I’m not sure staying healthy is a talent, but it is one of the indispensable factors. Touhy has more of it than Valby.
Parker’s epic cross training regimen certainly doesn’t make up for a lack of running, but it shows an extreme commitment to success and a willingness to sacrifice to compete.
Anybody who’s ever been on the 2 hour per day cross training routine while the rest of the team is out running knows how much this sucks. Doing it season after season is beyond depressing. That grit is evident in Valby’s racing.
Besides this, there are a couple of other things about Parker Valby that I am struck by. It has been said many times that she has talent, but I heard her on a pod cast say that she has terrible upper body strength. She struggles to do push ups! She is already in Katelyn Touhy's league, and she has several holes that she has not addressed. KT is awesome, but she is already doing pretty much everything she can to be where she is at. Training at altitude is about all she has left to take charge of. Valby is also not at altitude, has only started to think about racing tactics, and has not yet built upper body strength (which might take some of the strain off of her legs and help her stay healthy). Can you imagine Parker Valby with KT's level of upper body strength running the tangents next year at XC nationals? I am a huge fan of Touhy, but I don't think she could beat a Parker Valby who was taking full advantage of all of the components of being a competitive runner. There is still so much left on the table with her. If she ever puts it all together, Touhy better look out.
Valby is indeed an incredible talent. What she accomplishes off a heavy load of cross-training is truly remarkable.
In comparing Valby’s training to Tuohy’s, it’s true that Tuohy obviously has much more upper body strength and trains heavily with, as you put it, “all of the components of being a competitive runner.” The difference is that Tuohy can handle that workload whereas Valby thus far cannot. Tuohy did have that one major injury (which I believe even required surgery?) but they wisely sat her out, slowly built up her training, and eased her back in. It proved to be the right decision as we are seeing now. Time will tell if Valby’s coaching staff are handling her training and rehabilitation correctly. She looks like she could be a future 10k/marathon star for the US with her aerobic engine. But those distances would require a lot of miles.
This is just not the Parker Valby of xc season. She was in tremendous shape and could well have drafted to a sub-15 in a race like the recent 14:43 win in which Tuohy ran over 15. That doesn't mean that Tuohy wouldn't still have drafted on her and outkicked her at NCAA's, but Valby had the ability to stick at a very quick pace, though a very limited kick. However, Valby's been injured throughout 2023 and also lost her coach, and so she's just not the same runner. Still impressive to beat Chelangat and Olemomoi, but she was limping.
Watching her grind through brutal races, I had her built up in my head as some kind of hero.
But really, she's just a kid. And that's fine, let her be a damn kid.
You mean she ‘was’ just a naive kid? I bet that tik-tok video is at least three or four years old. Can anyone here provide the link to the video that supposedly showed her running a 13-miler three weeks ago?
You mean she ‘was’ just a naive kid? I bet that tik-tok video is at least three or four years old. Can anyone here provide the link to the video that supposedly showed her running a 13-miler three weeks ago?
13 miles reference is literally the caption on the post. It's a very recent post.... not hard to verify.
I don't care about her social media behavior, just pointing out that she is running, 13 mile long runs apparently.
You mean she ‘was’ just a naive kid? I bet that tik-tok video is at least three or four years old. Can anyone here provide the link to the video that supposedly showed her running a 13-miler three weeks ago?
13 miles reference is literally the caption on the post. It's a very recent post.... not hard to verify.
I don't care about her social media behavior, just pointing out that she is running, 13 mile long runs apparently.
But can someone that doesn’t want to subscribe to Tiktok find the post (I admit I’m social media challenged)?
Okay, thanks, now I see the caption to the same video posted above. I still think that video has to be at least three or four years old, because she looks a lot younger in it.
Okay, thanks, now I see the caption to the same video posted above. I still think that video has to be at least three or four years old, because she looks a lot younger in it.
No man sorry to break it to you but it's her most recent post... its displayed in reverse chronological order just like instagram. Not years old. The next most recent post has the Sped up Sure Thing song which was a big tiktok trend recently. Further back, XC, and so on. Okay, enough tiktok talk.
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