I usually don’t throw around the “he’s periodizing bro, I doubt he’s even doing hard workouts yet” excuse that often but I’d bet money that this is the case for Brazier. He had a couple of years of setting the track on fire in Jan/February only to be injured by championship season. Smith is a smart coach and Brazier has been humbled. He ran close to 1:42 flat last championship season right when it mattered, and Im sure his goal is to do better than that this year.
As others have said, Brazier was probably working on being able to string together a few miles at a time at a decent pace without stopping at this point last year. With that being factored in, as long as there haven’t been any more health hiccups for him this year I’m more optimistic about where he’s at this summer than last summer haha.
Seeing that he didn’t seem to take this race super seriously, I’m guessing the intent was to gauge current fitness rather than test it if you get what I mean by that.
Hoey set out to set world records in December and January. My guess is that Brazier is a little smarter than that, in consideration of his own personal circumstances.
Yep. And also, Hoey has been training with his pacer - his brother - his whole life. They are like glue. No doubt that WR was simply putting many rehearsals around the family track into practice.
Conversely, Brazier's race had terrible pacing.
This post was edited 32 seconds after it was posted.
My take is that Brazier looked weak, like he was experimenting with mileage again. Looks like he lost muscle in his arms as well. Maybe he should flee from altitude and go back to Texas A&M
That was pretty embarrassing. Does he even train speed anymore with Mike Smith?
I can’t find video of the race. What did he do wrong? Losing to someone like McPhillips who is young and definitely on the rise doesn’t seem like an upset.
Exactly. Even Phillips doesn’t think it’s a big deal and he won the race. These guys are all pointing for outdoors for the most part. We’ll see how it all shakes out by July and August.
Let’s see how these guys are performing in July and August.
^ THIS Honestly, mediocre performances In Jan are a good sign. People who crush indoor have disappointing outdoor seasons literally 100% of the time. As a fan of the sport, it never ceases to amaze me when I see this year after year. Most recently, Fisher and Nuguse had amazing indoor seasons in '25 and then both had lackluster outdoor seasons. In direct contract, Hocker just wasn't super sharp indoors, but peaked perfectly to win the 5K outdoors. It just seems to obvious! Don't peak too early. The body can't sustain that for 8 months.
Good to know. ESP, Willis, Kessler, and Fisher are all in big trouble. I guess the people who fished 4th or 5th in their events are the ones who will dominate this summer.
What an annoying thread. Maybe if you're like a junior in high school then yes, maybe your indoor rust buster is close to a pr because you're growing and everything is a new pr all the time, but for people with any kind of experience the first race of the indoor season isn't that important.
What an annoying thread. Maybe if you're like a junior in high school then yes, maybe your indoor rust buster is close to a pr because you're growing and everything is a new pr all the time, but for people with any kind of experience the first race of the indoor season isn't that important.
Well Brazier himself said it was trash and that he has a lot to work on. That's exactly what I said.
I never said he was done, burned out, too old. I just said it was a really bad race and was trying to figure out why.
Clearly he still has a good chance of winning USA's this year. He is the most talented MD runner in American history...but due to that same talent you can't help but wonder what the hell went wrong here. I suspect Mike Smith changed his training a lot and it clearly isn't working.
What an annoying thread. Maybe if you're like a junior in high school then yes, maybe your indoor rust buster is close to a pr because you're growing and everything is a new pr all the time, but for people with any kind of experience the first race of the indoor season isn't that important.
Well Brazier himself said it was trash and that he has a lot to work on. That's exactly what I said.
I never said he was done, burned out, too old. I just said it was a really bad race and was trying to figure out why.
Clearly he still has a good chance of winning USA's this year. He is the most talented MD runner in American history...but due to that same talent you can't help but wonder what the hell went wrong here. I suspect Mike Smith changed his training a lot and it clearly isn't working.
lol
One of the best 800m runners but he doesn’t rate at all 1500. Hardly the most talented/top MD runner in US history.
If the last year has taught me anything, it’s this:
Never doubt Brazier, not even a little bit
Hoey split 1 whole second faster through 600 in his 800 than Brazier RACED a 600.
Then Hoey ran a 26.31 at the end of it. Brazier's last lap of his 600 was 26.44
This was an unmitigated DISASTER for Brazier.
Very bad post here. Simply ignorant, to be honest. (None of Hoey's last 200 was boxed in, was it?)
Anyone who watched the race and has every run an indoor 600 could understand that he was boxed from far out, and certainly boxed at the time of a strong move by the eventual winner (back stretch of the third lap). Indoors, when someone gets up 5 meters while you're still behind another runner, it's all over at that point.
Brazier said himself that he failed to position himself where he needed to in order to run fast. Let it become an indoor kick race, and wasn't in place when that happened. A tactical error but hardly indicative of a "disaster."
Again, all of these comments are obvious to anyone who has actually raced some 600s indoors. Not every race is set up as a personal time-trial, which believe it or not benefits a runner by 1-2 seconds.