Webb interview

Haven't we heard this more than enough times - "Runnung the times he has a few years ago is great but if you want to make it on the European curcuit of against other senior athletes in the stats you have to have more than good times a few years ago."

Does originality escape you?

Dominic ran 13:48 indoors while at Eastern Michigan and lives in the UK. He probably has a little more insight on the European circuit than his post would indicate.

Maybe you disagree but the interview seemed strange on the sense that the training methods are very different. I hope it works, I am not trying to be critical but having seen many great Juniors not making the transition I wonder if the approach he is taking is the correct one.

I can only have an opinion about what I read and hear but the interview leaves me with the impression that he has left a school with great athletes to train with to go home and run by himself, just seems like there would be no challenge or people to push you.

Sorry you were offended

IF the training looks weird it is probably becuase none of the best runners in the world do that kind of ridiculous training.

Raczko has a real giant ego like he is some sort of coaching god. Anyone could have coached Webb and gotten him to run well. And perhaps their are some truthes to Raczko's methods in high school where mielage is not of critical importance.

How is webb gong to compete with milers of equal speed that have thousands of miles under them from years and years of running.

50 miles a week can work in high school cause strength is not such an issue - on the world scene strength is the main issue. I think Snell made that evident.

Just had some questions about it. If he is running these 2.5 hour workouts, which probably consist of 8-9 miles of running and 1 hour of streching and strides, and he is only doing 30miles a week. Does that mean he runs 2 miles the day before and after each workout to keep his milage low???????? And all that stuff about doubling........Is he only going to run 3 days a week???? The funniest part is when they talk about base training at 30miles a week......most great milers put that in in 2 days during there base training periods. Oh and also where he talks about not racing XC because he runs too many races and then his coach talks about having him run 2-3 XC races (isn't that just 1 race short of a regular XC season.....most of the good runners take the first 2-3 races off anyway) Good luck to Alan because he is going to need it especially if he isn't going to run over 60 miles a week.

I think that the main point to be taken from this article is Webb's need to focus on the long-term as opposed to a scholastic schedule. Seems that he and his coach are well aware of what is necessary and are probably pretty excited to take the time to do things right. Based on Webb's previous form I expect that he will be highly competitive on the world scene as early as next year. I realize that I leave myself open to threats upon my manhood from this board by making such a prediction, but I really think that the kid is going to get it right. I fully expect him to be a contender, even if he?s ?only? running 3:33. Just wait and see?

Monty

I recall an interview with Bernard Legat recently where he stated that he only ran about 60 mpw. As well, can you ever discount Coe and his methods? There are many, many ways to skin a cat.

Monty

Maybe he's following the new Krummenacker method?? Riiight..

The training methods and miles does look comparable to Coe.

You can build strength and endurance without overloading on long slow distance. Sounds like a good plan to me.

It is often suggested that Coe didn't do much mileage, but that's not exactly true. Coe recently mentioned that what he didn't do was count his 'junk' miles. If his session consisted of, say, 5 miles of efforts he wrote '5miles' in his diary - he didn't make a note of the fact that he ran a 3mile warm up and 3mile warm down! So when people say, look at Coe, he only 50miles a week what they are missing is that he probaly ran 50 quality miles and probably another 30 or so 'junk' miles.

Of course, as in everything, it's all about getting the right balance.

Mistake wrote:

IF the training looks weird it is probably becuase none of the best runners in the world do that kind of ridiculous training.

And God forbid anyone do any sort of training besides what everyone else does.

If that was our mentality, elite distance runners would still be training at 8-10 miles per week!

I'm not saying Webb's training will or will not work, i'm just saying, that better not be your only reason for doubting his regimen.

I too would've liked to see Webb running more miles. But I'm starting to think that for someone who is STRICTLY an 800/1500 runner, 60 miles can be fine for a base, depending on how it's done.

Obviously this would be a horrible way to train for someone running 3000 and up, but strength in the 1500 is slightly different I think.

Also, if he's only doing 50-60 a week, the lack of training partners probably won't hurt him, it's hard to get bored when you're only running 8 miles a day. And I'm sure he's pretty good at pushing himself through workouts.

The Letsrun headline is a bit loaded, it looks like they're looking for any excuse to jump all over Webb. I'm sure his workouts will be pretty well planned, the quote they have was really just referring to how glad he is not to have to run millions of races early in the year.

It's interesting to note how many people perceive this type of training to be strange and different. It sounds rather rudimentary to me. If Rackzo and Webb don't make sense to you now, I can only imagine the frustration I'll be having in another 10 years trying to explain my training methods.

Today's quote of the day on the front page is a great example as to why words are so inadequate in describing the visions in our minds. Webb states he can treat his workouts as races now. I believe what he saw in his mind when he said that is that his focus can be completely on his workouts and his development as opposed to always having to hold back a bit because of an upcoming race. He did not say that he will be running as fast as he can now in each of his workouts, instead what I heard was that he'll be able to run exactly the workout he intends to.

Thank you Legalizit. That's exactly what I thought Webb meant by his quote as well.

Although Letsrun really seems to have it in for him for whatever reason...

You have to be very delicate with the balance of speed and distance when training for the 1500. Personally, I knocked my PR from 3:52.4 to 3:42.9 in one year averaging 46 miles/week. I was running in the 60 mpw area over the next 3 years and only improved to 3:42.1. My fitness was great but I didn?t have that ?pop?. I like seeing Webb focus on quality over quantity.

As far as leaving a good group of top runners to train in Fairfax, Abdi Bile did pretty well training at the same lake where Webb is running and he didn?t have a cast talented runners to train with. I think that whether it be at Michigan or Virginia, it is important to believe in the training, which will induce confidence, which will breed success. The mental factor is a huge part of the equation and nobody can plan that in a training log.

I hope you people know that Webb just came off a 1.5 month break of not running. So starting at around 30 mpw then building mileage as the months go by is good. I doubt he would start out at 60 mpw right away and start hammering workouts from not running for close to two months.

Raczko = clown, jackass, fool.

He only cares about himself. (and yes I've run for him before)

Mike_McCready wrote:

Thank you Legalizit. That's exactly what I thought Webb meant by his quote as well.

Although Letsrun really seems to have it in for him for whatever reason...

Give me a break. Just because we say he shouldn't race his workouts we have it out for him.

Did you see our recap of Alan's teleconference? I was very impressed with how Alan handled himself. People have been way too quick to discredit him.

The interview on dyestat seemed to say Webb can focus on the big stuff now which is good, but I think a race should be race. Sure you can use workouts to get sharp and occasionally can have a ball buster, but that's generally not the purpose of them. If Webb is just saying now he won't have to do worthless early season races thats good. But if he's saying he can race his workouts that's bad. From what I understand that was something he tended to do at Michigan. Just my opinion.