Mary Cain Is Taking a Break from the Nike Oregon Project

asdfasfdsf wrote:

And how would Princeton be a good athletic fit? Even running 4:15 she would be the best 1500 meter runner on the team by over ten seconds. If she was actually in form she'd be ten MORE seconds ahead.

As a princeton alum, I'm offended by this comment. The Tigers may not be Cornell but I'm pretty sure the entire boys roster runs under 4:15 for 1500. I've never understood why a top woman would struggle with finding training partners. Admittedly, at Princeton, the men's and women's coaches are separate.

But let's don't get carried away. They could get a HSer who was cut from the boys team to train with her if need be.

Yeah, but I still want to know wrote:

HardLoper wrote:

Between running and her academics she would have had no problem getting into Princeton or anywhere else

You are probably right, although as someone who's done admissions at an Ivy League school, I can tell you there are no guarantees.

But still, i am curious as to why the focus on Princeton. Is the Princeton track program really better than any of the other Ivys? Or is it that it's the closest to where Gags' group works out? Or is "Princeton" just LRC chatter for "fancy-pants Eastern school"?

Why Princeton? Because, as I recall, Princeton is one of the schools she was considering, and, secondly, Princeton (and Columbia) seem to have great coaches right now. Both would surely have her best interests at heart. That will never be the case at NOP.

This whole preoccupation with Mary Cain is wonderful cover for the one American female runner who might take home the AJR for 1500 in a couple of days.

Where does everybody get this 10 pounds from? Somebody speculated that she gained 10 lbs, and now everybody is discussing it like it's a fact that she gained 10 lbs. I doubt it.

The whole thing makes me sad. She seems like such a pleasant, effervescent personality. Smart too. If I could have ranked all the places she could possibly have gone out of HS, she just happened to choose the one that would have been literally last on the list. Can't really blame her, because on the surface it probably seems like a good idea.

But it's important to remember that Mary is a human being first and foremost. Who cares about running, or if she "makes it" as a runner? I just hope she finds the right path. If she puts running on the back burner, or takes up something else entirely, I say good for her. At the very least, I hope she stays away from that hornets nest in Oregon.

Amen about the 10 pounds theory. All this thread is is a bunch of boys and men talking about women's bodies, which judging by LRC's audience, they know absolutely nothing about.

Cain's transitioning, emotionally, mentally, and physically (to the poster who said women's body's mature "at 16," that is an absurd generalization and female bodies will continue to mature and change throughout their lives). I like to slam Mary Cain and NOP as much as the next person, but y'all need to cut the girl some slack - she's experiencing a completely new era of her life.

queen_bee wrote:

Amen about the 10 pounds theory. All this thread is is a bunch of boys and men talking about women's bodies, which judging by LRC's audience, they know absolutely nothing about.

Cain's transitioning, emotionally, mentally, and physically (to the poster who said women's body's mature "at 16," that is an absurd generalization and female bodies will continue to mature and change throughout their lives). I like to slam Mary Cain and NOP as much as the next person, but y'all need to cut the girl some slack - she's experiencing a completely new era of her life.

Amen meaning amen to Biff Pocoroba's comment

eNuff wrote:

First year of college. First year away from home. Taking a break is not unusual.

Maybe she'll take the rest of the track season off, and reboot. Hopefully, she continues with her chemistry major in collegeeven if she takes break from hard training.

This makes total sense. First year away from home.

And, like a lot of athletes or sports, not every track athlete or team, like some NFL teams report all injuries. There is no mandatory reporting of injuries in track and field, and we only hear what we hear when an athlete or coach is interviewed.

And -- this is the least covered sport in the USA. So, we don't know all the why's as to why she isn't in top form right now. And that's fine, that is pretty much the norm for this sport.

Sometimes I see these threads, with wild speculation, nastiness, and negativity, and I just roll my eyes. How can some people keep up the negativity and hate so long? You're growing cancer in your guts by now.

Just watch the river flow, through the seasons, the waves and tides come and go, and soon enough there will be good times again and...focus on the important thing, to...

