Sorry but anybody that thinks Tuohy has a higher ceiling than the girl that just ran 14:56 off 3 days of running a week is delusional. Whether she reaches that ceiling remains to be seen
Jeez, they are both phenomenal athletes with high ceilings. Touhy's had a great streak of races for a while there, but is having a dip right now due to some unfortunately timed illness and perhaps being a bit tired and worn down. It seemed this year things, didn't come together to put together the sub-15 although from her 3K performance and XC performance she was likely in shape for it at various points.
Valby struggled with injury during indoors and at various other points such as the year before when she broke her foot. She is having a phenomenal year and everything clicked at outdoors, XC, and now.
They are both great athletes, one season one will be up when the other is down and vice versa.
Valby may have a higher ceiling on less conventional running training, but Touhy seems to be durable and able to handle consistent, high training loads for a prolonged period of time, which is necessary as a pro to realize your potential. Who ends up being the better pro is ultimately unknowable, but I anticipate we will see those two making teams well into the future.
In my experience most of the time women who can't seem to run high mileage without injury and need to cross train that much to stay healthy usually need to adjust their fuelling because they are underfuelling whether it is due to disordered eating or inadvertantly not realizing how much they need to eat to support high level training. This tends to be especially the case with bone injuries (like breaking your foot repeatedly as Valby has). If she can make some adjustments to that side, who knows where her ceiling is.
I started rooting for Valby over Touhy last year because the Touhy fans on Letsrun are much more obnoxious and unhealthily obsessed than the Valby ones. True story. I have no issues with either athlete and wish them the most success possible.
I think the obsession with both athletes is ridiculous and pathetic. They’re only in college.
some of the questions are just lame though. It's okay to skip interviews. Like, "please give us your secrets." If she just says, "I listen to my coaches," that's fine.
Agreed, she is probably a better interview than KT. Also, way better than golden girl Sydney
I remember seeing discussion of her taking up the steeplechase next season. If that’s true, I imagine her team must now feel the 5,000 is her best bet, no?
Cranny and Monson are way ahead of her. Assuming they’re healthy, very unlikely she’s beating them. Schweitzer is a 14:20 runner. If she’s healthy (big if), she would be favored over Valby. Rogers and Norris are also 14-high runners. They’ll be ready and very hungry. Valby *could* make the team. But it’s less than a 50-50 proposition given the depth of competition.
This is an all-time great performance by a collegiate athlete. Nothing but respect and admiration for that. But she will have to make another leap to make the team. And if Cranny, Monson, and Schweitzer are all at 100%, even that might not be enough.
If it is a typical championship style race I don’t see Valby making the team, I don’t think her training style allows for her to have the sharpness that other runnings have to be competitive in a kick. BUT I wonder if she would try to front run it? That would definitely be interesting.
If it is a typical championship style race I don’t see Valby making the team, I don’t think her training style allows for her to have the sharpness that other runnings have to be competitive in a kick. BUT I wonder if she would try to front run it? That would definitely be interesting.
She needs to first get the OlyStndrd, which consequently opens race strategy options at the Trials.
And if the Trials are conducted in hot weather? Advantage: Valby.
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