Valby lost b/c she was horrible with the tangents

I don't think that Valby is executing a tactic. It seems like she just likes to get rolling and run hard.

^^^At least no one can’t accuse her of over-thinking it.

“Just run, baby!”

The one thing we can take home from this is that Valby has taken a big leap forward from a year ago when she was already 2nd in the 5K at nationals. We will be able to see what she and Tuohy can do on the track where no one has to think about tangents if they are front runners. Just run in lane 1 for 12+ laps.

If Dudek keeps regaining fitness, both of them better fear a slow pace next June or Zofia may outkick them both.

That may be true, but it was bizarre to see Valby seem confused about the direction the course was going just a few minutes into the race when it was doing a sweeping oxbow u-turn.

^^^Put Valby behind some flashy, colored pace lights, and crank ‘em up to see what she can do.

On that point, one of the more interesting things Coach Solinsky said in an LRC interview was that the Ole Miss coach told him that their course was not short (even though FastTuohy and Jedisdead kept convincingly arguing on this forum that the course was short.). If that SEC Champs course was not short, then Valby dropped a 15:10 5k equivalent on a windy grass track that day.

To me, Valby races like a middle-schooler who does things more by impulse than strategy. The poor girl has trouble finding lane one on the track for crying out loud. Before anyone jumps down my neck, my gut feeling is that her upside is absolutely massive...like once she starts figuring some things out, poor-Katelyn-will-be-left-in-the-dust-level-talent here.

As an analogy, up until recently, the world's most famous rock climber was Chris Sharma. When he was only 16 in the 1990s, he climbed the hardest rock climb in America. I saw him climb in a comp back then, and couldn't believe how poor he was at finding the route or using his feet. The thing was, he was so much stronger than everyone else, it didn't matter, he still beat them. It occurred to me then that if/when he improved his technical game, he would be not just the world's best, but utterly dominant. Flash forward 10 years, and that was the case.

Valby could be the Chris Sharma for U.S. women's running. The caveat is I'm not sure that Solinsky is fully up to the task of managing such a talent in the long term. I will give him credit for keeping her healthy and happy though, which is 90+% of the game.

Edit: “…on a *winding (serpentine) grass track that day.”

And yet, Athing Mu almost lost a gold medal because of front-running 800m races while running on the outside of Lane 1; not blonde.

Valbys legs were jelly up that last hill as Touhy was passing her. It was obvious that Touhy had much more strength than her.

I agree. Valby doesn't seem like the type of person who can figure out race strategy and tactics all by herself, and so far her coach Solinsky hasn't helped her with that.

Hopefully her coach can get his act together and do a better job advising her on race strategy.

She may just win in track since there's not too many tangents to worry about.hha. the two runners have clearly been relative to each other now that we got to see them race. And perhaps valby could have won on a different course but Tuohy is the champion this year.

Chmiel after xc may be a sleeper for a track title too. Same with Roe again.

Just let cook and valby keep training un/injured and and we may see more drastic improvement.

Solinsky said he thinks Valby has more speed than she realizes. We can see her running form has improved under him. To eventually succeed beyond the NCAA in the 5000m is going to require good speed due to the more difficult race tactics.

Alberto’s MO was to have his athletes perform interval workouts on the track after their races. Another level of strength is required to compete on that level.

Who knows whether it possible to bring Valby along in time to be able to effectively compete, at least make the team, by the upcoming Olympics?

I thought Valby was smart? Didn't Valbymania said she was smarter than Tuohy? Valby doesn't even know what tangents are, no math in University of Florida?

The race was rigged! Valby won BIG!!!

#MAGAgain

^^^without getting injured in the process.

This article on Elish McColgan explains how cross-training helped her compete well at the 10,000m on relatively lower (than peers) mileage.

runnersworld.com

This is how Eilish McColgan trained for her record-breaking 1:06:26 half marathon

Plus, what she eats in a day, how she pushes through the pain barrier and her top tips for getting quicker over the half marathon distance

Open link

Something mentioned in that article, which may seem minor, but actually could be an important factor, is how the heart rate monitors of today can be used to assess recovery. Garmin uses FirstBeat’s algorithm, which evaluates ‘Heart Rate Variability’. (This is not a paid ad; I know this because I own a Garmin.)