I’m speculating here, but you got to remember, the absolute first objective was NOT to win the race, so race tactics took a back-seat in this one. The primary objective was to secure a qualifying time, thus she was the one that went right behind the pacer, and targeted an 8:50. So mission accomplished.
That's a good point; it's why everyone wants to run BU in the first place. 3k is going to be fast to qualify. #16 right now is Ella Baran, 8:58.61.
I'm not comparing Valby to Touhy but to the field. If Valby can have a 68 (stupid, but...)first 400 in a 4:36 mile, she clearly has enough speed to work on and develop a close.
Obviously, Touhy would right now beat Valby in an 800, but even Touhy would lose in a final 100-200m kick to true speedsters like Morton, Jones, Gear, McCabe etc. That's of course why she's working on the long close.
Today's Touhy race was amazing! When they came thru 2k in 5:41, I thought she was toast. Somehow even off the 5:41, she was able to crank up the long close and follow Morgan thru the field. It got a little wobbly with 600 to go, but she held it together the last 200. I'm sure the roar helped.
So the end result was 2:50/2:51/2:54. 8:35! I'd also say the 4:24/8:35 combo are solid max effort prs now. At this level though a 14:40-50 5k is doable.
In that 4:36 I got Valby's first 400 at 63, not 68
Or Whittni Orton Morgan; Valby just ran within 1/10sec of Orton’s collegiate indoor PB (which Orton set at the age of 22.) And yet, one year after turning pro, Orton-Morgan runs 8:30. She has already had the benefit of altitude since her youth, so how does that happen? Pro focus?
Orton-Morgan was always very talented and ran a very fast 5K way back in 2019. But she could not stay consistently healthy so her college results suffered until 2021 when they figured some things out and now everything is clicking.
I assume you are referring to Orton-Morgan’s indoor 15:12 in Dec 2019. The indoor PB I was referring to was set 2 months later (on the non-legal Washington track) in a race Emily Infeld ran her fastest indoor, finishing a second ahead of Orton-Morgan.
Valby is currently around 15:12 indoor shape based on the above. And is laying down the times of Orton-Morgan, when the latter was running her collegiate best (and at the time, older, and training at altitude.) Curious what Valby is capable of if/when she gets her ‘wobbly form’ corrected, 🤡.
Is it somewhat interesting that collegiate great Karissa Schweizer’s indoor PB, the season right before she turned 21, was a 9:09? Schweizer did run 8:42 the following year.
Monson same story. 9:14 to 8:45.
Monson was a 20yr-old Wisconsin Junior when she ran that 8:46 at Millrose, followed-up a month later with a gold at Natty Indoors 5k in her collegiate indoor PB of 15:31. (She also ran the 3k there, finishing 10th in 9:15.) Later that same month, she debuted in the 10k at the Stanford Invite in 33:03.
Monson was a 20yr-old Wisconsin Junior when she ran that 8:46 at Millrose, followed-up a month later with a gold at Natty Indoors 5k in her collegiate indoor PB of 15:31. (She also ran the 3k there, finishing 10th in 9:15.) Later that same month, she debuted in the 10k at the Stanford Invite in 33:03.
But Monson seemed to regress a bit her Senior year, only running 8:54 at the next Millrose, followed up with ‘only’ a 16:05 win at the Big Ten Indoor Championships.
She doesn’t show up in either Natty’s Indoor or Outdoor results her Senior year. Injury? Too much, too soon? Or conversely, laying big bricks in a foundation supporting what she is running now, 3-yrs later.
Monson was a 20yr-old Wisconsin Junior when she ran that 8:46 at Millrose, followed-up a month later with a gold at Natty Indoors 5k in her collegiate indoor PB of 15:31. (She also ran the 3k there, finishing 10th in 9:15.) Later that same month, she debuted in the 10k at the Stanford Invite in 33:03.
But Monson seemed to regress a bit her Senior year, only running 8:54 at the next Millrose, followed up with ‘only’ a 16:05 win at the Big Ten Indoor Championships.
She doesn’t show up in either Natty’s Indoor or Outdoor results her Senior year. Injury? Too much, too soon? Or conversely, laying big bricks in a foundation supporting what she is running now, 3-yrs later.
For now, but it won't last long. It took Monson 4 years to drop her 3k PR by 20 seconds(altitude training). It took Tuohy 1 year to drop her 3k PR by 19 seconds(without altitude training). In 1 year Valby improved by only 4 seconds.
Parker Valby did not look good at all. Form is all over the place, she tried to push but could not.
she is upright, and the harder she tries to go, the more she tends to lean back, arms pumping the whole way...that is just how she runs, not that it could not be improved....
Certainly someone somewhere told her to lean forward a bit and give it a go. Form can be influenced a lot by your own anatomy. Pelvic tilt etc...Maybe she is better how she is (she's pretty good).
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