This was my first thought: wrong weather during the build up, and got whipped by the heat and humidity. But then I looked at the recent temperatures and dew points in Boulder and Eldoret and they were pretty similar.
Klecker was in St. Moritz which was notably cold this summer. But they did do a whole Heat training regimen. Worked for Monson, didn’t work for Klecker evidently.
To the poster saying the US is just outclassed in the 10K and up (besides Grant) yes that appears to be the case. Woody/Klecker could beat Ebenyo in a 3-5K, but go to XC, a 10K of a half and he’s stomping them. It seems the lack of flashy 10k times is more about lack of opportunities. There are many East Africans that are in sub-26:50 shape and capable of hanging in these Fartlek-type 10k finals. Their trials system churns out strong teams for the most part.
This post was edited 4 minutes after it was posted.
Forget altitude, they need to set up a training camp in New Orleans or somewhere humid to prepare for the race conditions.
Budapest weather was no different than most cities in the US and Europe in the summer. Hilarious to blame the weather on their poor performance. They just weren’t as good. Period. Back to the drawing board
What can you do, it's about 90 degrees. The organizers of these WC and OG meets need to think about starting the 10,000 at either 7 am or 10 pm. Hold the meets at a cooler time of year in a cooler city.
It may be that growing up in Africa makes it easier to run in heat that growing up in the US. Would the 2012 Rupp get a medal in such heat? He was a good heat runner, but 90 is pretty warm.
I’m a fan of the US distance squad but it’s definitely concerning how every single world championships they both choke to a massive degree to their potential. They must be trained to peak for USAs because besides the weather, it’s really concerning how Kincaid and Klecker can’t even make an indent on the world champs. They’re AT that level they just failed to execute every time. Is it their training? It sure seems like they are all following in Dathans footsteps not doing a dang thing when it really matters in the world or Olympic stage.
Galen Rupp spoiled us. We are use to seeing the top 10k American up there making a splash.
Truth is, neither Kincaid or Klecker were prepared for the humidity. They should have gone to Kenya or Ethiopia for heat and altitude. Instead they went to cold Saint Moritz and Flagstaff.
It is winter in KEnya by the way.
OUr winter started in JUne and ends in September.
It was very cold in June and July but now it is okay.
Also , it is never humid except in Kisumu and Mombasa which are at low altitude. Kisumu is highter but not that high.
Galen Rupp spoiled us. We are use to seeing the top 10k American up there making a splash.
Truth is, neither Kincaid or Klecker were prepared for the humidity. They should have gone to Kenya or Ethiopia for heat and altitude. Instead they went to cold Saint Moritz and Flagstaff.
It is winter in KEnya by the way.
OUr winter started in JUne and ends in September.
It was very cold in June and July but now it is okay.
Also , it is never humid except in Kisumu and Mombasa which are at low altitude. Kisumu is highter but not that high.
Yes, it's funny to see the ignorance regarding Kenyan weather on here...having been to Kenya a few times myself I can attest to the cooler and less humid weather there. Quite chilly in June and July! I've also been to Addis Ababa and it's high and dry there too...I imagine it never really gets humid there being so high up.
It was very cold in June and July but now it is okay.
Also , it is never humid except in Kisumu and Mombasa which are at low altitude. Kisumu is highter but not that high.
Yes, it's funny to see the ignorance regarding Kenyan weather on here...having been to Kenya a few times myself I can attest to the cooler and less humid weather there. Quite chilly in June and July! I've also been to Addis Ababa and it's high and dry there too...I imagine it never really gets humid there being so high up.
It was very cold in June and July but now it is okay.
Also , it is never humid except in Kisumu and Mombasa which are at low altitude. Kisumu is highter but not that high.
Yes, it's funny to see the ignorance regarding Kenyan weather on here...having been to Kenya a few times myself I can attest to the cooler and less humid weather there. Quite chilly in June and July! I've also been to Addis Ababa and it's high and dry there too...I imagine it never really gets humid there being so high up.
Call me a Johnson Brother then cause I am speaking out of my *ss. :)
Still, if 67-75 w/ relative humidity averaging 81% (according to Google) is a cold winter day, then that would still prepare them better than 40-50s in the rain at St. Moritz.
Pretty easy explanation. Kincaid did not make the U.S. Team in the 5,000.
I had forgotten this. I thought he made both teams. Gets back to my main point though; why is he in the 10k at Nats? Poor decision (IMO) for a 12:51 guy. Take you best shot, at your best event.
Wait until you at least get the basics down before you start giving out advice. Unfortunately, this scenario happens over and over on these boards in nearly every subject. I d in JT know if this board is a sampling of human nature or if it’s filled with just a bunch of blowhards that feel like they need to be heard and have their ill informed opinions taken as fact.
ridiculous to think you need to train everyday in heat and humidity to be heat acclimated.
They have protocols for this. very likely they take your advice they perform even worse
bigger issue for them is that their 5k times are cute in a field like you saw today. you have the WR holder and numerous others under 1250.
them doing solid performances and national champions is not much in a field like that
Hey Santara.
I am very sorry your heat training protocol did not work the way you imagined it. Truthfully, wearing an extra layer of clothes is not enough to simulate hot and humid temperatures.
