This is possible. I know people who mentioned they were thinking of transferring and the coach kicked them off the team because they didn’t want the negativity. Same kind of thing.
This is possible. I know people who mentioned they were thinking of transferring and the coach kicked them off the team because they didn’t want the negativity. Same kind of thing.
asdfasdfa wrote:
[quote]Spice girls wrote:
If swimming and biking are the only reason he is any good, then why don't other runners train the way LV does. They they too can set a 2mile HSR.
Please think before you write.
For the extact reason that LV is getting his ass handed to him by Lutz, who he used to easily beat in HS maybe?
So when they go to college, they are taking their training up a level, not down and they can improve.
You are the one that needs to think before you write in future.
LUKAS WILL BE IN LONDON 2012 REPRESENTING UNITED STATES OF AMERICA where will you be ****ing trolls ?:)
it bespeaks lack of toughness. He came to school with an injury and not in great shape and was destroyed, and he chose to take the easy way out without sticking through tough times and becoming far stronger that way. He has shown this tendency to flip sports when results are inadequate several times before and it is unfortunate. However, he will be retaining his very successful high school coaching, going to a comfortable environment with his parents, training at altitude, and so he will be all the better for it in all likelihood. Maybe we will even see him run as a pro, because after four years of high altitude training with tons of low impact aerobic work on the bike and pool, he will likely be a monster on the run. It sure didn't hurt him in high school to be doing triathlon training. And when times get tough in the tri, which they may do when he tries to qualify for or compete in the Olympics in 2012, or when he tries to go up to the ironman distance, he might very well come back to the sport that he has by far the best at, relative to how serious the competition is, running.
jjjjjjjjjj wrote:
it bespeaks lack of toughness.
Does it bespeak that? I have a bespoke sports jacket, is that similar?
LV is my friend. He is even my facebook friend. I have personal inside info that this triathlon stuff is all a ruse. LV has left Oregon to join the Occupy Wall Street movement. I saw him camped out there yesterday, in his Oregon jacket. Anyone who knows him like I do will realize that this, in fact, was always his dream. So stop the hating. For crying out loud, They Took His Job!
stfu idiot..... live in you're moms basement in peace......
Xc is about team and bailing on the squad at this point in the season shows poor judgement. I am sure there is a lot more to the story about how it went down, his relationship with teammates, and so on. Stuff like this is why I tell my athletes to "never go into coaching because kids will do things that drive you crazy." Too bad for our sport, he is a huge talent.
There's a nice video on this page of Lukas winning the Junior Worlds.
If he wants to follow his dream to some day represent the USA in the Olympics, more power to him. I'm trying to remember some other college freshman that had the multi-sport options available that Lukas has, but I can't think of one.
As far as the idea that once he focuses on the Tri he can't come back to running, I think we'll have to wait and see on that one. It may be that his aerobic capacity will be strengthened in ways our current ideas can't imagine.
I don't fault the guy if he wants to switch to triathlon, but I agree that he should finish out the season. There are only, what, 2 weeks left?
In defense of his actual decision though (not the timing of it), he will probably make a lot more money as a pro triathlete than he would have as a runner, he won't have to be a struggling college kid living on peanuts for the next 4-5 years, and triathlon probably provides for a longer career.
I grew up overseas and one of my good friends (an average runner) switched to triathlon at 16, never went to college, and now is a pro who travels the world every year with a nice house on the beach. He probably has enough money to pay for a college education if ever needs one. I lived on a meal plan at college, waited tables in the summer for 5 years, and did a tour of america's college towns for meets. Some of you might call LV's switch to triathlon taking the easy way out, to me it looks like a pretty commonsense move.
Tony B wrote:
Agree. The Brownlee Brothers are running 29s off the bike and swim a lot faster.
As tough as his two months at Oregon were, they're nothing like what he's headed into. Dumb. Naive.
OTOH, he is only 18. There still are sports were you don't even begin to compete with the big names until your late 20s. Look at Lance Armstrong. He was a potty-mouthed jerk who in his first professional season (after the 1992 Olys), finished 30 minutes off the back of the back at the Classico San Sebastian (30 minutes is a lifetime in bike races). Going by your criteria, he should never have had a career after such a bad result. He won the Worlds the next year. Similarly, when he rode his first two Tours, Miguel Indurain caught and passed him like he was taking a nap in the time trials. Yet he managed to get better at time trialing, and stage racing. He is just one example - almost no one wins a Grand Tour before they are in their late 20s. Why should we expect LV not to follow a trajectory of gradual improvement? Normally it takes 5 years to make a good professional rider - I imagine triathlons are similar - give him time and he will mature. Or not. But in any case to say that at 18 and a neo-pro that he can't keep up with the best Tri-guys in the world is pretty dumb. So what if it takes him 5 more years to get to the top, and so what if he quits NCAA running. Quitting his team in the middle of a season is pretty lame, but that's a different matter.
It's pretty obvious that he was only half-hearted about running, so I'm really not surprised he did this.
Good decision.
Why would any kid who has run as well as he did in high school saddle up to the abuse and constant scrutiny delivered daily on Let's Run. Who would, given the opportunities presented by being world champ at triathlon, put themselves in the crosshairs of those who regularly trash Rupp, Fernandez and others.
The fact is, being a child prodigy carries enough pressure as it is without us message boarders heaping on more. Even before Let's Run, the road to senior excellence was littered with promising high school/junior athletes whose careers fizzled. We are not making it any easier for these promising few by our critical comments.
+1 to the above comment. When I think about focusing just on running I simply come in here and remind myself what a bunch of douche bags runners are. You prove it over and over in here.
Triathlon training ain't easy ;D
Jack Frost wrote:
While my initial thoughts were "how could Lucas quit with 2 meets left?", it could very likley be that Vin is not allowing LV to finish the season.
LV likely started talking to Vin recently about his feelings and Vin decided why to waste the expereince of running a NCAA regional meet and championships on a kid who is not going to be around in the future....nor his heart being into his team.
+1
Lucas made the right move. If something is not going well, then it's better to make the decision earlier rather than later. It also shows the the guys at Oregon aren't much for coaching. No way Lucas should be doing this badly at cross country races. I guess his HS coach was better than those clowns at Oregon.
Why don't you guys put your histrionics aside and go back and read all of the articles that came out surrounding his junior world triathlon win. He made comments to the effect that he was amazed and really pleased that he was able to capture the win on only 4-6 weeks of pure triathlon training. It appeared to open his eyes at that point to the true potential that lie in wait with further dedicated training. He was even already expressing misgivings in one article about having chosen to pursue running at U of O. That was early September. The seed was already planted at that point. Couple that with the big change in training upon arriving on campus and poor performance at two meets and the decision was probably easy for him to make. Remember that his two best friends are in Colorado Springs, not to mention his family and a proven training program. I'm not surprised that he bailed. No one will ever know the reason for the timing aspect of it...maybe lay off LV and ask VL about that one.
The transition to triathlon isn't going to be any easier than his brief college career - the depth of talent is deep, the distances are longer, the races very competitive - his swim and bike time times are not great and his run is similar to other pros. He will certainly gain weight and muscle with the swim and bike training. I wish him luck - he's gonna need it.
I don't think Ritz's high school training was normal either. He was running 100 mile weeks, which isn't typical for a high school runner.
I am sure if LV was breaking the course records in every corss country meet in college he would have loved to stay and since his fame is diminishing every time he competes with average college athletes then he still have that notion that if he came on top of all high school kids in the US, then he would do the same as a professional athlete, but he will be shocked!!!! if he doesn't make the US team.He needs to go back to OU and finish up with school and graduate as he tries to catch up with this average college kids..