Webb interview

"shows that another year at college would have done him well", how does that show you another year would have done him well??? You are a moron, 13:48..nice time doesn't make you a great coach or validate your point. Why go back for another year..to spend another year in Arctic Ann Arbor, to get injured again, to race all year and not train the way all the other great athletes in the world do it. You have seen many other great coaches and athletes approach it differently...who????? Who have you seen do it differently??? Coe, Cruz, Bile, Aouita, Morceli, Lagat and Krum most recently have approached it in a similar fashion to the way Webb and Raczko are. Tell me genius did any of these guys that I just mentioned run huge milege? NO. You know how I know that, I've talk to there coaches, I've read there training logs, something you obviously have not done. Try educating yourself on the sport before you make some blanket statement. All those guys that I just mentioned have run at least 1:43 and 3:31! And account for over 10 medals in the WC and OG. Morcelli and Aouita at times creeped up in milege, but didn't pound milege all year long. Quality is where it is at, not quantity, Coe used to preach "why pound the life out a young runner w/ quantity, when you can develop him w/ quality". Coe was the greatest coach of all time, he and Seb left no stones unturned. This country is obsessed w/ "how many miles", Webb is trying to run a fast 800/1500/mile, not a marathon. I also saw someone said that his milege is not good for International level running?? Funny the guy ran 3:53 off of low milege, and placed in the top 5 in a GP 1 meet, did I say GP 1 meet, yes I said GP 1. And the two best milers in the world were in the race also. Sounds like he can handle himself around the big guys. And before you morons say something about this year's NCAA meet, might I remind you that he was hurt, and not doing the kind of stuff that he is doing now! And let me also nip something else in the bud, in reference to the "well he only did it once" or " he ran a good race under the perfect circumstatnces". Yes he did run the perfect race under the perfect circumstances....THAT'S WHAT YOU ARE SUPPOSED TO DO!!! Hell we all know Holman had talent, he just couldn't get his HIGH MILEGE Talent to produce when it counted. This guy Webb is great and his Coaching is equally great, kind of funny how the two go hand and hand. Raczko knows what the hell he is doing, he is very well versed on the sport and has done a hell of a job w/ many athletes(Smith 1:48, I guess he was lucky again??). It is nice to see someone training the way the rest of the great athletes in the world are. In America we jam 3 seasons into 9 months, and the other 3 months when we should be running well we are not, we are dead. The rest of the world trains for 6-7 months to run well for a certain part of 2-3 month period, during that 2-3 month period of racing they will go back and reload for a few weeks also. You know Morcelli used to reload at altitude in Switzerland for a few weeks in the middle of the summer. You know why you don't know that Mr. Middleton, b/c you're too busy watching these great coaches that supposedly do it differently, who are these great guys that do it differently, I told you my line up:COE (3:29,1:41,WR)GOLD Med,BILE(1:43,3:30)Gold Med, Aouita(1:43,3:29wr)Gold Med,Cruz(1:41)Gold Med, Krum (1:43,3:31). I know someone will also pop off and say that he ran 3 seasons in HS, you know what he really didn't, sure he ran XC, but can you honestly say he was focusing his efforts on XC..NO. The guy ran 14:50 at footlocker, a guy who can run 3:53 can run 14:50 any day of the year, he doesn't have to be in great shape to run 14:50. He was also pretty selective about where he cranked it up, and where he didn't. Also let me mention one of the smartest moves he made. His Jr. Year, he splits 3:59 at Penn and then gets hurt a few weeks later, most guys would have raced, to break 4:00, he didn't, he was smart, he was patient....he then came back and ran 3:59 indoors and 3:53 outdoors, that was brilliant. Most guys, most coaches would have risked the injury for the short term, they didn't and it has obviously worked out for the best. These guys (webb/raczko) are very savvy and very careful, they make a move and make it count. All you anti Webb critics need to look beyond the US borders and educate yourself on the sport.

-GG

Good points, except you meant "their" a couple of times when you wrote "there". Kept you from having a genius post.

I am not sure whats more sad, that someone needed to write a novel to express him/herself, or someone actually took the time to read it and then only commented only on using correct grammer, or someone is that much of a stalker to know that much about Alan Webb

Concerning Webb's Training: I would never judge another, as different things work for different people. That is why a good coach molds the training to various individuals instead of molding all runners into 'your' program. I guess this is where recruiting those that fit your program is key. A poster 'Wolverine' some time ago made an interesting point to consider. Webb may have struggled some at UM due to a lack of base from high school. UM did give him a good start at that even sacraficing time to a degree. He now has that start of a base and may shine this coming year due to this. It is 2-3+ years down the road that will truly show if the program is working for him. I wish him well.

that was a real decent post, i'll bump that. though i think you could have expanded on the "arctic ann arbor" part. subtle forces weave through us tighter than those that we consciously deal with. if their is an accomplished astrologer on the board it would be highly appreciated if you could let us in on how alan fits (i'm guessing it would be poorly)at ann arbor compared to how he fits wherever he lives now(sounds like he has harmony there).

Seb Coe rarley did more than 50 or 60mi in a given

week. I think the quality of the workouts matter more

to a miler than does the volume.

