Chris Derrick Leaves BTC

Heard he was in Boulder this past weekend, and hanging out with Riley. His last hurrah as a pro was winning USA XC championships in Boulder, so maybe the change will be good.

bong hits for rojo wrote:

Heard he was in Boulder this past weekend, and hanging out with Riley. His last hurrah as a pro was winning USA XC championships in Boulder, so maybe the change will be good.

Yeah, Derrick has not looked that great since that race. He did look like he was going for it at the Trials, and I was pulling for him, but he didn't have it. I think he could squeeze one last something solid out of himself though.

Just once, I'd like to see one of these guys go full-80s, and start road racing every weekend, jump in XC races, cover all sorts of distances. Then maybe think about Worlds. Obviously what Chris was doing wasn't working for him. This not-racing thing is a pandemic.

And yeah, nobody would know my name, but I spent years after college "just racing," which made the weeks real easy. One big workout, one speed session, and a race just about every weekend. I'd turn up or down intensity depending.

tarckstar wrote:

Just once, I'd like to see one of these guys go full-80s, and start road racing every weekend, jump in XC races, cover all sorts of distances. Then maybe think about Worlds. Obviously what Chris was doing wasn't working for him. This not-racing thing is a pandemic.

And yeah, nobody would know my name, but I spent years after college "just racing," which made the weeks real easy. One big workout, one speed session, and a race just about every weekend. I'd turn up or down intensity depending.

I am guessing you were a 1330/2800 type runner or close.

Kudos to you sir.

Could you tell us more specifics about your training at that time and how you made money from either sponsorship or part time jobs?

Thank you

tarckstar wrote:

Just once, I'd like to see one of these guys go full-80s, and start road racing every weekend, jump in XC races, cover all sorts of distances. Then maybe think about Worlds. Obviously what Chris was doing wasn't working for him. This not-racing thing is a pandemic.

And yeah, nobody would know my name, but I spent years after college "just racing," which made the weeks real easy. One big workout, one speed session, and a race just about every weekend. I'd turn up or down intensity depending.

I admire the approach. Very no-BS and gets results. Racing is a skill. More people would benefit by doing that instead of emulating the pro ranks and shuddering themselves away for nine months to run one perfect track race at some college last chance meet (which never goes well).

One has to wonder though, the pandemic training block that everyone seems to have undertaken surely validates the Schumacher approach? Tons of really fast times.

Chris Derrick was a guy who rose very fast in and after college but something happened. His 1500m and 5000m pr's are from 8 years ago now in 2013 (3:39.45/13:08.04), when he also finished tenth in World Cross Country and helped the U.S. to a silver ahead of Kenya (meanwhile in the junior race that year, Hagos Gebrhiwet and Muktar Edris were gold and bronze medalists, while Consenslus Kipruto was fifth and Ronald Kwemoi 9th!). His 10000m pr is from 9 years ago (27:31). He was 21 at the time of the 10000m pr, among the best ever for the U.S. at that age. In 2015, he ran a pr at 3000m of 7:43.77, probably not as good as the 5000m pr but not that far off. Later on, he turned to the roads and ran 1:01:12 half and 2:12:50 in 2017. On the roads, he ran a fair pr of 46:53 for 10M in 2018. In IAAF points, his best performance is the 13:08. Maybe injuries robbed him of his potential. Sorry to see it but he can still run sub 2:10 with the right marathon coaching and altitude training.

"Leaves BTC" or in other words got dropped by Nike. I just can't imagine they would stick with him after the season he had. He's past his prime years and put up some truly atrocious results this year -- I'd say he's done as a pro, barring a late-career return to the marathon. Maybe could get a small contract with someone but I just don't see anything about the 3:51 / 7:56 / 13:45 / 28:09 / 1:03:25 bests that he put up over the last 3 years garnering any interest from shoe companies.

As much as I would enjoy seeing him return to his old form and go sub 2:10, my hope for CD is that he starts running some beautiful mountain trails outside of Boulder, falls in love with the alpine, gives up the roads, stays healthy, and eventually becomes one of America's best ultra runners with a widely-read blog.

It was high time he was dropped, he really hasn't had a great season since 2013 when he made the Worlds team for the 10k. He could still possibly put up a good marathon time if he stays uninjured.

Two great posts and fine examples of why LrC is worth the pain.

