance and she is still improving in that event.
Rehab from this surgery is 8+ months (same surgery Aisha Praught-Leer had). Zero loading on the leg for several months, including complete immobilisation. So she will be lucky to race on the track next summer, let alone qualify for World's.
I get what they're trying to say. We always want to see top athletes compete but in hindsight in an Olympic year, maybe they should be ensconced in bubble wrap. Of course in hindsight it's easy to say Monson shouldn't have been going for the 10,000 AR leading up to The Ten. But if everything goes right, you could say all that training for the AR preceded an amazing performance at the Olympics and that was why. The heartbreak of the Olympic cycle is also what makes it amazing when someone breaks through at the Olympics or fulfills all their well-known potential.
Monson didn’t race between September 17 and February 11. She is about as lightly raced as you could be. If anything, the argument may be that being so head down in training month after month was the undoing. Racing is intense but allows for some lower-volume weeks and more fluctuations in intensity and training load. Monson was chasing a crazy fast time in the 10K after a tough COVID bout. Maybe you could argue if she targeted more racing via World Indoors/XC we would see a less fit athlete but also a less aggressive approach so she wasn’t hitting the races with constant, heavy training. She’d be more at 90% and doing harder efforts but the training and mileage would be reigned in.
As far was women's T&F goes, I feel like we live in the dark ages of sports medicine. We should not have to think that catastrophic injuries are inevitable, like that those that have sidelined Monson, Schweizer, and Abby Cooper. I hope the Palmers can protect Valby - it's not at all clear to me that extending her range to the 10k is the right way to go. Going for 10k puts extra physical stress on her when the 5k seems to be her most comfortable distance and she is still improving in that event.
What? Doing 10k races or 10k training isn't what injuries you. It's not as simple as that. If you train hard enough for the 1500m or the 5k or overrace, you could get injured. Injuries happen. Stop equating it to race distances.
So this really only leaves Kelati with the standard, and then possibly Katie Izzo based on world ranking?
As nobody will run the standard at the trials, how do we see this playing out? Will the hopefuls without the standard try to get the standard again? Try to improve their ranking? I guess I don’t fully understand how the process works but this seems bleak.
Side note, I love Sisson as a marathoner but I can’t help but think she still had potential on the track. Her trials record in the 10K lapping the field and beating the likes of Monson, Cranny, Schweitzer, etc by a wide margin. She wasn't healthy in Tokyo but I think she could hypothetically place a bit higher.
This is one of the reasons it sucks that track only has their showcase event every 4 years. Any real sport has a yearly championship so injuries like this don't eliminate an athlete from the spotlight that long. No sport that let's the Olympics be their biggest championship is a real sport.
So what are the real sports? T&f has a world championship basically yearly as do most Olympic sports.
As far was women's T&F goes, I feel like we live in the dark ages of sports medicine. We should not have to think that catastrophic injuries are inevitable, like that those that have sidelined Monson, Schweizer, and Abby Cooper. I hope the Palmers can protect Valby - it's not at all clear to me that extending her range to the 10k is the right way to go. Going for 10k puts extra physical stress on her when the 5k seems to be her most comfortable distance and she is still improving in that event.
If you just watched Valby compete, and knew nothing about injury history, or cross training story, it's pretty obvious that she is a strength runner with high potential at 10k and above.
I think they ran this recent 10k as a test, and she passed with flying colors.
Now the Valby team will have to decide what they really want to focus on. Doing an NCAA 10 k requires at least 2 more 10k races. Then Usatf. A second 31 minute 10k would also give Valby a world ranking at that distance.
She's already set for Usatf in 5000, so that would require less racing.
As far was women's T&F goes, I feel like we live in the dark ages of sports medicine. We should not have to think that catastrophic injuries are inevitable, like that those that have sidelined Monson, Schweizer, and Abby Cooper. I hope the Palmers can protect Valby - it's not at all clear to me that extending her range to the 10k is the right way to go. Going for 10k puts extra physical stress on her when the 5k seems to be her most comfortable distance and she is still improving in that event.
Meanwhile in the Parker Valby thread: "Why isn't she training like pro men have for the past 60 years?"
Rehab from this surgery is 8+ months (same surgery Aisha Praught-Leer had). Zero loading on the leg for several months, including complete immobilisation. So she will be lucky to race on the track next summer, let alone qualify for World's.
Holy shoot. Can someone confirm?
Centrowitz had meniscus surgery two years ago right? There’s obviously different severities of meniscus injuries but it seems he was running back sooner.