This rarely gets mentioned but does anybody have the inside scoop on how Henrik ended up at TAMU for a year (or semester)? It seems so out of character for these guys to come to the US for college.
Any former teammates have insight? Why stories?
Henrik Ingebrigtsen - any stories from his Texas A&M days?
Pro News/Info/Results
LRC note: We changed the title to make it more descriptive of what it's really about. It was initially titled, "Henrik Ingebrigtsen/Texas A&M"
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Bump, didnt know this
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I raced against him and had some friends on the A&M squad. He was only there for a few month. Brutal weather change from Norway and from what they told me he really embraced the freedom of being away from his father.
Said father made him move back home. Double T for life
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Henrik was immediately the alpha-dog on the team as soon as he arrived, but it was clear there was a culture mismatch for him coming to rural Texas from Norway.
He got along really well with the team and everyone loved him. While he deservedly had an ego, it wasn't so over the top that it put people off. Everyone would wear decade old speedsuits for workouts that coach Dan Waters let them take so they could match Henrik.
Coach Dan Waters started implementing double threshold days. It's neat looking back on that and seeing how influential it has become. Henrik also used roller skis to keep up with his XC skiing. Can you imagine the looks he got from rural Texans with those things heading down some country roads?
He was injured just a few weeks after arriving, which is why he only raced twice for the team at Chili Pepper and Big 12s. Both where underwhelming performances based on him being a 3:38-3:39 1500m guy before coming over from Norway.
He gained some weight (10-20lbs) and the American lifestyle took it's toll on him. Lots of fast food, red bull, and partying. I don't remember if he drank alcohol or not.
He was gone after the a single semester and never ran a track race for Texas A&M. He signed with Nike and was 5th in the 2012 1500m Olympic Final a year and a half later, less than a second off silver and bronze.
I believe he ended up at Texas A&M because he saw that they were the top overall track program in the country at the time coming off 3 straight outdoor national championships and the #1 ranked petroleum engineering program in the country which was his major.
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bump, simply b/c I had no idea about this and think many would find it interesting.
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The engineering degree makes sense in light of Norway's oil capacity. Did he complete his degree? Could he get into a Norwegian University?
If neither of the three (Henrik, Filip and Jakob) got a University education (Nordas is in Engineering I believe), then I can see their consternation of giving up their education, even for the success they have had in running. These days you can get an education on zoom if you really want. Especially Henrik and Filip, as Jakob seemed to have little interest, based on the series, in a College education.
One of the hypocritical things I see is that Gjert rails against Filip for moving to Oslo, which affects the group training dynamic, yet presumably Nordas trains alone with Gjert these days? If Myhre trains with the brothers, unless it is the psychological issue of Nordas trying to beat Jakob and so not wishing to train with his competition, then not sure why Nordas isn't doing the same. Unless Nordas sees Henrik as someone who he doesn't want as his coach and that the workouts are about Jakob and he is either along for the ride, or worse his workout donkey.
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did gjert have a negative influence wrote:
The engineering degree makes sense in light of Norway's oil capacity. Did he complete his degree? Could he get into a Norwegian University?
If neither of the three (Henrik, Filip and Jakob) got a University education (Nordas is in Engineering I believe), then I can see their consternation of giving up their education, even for the success they have had in running. These days you can get an education on zoom if you really want. Especially Henrik and Filip, as Jakob seemed to have little interest, based on the series, in a College education.
One of the hypocritical things I see is that Gjert rails against Filip for moving to Oslo, which affects the group training dynamic, yet presumably Nordas trains alone with Gjert these days? If Myhre trains with the brothers, unless it is the psychological issue of Nordas trying to beat Jakob and so not wishing to train with his competition, then not sure why Nordas isn't doing the same. Unless Nordas sees Henrik as someone who he doesn't want as his coach and that the workouts are about Jakob and he is either along for the ride, or worse his workout donkey.
Nordås is training with Per Svela I believe (who was only a few sec behind him in their last 5k race). And yes: Nordås doesn’t want Henrik as his coach, among other things obviously because of their conflict, but also because of his appreciation of Gjert as a coach.
