I love that letsrun allows people to speculate on pro runners doping, but it is DISGUSTING and BEYOND THE PALE to accuse a collegiate runner of doping. Especially when this speculation is partly being based on how the athlete looks.
5th Season at Florida 5-time NCAA Division I National Champion 4-time SEC Champion Chris Solinsky, enters his fifth season as an assistant coach for the
Valby ran 10:10 in 2019 as a junior, then only 10:40 in 2020, in high school in Florida. So, no, she wasn't training steadily. She was obviously injured and missing training.
How do you know that?
See interview at the bottom, as if you couldn't tell just by seeing a 30 second slowdown, due to injuries and COVID cancellations as well. She was healthy as a junior, injured as a senior, then hip, hamstring and achilles injuries as a freshman at UF, and mileage was limited. Last fall as a redshirt freshman "went smoothly and followed what Solinsky said to do and made nationals."
Yes, i think she was injured her senior year. She’s obviously extremely talented, but it is amazing how much she’s improved. Training, eating better/healthier, supplements? Could be all legit, but I can see why some would wonder how there’s such huge improvement.
"The former American record holder and first non-African to break 27 minutes in the 10,000 meters, has helped the Gators turn in some of their most impressive distance seasons in quite some time, with Florida’s women leading the charge."
I don't normally comment on threads about young women's running but you Tuohy simps just never stop. This thread is gross and should be deleted.
If this course is legit, Valby is an emerging superstar.
I can't believe anyone could look at Valby and say she looks jacked. She looks fit. She's super lean and in tremendous shape. It's called training. She doesn't look 25, more like a young 20. My daughter, a 14 year old gymnast, has the same physique. I don't know Valby's height/weight but my daughter is 5'4' 115. Valby looks skinnier than my daughter.
If you go back and look at the milesplit link someone posted above, and the Valby interview, which is dated 2019, she looks like a typical cheerleader not a runner, no definition in the arms. If she could run 10:10 off that fitness, I'm not surprised that she's improved now that she is extremely running fit.
That said, it's pretty remarkable to drop 30 seconds off your 5000m in less than six months (assuming the course is accurate and the conversion mentioned earlier in the thread is accurate). But I could see this happening under a couple of different scenarios. First, if Valby was undertrained when she ran 15:20, and is now (motivated by losing NCAA 5000m) putting in a much higher volume of training, and got leaned out and more endurance. Second, if she dropped 10 pounds from her NCAA weight without going into unhealthy territory (she looked pretty lean in the NCAA race though so I don't see where she could lose any weight, I'd have to see a current picture).
Also, when a high schooler (Cook) ran 15:20 on low miles, why wouldn't we expect a 2nd in NCAA level runner to be capable of sub 15? And wouldn't you expect Tuohy to be in the 1450s this year too? They're young runners with a lot of room to improve. Seems like a lot of butthurt because Tuohy has legitimate competition (which is a GOOD thing, even if you are a Tuohy fan).
I'm a guy and I ran at 5'7" 105 lbs. When I started and was untrained I was 125. I don't think I was properly nourished but I wasn't starving myself, I ate everything I could get my hands on. Over one summer of training, where I upped mileage from 40mpw to 60mpw for about 6 weeks, I suddenly got super lean and started running significantly faster. I ran healthy at that weight for 10 years. It's just where my body ended up, it wasn't intentional. So if it's weight loss and she's hit her ideal running form, I'd expect it to result in dramatic improvement. It worked for Hassan.
Time will tell. It's sad that people have such a love affair with Tuohy that they would accuse her competitor, a young lady, of doping. Just sick. This competition is great for Tuohy and after her dominating win the other day I'm sure NCAA will be a great race. I'll be cheering for both of them because I think it's great to see young talent emerging. There is room for more than one young star in the NCAA.
And at the risk of being shot as a bringer of bad news, what is sick is the sport itself. There is not a single top pro who is clean. Not a single international record that is not PED related. Not the assistant coach at UF with his AR and not anyone else in that position. That is the backdrop. When a progression seems odd or unlikely, it has to be questioned. Sorry.
XC time conversion to track time are hard to figure. But running effectively a solo time trial, Valby beas Tuohy's time at Nuttycombe by nearly a minute. Makes Nationals interesting.
There is legitimate competition and then there are progressions that call legitimacy into question. Deflect all you want, but we always know.
So if/when Tuohy beats an accused-of-doping-by-astro Valby at NCAA XC what will we "know" then?
No. Because Tuohy has had natural progression for forever.
And re your point re Cook. I’ll admit that she seemed fishy at first glance but when you look at her history and the injury/cross training/running timeline she legitimately comes across as a superstar with a legitimate progression and smart-but-limited-time-on-feet training. Maybe she’s doing but her history makes sense as just being very talented. Valby’s corresponding progression, history, and training (to the extent we know it) raises far more questions than Cook does.
Again, I’m not necessarily on team Astro and saying Valby is certainly doping. But let’s be reasonable here and agree it’s beyond suspicious.
This reminds me of that other tuohy thread in which the fan-bois were throwing around the term ‘generational talent’. Well, we have some other fast women now, like Cook, and this gal Valby. So is it really ‘generational talent’, when it is multiple athletes pushing the boundaries?
It is always nice to see something you know is real. Is there any such thing as generational talent when you can purchase it in a bottle? When someone has a clear natural progression it is special because it is so rare. Most are the alternative. It comes COD.