I am ridiculous for thinking going up and training in hot weather will make you better at running in hot weather?
Ridiculous that you haven't heard of specificity of training. The body adepts to the stress placed on it. There is no way weather in the 40s-50s is going to prepare a long distance runner to run in 90 degree weather.
I'm not necessarily going to argue this point. But the Finns used to do very well at the Boston Marathon. The last Finn to win was Olavai Suomuleain (no vouching for correct spelling here) in 1972. It was a very warm day that year. In 1975 I was racing in Finland and staying with a Finn, Tenho Salakka, who had come second at Boston in 1964. A British friend who was racing with me and I got to talking with Tenho about why the Finns did so well there and seemed to do so even in hot years. He just talked about their training in general so we asked again what they did in training to prepare for racing well in hot weather. Again, there was just an answer about their overall training and nothing about heat training.
This went on for a bit, us asking what they did to prepare for racing a marathon on hot days and answers that said nothing about heat preparation. I finally got the idea that they did nothing special to race in heat. It seemed like their winter training was done in such cold weather for so long that they really liked the idea of running for a good while when it was hot.
Regarding the weather LOL meanwhile Mohammed Ahmed comes from St. Catharines Ontario Canada who gets more snow than Buffalo NY & Erie PA put together lol #snowbelt #OFSAA
Sorry, Ian, but that's not even wrong.
St C averages 54 inches of snow/year.
Buffalo averages 90 inches.
Erie averages 100 inches.
So, as a matter of fact, Erie & Buffalo togehter average 3 1/2 times as much as St Cs.
I thought Woody ran a fairly honest race - just couldn't hang when Aregawi started dropping 64s in the stifling heat. He didn't completely blow though, and for a lap or two, I thought he was gonna get back on. 11th place in the 10,000m at worlds is nothing to sniff at. There was a period in the 90s and early 2000s where non-Aricans couldn't get within a lap of the winner. Rupp (and to a lesser extent, Fisher) may have dimmed that memory a little.
Not sure what happened to Klecker; I thought he may have fallen because they flicked back after an ad break and he was 30 metres off the back. He then proceeded to close on the pack for the next 4 laps, until the race eventually got going at the front. Very strange.
Galen Rupp spoiled us. We are use to seeing the top 10k American up there making a splash.
Truth is, neither Kincaid or Klecker were prepared for the humidity. They should have gone to Kenya or Ethiopia for heat and altitude. Instead they went to cold Saint Moritz and Flagstaff.
The correct English expression is “used to”. Past tense is correct.
As mentionned at the beginning of the discussion, it doesn't help that they need to peak for US trials.
Then when comes Worlds there's a likelyhood athletes aren't in peak fitness any more.
In some ways it's a paradox. The US trials system puts an emphasis on racing (the 3 best on a d-day vs. the 3 fastest that year) but forces athletes to peak earlier than they might want to be at their best for Worlds...
This is partially why cheptegei wins more than the Ethiopians… he doesn’t need to run fast or win trials. Not discounting his talent or skill but he makes it count when it matters and not DLs
This was my first thought: wrong weather during the build up, and got whipped by the heat and humidity. But then I looked at the recent temperatures and dew points in Boulder and Eldoret and they were pretty similar.
Klecker was in St. Moritz which was notably cold this summer. But they did do a whole Heat training regimen. Worked for Monson, didn’t work for Klecker evidently.
To the poster saying the US is just outclassed in the 10K and up (besides Grant) yes that appears to be the case. Woody/Klecker could beat Ebenyo in a 3-5K, but go to XC, a 10K of a half and he’s stomping them. It seems the lack of flashy 10k times is more about lack of opportunities. There are many East Africans that are in sub-26:50 shape and capable of hanging in these Fartlek-type 10k finals. Their trials system churns out strong teams for the most part.
I think this is a good point. What do Ebenyo, Cheptegei, Barega, and Aregawi all have in common? They all ran World XC this year. The top 10k guys all do a bit of top class XC every year - even Mo Farah saw the value in getting his ass kicked in international XC competitions as part of his season. By contrast, the US guys run a 10k TT, the national champs, and then go to the global champs. It doesn't prepare them for racing. With so few top level 10k races on the circuit, XC becomes the place for athletes to test themselves before championships. The East Africans get that, others need to catch up.
Also, good on Klecker for owning that race. No excuses from the guy, no cursing the weather, just an admission that he races badly.
This post was edited 2 minutes after it was posted.
To all these people saying heat this and heat that and that Kenya is much hotter, its not. Kenya(iten) and Ethiopia(Addis) are temperate climates and its also not hot this time of year there. The high in Iten today is 71f while its 96 in Boulder. The hottest day of the year in Iten is usually around March and the high is usually around 82-84f. Addis Ababa is very similar to Iten in climate. In fact, the temperature in Boulder today is hotter than the hottest day ever recorded in Addis. The high in Addis today is 66.
Yes the winter's are much colder in Boulder but the Summers are much hotter than either Addis or Iten. And this is before the fact that the peak temperature months occur months ago in both Iten and Addis. There are parts of both Ethiopia and Kenya that are deathly hot but they are not the same places that the runners are either born, live or train at.
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