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did gjert have a negative influence wrote:
The engineering degree makes sense in light of Norway's oil capacity. Did he complete his degree? Could he get into a Norwegian University?
If neither of the three (Henrik, Filip and Jakob) got a University education (Nordas is in Engineering I believe), then I can see their consternation of giving up their education, even for the success they have had in running. These days you can get an education on zoom if you really want. Especially Henrik and Filip, as Jakob seemed to have little interest, based on the series, in a College education.
One of the hypocritical things I see is that Gjert rails against Filip for moving to Oslo, which affects the group training dynamic, yet presumably Nordas trains alone with Gjert these days? If Myhre trains with the brothers, unless it is the psychological issue of Nordas trying to beat Jakob and so not wishing to train with his competition, then not sure why Nordas isn't doing the same. Unless Nordas sees Henrik as someone who he doesn't want as his coach and that the workouts are about Jakob and he is either along for the ride, or worse his workout donkey.
Nordas is studying data science I believe
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People really read the title of this thread and think it says "make up your best fan fiction about Henrik at Texas A & M"...
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TexAgs wrote:
Henrik was immediately the alpha-dog on the team as soon as he arrived, but it was clear there was a culture mismatch for him coming to rural Texas from Norway.
He got along really well with the team and everyone loved him. While he deservedly had an ego, it wasn't so over the top that it put people off. Everyone would wear decade old speedsuits for workouts that coach Dan Waters let them take so they could match Henrik.
Coach Dan Waters started implementing double threshold days. It's neat looking back on that and seeing how influential it has become. Henrik also used roller skis to keep up with his XC skiing. Can you imagine the looks he got from rural Texans with those things heading down some country roads?
He was injured just a few weeks after arriving, which is why he only raced twice for the team at Chili Pepper and Big 12s. Both where underwhelming performances based on him being a 3:38-3:39 1500m guy before coming over from Norway.
He gained some weight (10-20lbs) and the American lifestyle took it's toll on him. Lots of fast food, red bull, and partying. I don't remember if he drank alcohol or not.
He was gone after the a single semester and never ran a track race for Texas A&M. He signed with Nike and was 5th in the 2012 1500m Olympic Final a year and a half later, less than a second off silver and bronze.
I believe he ended up at Texas A&M because he saw that they were the top overall track program in the country at the time coming off 3 straight outdoor national championships and the #1 ranked petroleum engineering program in the country which was his major.
This is not fan fiction, I was on the team at Texas A&M with Henrik. There are a lot of other fun stories I could share about the guy but they are more personal. I'm simply giving a high level description of his semester there 14 years ago with us so others don't make up random crap about him or the team.
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TexAgs wrote:
Henrik was immediately the alpha-dog on the team as soon as he arrived, but it was clear there was a culture mismatch for him coming to rural Texas from Norway.
He got along really well with the team and everyone loved him. While he deservedly had an ego, it wasn't so over the top that it put people off. Everyone would wear decade old speedsuits for workouts that coach Dan Waters let them take so they could match Henrik.
Coach Dan Waters started implementing double threshold days. It's neat looking back on that and seeing how influential it has become. Henrik also used roller skis to keep up with his XC skiing. Can you imagine the looks he got from rural Texans with those things heading down some country roads?
He was injured just a few weeks after arriving, which is why he only raced twice for the team at Chili Pepper and Big 12s. Both where underwhelming performances based on him being a 3:38-3:39 1500m guy before coming over from Norway.
He gained some weight (10-20lbs) and the American lifestyle took it's toll on him. Lots of fast food, red bull, and partying. I don't remember if he drank alcohol or not.
He was gone after the a single semester and never ran a track race for Texas A&M. He signed with Nike and was 5th in the 2012 1500m Olympic Final a year and a half later, less than a second off silver and bronze.
I believe he ended up at Texas A&M because he saw that they were the top overall track program in the country at the time coming off 3 straight outdoor national championships and the #1 ranked petroleum engineering program in the country which was his major.
Henrik never ran 2010 Big 12 cross country champs which makes that run even more underwhelming.
