I hope she can stay healthy, and consistently stack blocks of training.
That in itself would be a huge step forward; it seems since she was a senior in high school she has had various injuries that interrupt consistent training. Therefore, it’s not like she now has to crazily start increasing her mileage to see improvements.
Plot of the yearly LACCTiC Season Fitness Estimate for three particular athletes:
Don't believe for one second that she rolled off the couch, started training 2-3 times a week, and, bam, she is a sub-15 5ker.
It's a body of work for 15+ years of hard aerobic training.
The body does not care where the aerobic stimulus comes from, you'll still get the benefits if you built it up over many years. It falls in line with what Gjert said in an interview about early-life training.
So how many swimmers become good runners? And vice versa.
Swimmers can become great runners. Alan Webb was one. The inverse is not exactly true. There’s too much technique in swimming, and most of the elites were under high aerobic training in elementary
There are FEW late additions in swimming that succeed. It’s very rare, and most of them just have the perfect body. And those late successes are more like NCAA A final at most, not Olympic level
Don't believe for one second that she rolled off the couch, started training 2-3 times a week, and, bam, she is a sub-15 5ker.
It's a body of work for 15+ years of hard aerobic training.
The body does not care where the aerobic stimulus comes from, you'll still get the benefits if you built it up over many years. It falls in line with what Gjert said in an interview about early-life training.
Incorrect, the body absolutely cares where stimulus comes from. And no, she does not run just 2-3 days week.
I agree with you that she is nearly 1 minute behind world class runners which makes it likely that she has tremendous upside when she increases her mileage. Graham Blanks is only 20 seconds behind world class runners. I expect a 40 second drop for her if she is able to put in high mileage like him.
Why what? We have a hundred years of data that proves that people race faster from training. Is that news to you? She is the fastest NCAA runner in history and did it on 30 MPW and cross training. Blanks does 3x her mileage.
I agree with you that she is nearly 1 minute behind world class runners which makes it likely that she has tremendous upside when she increases her mileage. Graham Blanks is only 20 seconds behind world class runners. I expect a 40 second drop for her if she is able to put in high mileage like him.
Why?
I get she has upside, she is only 21 and very talented.
But I don't understand simultaneously saying that cross training is just as hard and that is why she has made these big gains like many on here are saying, but also that she has tremendous upside more than others because she is not running. If cross training is "just as good" you can't really say that.
It isn't one or the other. Strength training helps running. Yoga helps running. Stratching helps running. But you aren't traying to say that the activities are mutually exclusive from running or better than running. Cross training is similar.
It isn't one or the other. Strength training helps running. Yoga helps running. Stratching helps running. But you aren't traying to say that the activities are mutually exclusive from running or better than running. Cross training is similar.
Has anyone made the case that replacing easy runs with yoga allows for harder, better training than road miles?
There are a lot of posters in this thread that are saying arc trainer miles, swim doubles, are equivalent or better....
Near term upside should come from consistency. She just ran a 14:56 off of the strength of cross-country. With even better pacing at BU, could she have gone at least 14:54?
14:54 is a 70.1 VDOT. So with sharpening, can she take that same VDOT down to the shorter 3000m distance and run the 8:34 equivalent?
Has anyone made the case that replacing easy runs with yoga allows for harder, better training than road miles?
If you could get your heart rate up to about about 60%-70% of max, you could get a lot of the same cardiovascular benefits. But I don't think of yoga as cardio.
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Sounds like you believe that she will be world class if she replaces her cross training with runs. I tend to agree with you.
Not really sure at this point. The more the "cross training is just as good" argument wins me over the less upside I think she may have with switching to running for easy days volume.
If she increases her quality volume she will improve... as does everyone. I doubt her college competitors are doing higher workout volume than 30 mpw for example. A lot of the rest is probably easy miles for them as well.
Why what? We have a hundred years of data that proves that people race faster from training. Is that news to you? She is the fastest NCAA runner in history and did it on 30 MPW and cross training. Blanks does 3x her mileage.
You are suggesting she has massive upside because she hasn't put much milage in but you miss the obvious which is the totality of her workload. She cannot possibly achieve what she has without major training loads - doesn't matter if in this case it happens to also come from non-running workouts. It's all placing massive demands on her body so no, she's not just going to add more (quality) miles and see major gains. If she does that she will have to lighten the total training load somehow to accommodate it, and the gains may be marginal, if any. You guys make it sound like she has capacity to 2x more than she does now because she cross trains. That's just stupid.
Sounds like you believe that she will be world class if she replaces her cross training with runs. I tend to agree with you.
Not really sure at this point. The more the "cross training is just as good" argument wins me over the less upside I think she may have with switching to running for easy days volume.
If she increases her quality volume she will improve... as does everyone. I doubt her college competitors are doing higher workout volume than 30 mpw for example. A lot of the rest is probably easy miles for them as well.
She has her good reasons for not running more, and this mix works for her. Might have a lot to do with her younger years as a swimmer, whereas a pure runner who picks up swimming to cross train cannot do it at her intensity or their running may suffer big time. She can afford to cross train hard and do a minimum amount of hard running. Others cannot. It doesn't mean she'll improve significantly if she does moelre running or that other runners will improve significantly if they run less and swim more.
Why what? We have a hundred years of data that proves that people race faster from training. Is that news to you? She is the fastest NCAA runner in history and did it on 30 MPW and cross training. Blanks does 3x her mileage.
This is simpleton binary thinking. She can't simply do many more quality miles while continuing her brutal cross-training program. Either she continues on this path and tries to squeeze even better results, or she starts switching to more running and less of the other stuff to get there.
So how many swimmers become good runners? And vice versa.
Swimmers can become great runners. Alan Webb was one. The inverse is not exactly true. There’s too much technique in swimming, and most of the elites were under high aerobic training in elementary
There are FEW late additions in swimming that succeed. It’s very rare, and most of them just have the perfect body. And those late successes are more like NCAA A final at most, not Olympic level
So the only example of swimming translating to running success anyone can give is Webb. The exception therefore proves the rule. He would have been a great runner without having been a swimmer and swimming doesn't automatically transfer to running success or we would see many more examples than Webb.
The advocates here for saying cross training is just as good for a distance runner as running miles are building their case essentially on one runner - Valby. Most top distance runners don't follow her approach. The reason is obvious.
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