Enjoy The Sport.

I'm not buying the 10 pounds theory. You don't leave your team because you gained 10 pounds. You leave your team when you are having mental issues. I think she probably has the yips - too afraid to race.

alanson wrote:

This whole preoccupation with Mary Cain is wonderful cover for the one American female runner who might take home the AJR for 1500 in a couple of days.

Heh heh :)

malmo wrote:

Yeah, but I still want to know wrote:

You are probably right, although as someone who's done admissions at an Ivy League school, I can tell you there are no guarantees.

But still, i am curious as to why the focus on Princeton. Is the Princeton track program really better than any of the other Ivys? Or is it that it's the closest to where Gags' group works out? Or is "Princeton" just LRC chatter for "fancy-pants Eastern school"?

Why Princeton? Because, as I recall, Princeton is one of the schools she was considering, and, secondly, Princeton (and Columbia) seem to have great coaches right now. Both would surely have her best interests at heart. That will never be the case at NOP.

College coaches have their athletes' best interests at heart? You must know different college coaches than I do.

That's more than 10 pounds guys. She's definitely stronger on an absolute level than before, but needs to chisel away the excess again. She'll be at a slightly higher level of fitness.

This is a healthy pattern a lot of females take. It's the chiseling that is hard for pretty much all of us!

Tell Hobbes that I miss his sweet, sensitive, food-shaped words. I'm barely on Twitter these days. I hope he is well.

whatever . . . wrote:

malmo wrote:

Why Princeton? Because, as I recall, Princeton is one of the schools she was considering, and, secondly, Princeton (and Columbia) seem to have great coaches right now. Both would surely have her best interests at heart. That will never be the case at NOP.

College coaches have their athletes' best interests at heart? You must know different college coaches than I do.

Obviously.

I sometimes disagree w malmo wrote:

malmo wrote:

She would have finished her freshman year at Princeton...

This is spot on. Maybe she ought to enroll there...

Nah, Princeton doesn't accept transfers. But she wouldn't have NCAA eligibility anyway.

Perhaps joining a pro group was a mistake. Some do better alone --Benoit, Webb. Leaving home for a distant school is stressful. Replicating the Kenyan camp system isn't necessarily the only route. College track can be stressful, but maybe that would have been a good compromise, giving her teammates who are peers but fewer pro expectations. She is very young.

Cain could get into any Ivy League school. Princeton would be a perfect fit for her.

Has anyone else considered a more obvious scenario. Her father is a medical doctor. If you were him and heard that Alberto was injecting your daughter with substances that are technically legal in the eyes of the IAAF, but without any medical justification from a medical standpoint, wouldn't you be seriously alarmed about your daughter's safety?

Cain needs to get far away from Salazar. He already ruined Caitlin Chock. None of his former athletes speak well of him. Non disclosure agreements are intended to protect company property not muzzle employees about their time with NOP. Galen Rupp would be an unemployable college dropout without Nike. Does Mr Cain want his daughter to become an empty headed dropout like Rupp in 3 years? Run away, Mary Cain. Save yourself before it's too late!

A Good Fit wrote:

Cain could get into any Ivy League school. Princeton would be a perfect fit for her.

Nah, Princeton doesn't accept transfers. But she wouldn't have NCAA eligibility anyway.

Read this article about how Australia brought all their world class triathletes together into a training group and then stopped winning medals: http://www.outsideonline.com/1968356/great-coaches-are-more-results-theyre-magic

Initially, Triathlon Australia provided peripheral support to athletes who were encouraged to stay in their home coaching settings. But after realizing success, Triathlon Australia shifted to a system that centralized its coaching and athlete development, a move which Hall believes was motivated by an increased focus on the quantifiable aspects of endurance performance, like power, aerobic capacity, and lactate threshold, despite an already successful model of coaching and training. Bringing the athletes to a common training center would allow them greater access to the latest technology and resources. But like many ideas, what looked good on paper didn’t work as well in practice.