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TexHorn wrote:
TexAgs wrote:
Henrik was immediately the alpha-dog on the team as soon as he arrived, but it was clear there was a culture mismatch for him coming to rural Texas from Norway.
He got along really well with the team and everyone loved him. While he deservedly had an ego, it wasn't so over the top that it put people off. Everyone would wear decade old speedsuits for workouts that coach Dan Waters let them take so they could match Henrik.
Coach Dan Waters started implementing double threshold days. It's neat looking back on that and seeing how influential it has become. Henrik also used roller skis to keep up with his XC skiing. Can you imagine the looks he got from rural Texans with those things heading down some country roads?
He was injured just a few weeks after arriving, which is why he only raced twice for the team at Chili Pepper and Big 12s. Both where underwhelming performances based on him being a 3:38-3:39 1500m guy before coming over from Norway.
He gained some weight (10-20lbs) and the American lifestyle took it's toll on him. Lots of fast food, red bull, and partying. I don't remember if he drank alcohol or not.
He was gone after the a single semester and never ran a track race for Texas A&M. He signed with Nike and was 5th in the 2012 1500m Olympic Final a year and a half later, less than a second off silver and bronze.
I believe he ended up at Texas A&M because he saw that they were the top overall track program in the country at the time coming off 3 straight outdoor national championships and the #1 ranked petroleum engineering program in the country which was his major.
Henrik never ran 2010 Big 12 cross country champs which makes that run even more underwhelming.
Henrik did race Big 12s, but was a DNF. See recap article linked below:
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did gjert have a negative influence wrote:
One of the hypocritical things I see is that Gjert rails against Filip for moving to Oslo, which affects the group training dynamic, yet presumably Nordas trains alone with Gjert these days? If Myhre trains with the brothers, unless it is the psychological issue of Nordas trying to beat Jakob and so not wishing to train with his competition, then not sure why Nordas isn't doing the same. Unless Nordas sees Henrik as someone who he doesn't want as his coach and that the workouts are about Jakob and he is either along for the ride, or worse his workout donkey.
What a dumb opinion, I don’t get why it got so many upvotes. If Nordas doesn’t want to train with the Ingebrigtsen brothers it’s his choice, you clearly don’t know enough about the story to judge what he decided to do.
- They never got along that well
- Henrik didn’t even want to sit with Nordas if he didn’t clearly take side against Gjert with them and drop him completely. I’m not saying Gjert, or the brothers, are in the right, and I don’t care. But Nordas probably knows a lot more about the situation than all of us combined, so if he believes something is right, he has the right to stand up for it, instead of just taking side against Gjert in order to keep training with the brothers like you suggest. Now that would be hypocritical.
- Even from a purely athletic standpoint, Jakob is way too fast for Nordas. Nordas attributed his improvement to the fact that he slowed down his training runs, because he wasn’t just trying to keep up with Jakob anymore.
- As you said, Nordas clearly would never have been the main focus of the group like he is now with Gjert.
- Nordas also has a training partner, just not every single day.
- The bigger problem about Filip is just the fact that it’s extremely hard to coach an elite athlete without being able to see him, especially for Gjert who likes to control everything, and we’ve kind of seen it in his results after the move to Oslo.
- Filip is their brother, who trained his whole life with them, once he left, it opened a door for the other brothers to do the same, and maybe stop following Gjert’s strict rules, so I get why he maybe could have thought that it would affect the group dynamic. Yes it’s probably unhealthy, and I’m not saying I agree with it, but that’s how the relationship used to work as you can see in the TV show, so that explains Gjert’s reaction.
Filip and Nordas clearly never had the same place in the group and their situations don’t even correlate even one bit.
I’m sure a lot of people would choose a world class coach over kind of being a “pacemaker” in an elite training group. And I’m not saying Henrik can’t coach or anything, but at the time of the decision, Narve had no way to know how good of a coach he would turn out to be.
At the end of the day, the decision could have been made for athletic reasons, but also for personal reasons or even for his studies, and there’s literally nothing hypocritical about it.125 -
tldr... that was a very very very unhelpful story about Henrik at Texas A&M
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