Zante wrote:

bong hits for rojo wrote:

Heard he was in Boulder this past weekend, and hanging out with Riley. His last hurrah as a pro was winning USA XC championships in Boulder, so maybe the change will be good.

Yeah, Derrick has not looked that great since that race. He did look like he was going for it at the Trials, and I was pulling for him, but he didn't have it. I think he could squeeze one last something solid out of himself though.

Do you mean the marathon trials? I recall him being one of many that fell far once Rupp made his somewhat early move.

He didn't qualify for the 10,000 Trials.

Zante wrote:

One has to wonder though, the pandemic training block that everyone seems to have undertaken surely validates the Schumacher approach? Tons of really fast times.

Except, perversely, for many of his own athletes. A lot of people got destroyed this spring and the carnage was all over the track in Eugene.

I firmly believe Jerry destroyed Derrick’s career, just feel like Jerry put him in the meat grinder and because Derrick is a grinder himself it ruined him

TrackFan55 wrote:

I firmly believe Jerry destroyed Derrick’s career, just feel like Jerry put him in the meat grinder and because Derrick is a grinder himself it ruined him

It seems that Jerry has learned over the years what kind of athlete performs best under his program, and it shows with more recent additions. Runners with great natural speed and an "easy days easy, hard days hard" approach seem to perform well, whereas the grinders and aerobic monsters seem to stagnate and struggle (Solinsky maybe being the exception here). CD just seems to be in that latter group. Would love to see him work with a coach like Troop, whose simple and straightforward training is really undervalued.

He's not going to go anywhere else. He's a sharp guy. I'm surprised he did not attend an online graduate degree while training for a decent career.

tarckstar wrote:

Just once, I'd like to see one of these guys go full-80s, and start road racing every weekend, jump in XC races, cover all sorts of distances. Then maybe think about Worlds. Obviously what Chris was doing wasn't working for him. This not-racing thing is a pandemic.

And yeah, nobody would know my name, but I spent years after college "just racing," which made the weeks real easy. One big workout, one speed session, and a race just about every weekend. I'd turn up or down intensity depending.

Ok boomer

birdbeard2 wrote:

"Leaves BTC" or in other words got dropped by Nike. I just can't imagine they would stick with him after the season he had. He's past his prime years and put up some truly atrocious results this year -- I'd say he's done as a pro, barring a late-career return to the marathon. Maybe could get a small contract with someone but I just don't see anything about the 3:51 / 7:56 / 13:45 / 28:09 / 1:03:25 bests that he put up over the last 3 years garnering any interest from shoe companies.

From what I heard Derrick was in the same boat as Jorgensen. Contracts were up in 2020 but were told they could stay on training with the team as Schumacher thought pitching people off the edge in a pandemic/Olympic year to find a new team wasn't fair when he'd previously agreed to coach them to the Olympics.

Smart, likeable dude Chris. Would be very curious to see if he got into coaching sometime himself.

Derrick was very similar to Nico Young as a freshman in college; please remember this as we try to predict the outcomes of moves and calculate trajectories in the future. He has as much talent as any other individual whom as been crowned as “the next great American distance runner.” Tenth place at world XC is phenomenal; take a look at how some of America’s other greats have performed on the same stage. Talking about his results from 8-10 years ago can lead one to make a great case for his talent, but it is understood that Derrick hasn’t progressed as many thought he would from 2014(ish) on; but running is a funny sport. Let somebody who has been down for a while catch a little confidence, get into a situation with slightly less pressure, surround themselves with old pals in a new environment, and recognize they have something to prove.

This is the same board that says people are “done” after a string of two bad races. Centro was “done” earlier this year; Drew Hunter is “done” every other week. Chris Derrick is not “done.” If he didn’t believe he still had something left in the tank, I’m sure (not really, because I don’t know him) he would be using his Stanford degree, or coaching his own group. I’ll bite. Within the next two years, ; he’ll run 61low and 2:07high.

tarckstar wrote:

Just once, I'd like to see one of these guys go full-80s, and start road racing every weekend, jump in XC races, cover all sorts of distances. Then maybe think about Worlds. Obviously what Chris was doing wasn't working for him. This not-racing thing is a pandemic.

And yeah, nobody would know my name, but I spent years after college "just racing," which made the weeks real easy. One big workout, one speed session, and a race just about every weekend. I'd turn up or down intensity depending.

Ok boomer[/quote]

He's right though.