Really brave by Gordo. How about giving your real name and qualifications, and then we can, quite easily, tell you what a loser you are? Obviously, you have nothing to stand behind, other than, "I´ve seen the log and talked to the coach." Why do you feel the need to slam someone (Dominic M) who has a pretty good idea of what it takes?

No grammatical errors!

you didn't read the post eariler that Coe didn't count his junk miles which means he was running closer to 80-90 mpw

The point I was trying to make was that the number of miles one runs in a week does not mean anything. The quality of the work is much more important. 80-90 mpw is not really "high mileage". If I'm not mistaken Lagat counts miles the same way Coe did, miles at a certain % of VO2 max is what is counted. Is the guy doing drills, weights, what type, when, how much, at what point during the year, hills, GS, flexability, ab work, hurdles, % of anaerobic work vs. % aerobic work, these are the questions that should be asked....not HOW MANY MILES PER WEEK??? OH he's only doing how much?..that's not enough. Let's take how many miles a week an athlete runs and make an assumption on how he's going to run, that's just brilliant!!!!!

To be fair I don't think Coe would ever be classed as a high mileage man, but he certainly did, at times, do more than some have realised. Coe was also part of an era in the UK where middle distance guys were expected to run things like the national X/C (9 miles) and he regularly ran 5mile road races during the winter season.

Ovett and Cram tended to run more miles than Coe and had an even greater range as a result, e.g. Ovett ran 28:16 for 10k on the road (in a race where I broke 33mins for the 1st time!), while Cram's best times include a 63minute half marathon. But Coe has always said you can't escape the need for speed and is often critical of many top 1500m runners for being too slow at 800m - hardly any double up these days.

I don't really know too much about Alan Webb, but whatever the truth of his training I hope he fulfills his potential - so few of us do.

I'm not an astrology expert but I've always thought it weird that Britain's top four middle distance runners ever, Seb Coe, Steve Ovett, Steve Cram and Peter Elliott are all Librans. SPOOKY!!!

Amen!!!

Good post bazza!!! It seems so many people that post would rather see this guy fail, it's amazing. Sour Grapes!!!

PS- nice to see someone who is educated on the sport post.

It seems to me that webb is sacrificing all of this potential strength and REAL base work for some 30 miles per week bullshit....

what kind of base is this... and he expects to be a world-contender?

gimme a break

Sorry for the offence Mr Gecko I really was not trying to put down Alan or his coach but I just felt it was a good discusion. About Coe maybe I remember things different but having listenend to him speak at English Schools and other events and spoke to him at a few political things also listened to his Dad at various things it always seemed that although he ran not huge milage he did run quite high in the off season, if you included the stuff he did not count. I do agree that milage is not everything. I really hope that Webb fulfills his odvious huge potential it would be great to see a great US distance runner if for nothing else but to raise the profile of the sport in one the the largest potential markets.

To speak about U-M like you were intimating is interesting. Some schools do proberly over-race, I went to EMU and maybe we raced a little to much to achieve the optimum after the college season had finished, but U-M never raced that much they rested the top guys a lot and used them to prep for important races. The Ann Arbor weather is good to run in the winter usually when I was there it was cold but sunny and great for long runs. As was mentioned earlier a lot of us do not run to our full potential for a variety of reasons, I hope Webb does but I just feel that leaving college and not having the experience of the team enviroment and college competition he will live to regret. The money is great i'm sure but it is not everything, in a few years that will be gone and if he does not perform Nike will have no problem in dropping him as they have done with many good US runners. Mr Gecko you should know that better than most-:).

Having run for clubs in the UK and US there is nothing like the college experience to really make you appreciate how great the sport we have is. I'm sure if you spoke to Kevin Sullivan or Paul Macmullen and others they will tell you that running for there college teams was one of the most rewarding experiences they have had in running

I just think its kind of funny that one of the guys who's training you compare Webb's to is Krum. This strikes me as amusing because I seem to remember a talk by Raszcko (sp?) when he said that guys like Krum were not doing it right and didn't have the leg speed. Seems like he misjudged that one a bit.

The thing is that while 3:53 certainly is a GREAT high school time, it is not going to cut it at the next level. I think we all saw what Webb did off the high mileage at UofM in XC. He won the Big Ten as a freshman, and did great over 10k at nationals. He did get hurt, and I think that?s what really got him to make a u-turn. The thing is that there is going to be an adjustment period when you change your approach to training. Just ask Kevin Sullivan, it took him 2-3 years at UofM before he really improved significantly on his High School times.

So Webb?s high school training regiment was good enough for a 3:53 in a PERFECT race (weather, crowd, pace etc), and I am not sure if that program is good enough to get him down to 3:48 or faster. Webb and his coach claim they are both being patient and looking to the future, yet Webb wasn?t even patient enough top give coach Warhurst?s program 1 full year.

You are always going to find examples of someone who ran great off 40 miles a week, but statistics point to high mileage = better mile times.

I am impressed by poster who said he went from 3:52 to 3:42 on 40 miles a week, and that is certainly faster than my PR, but to be honest????????3:42 gets you nothing on the international circuit. Maybe to get down to 3:32 he would have needed 70+ miles a week for a few years.

????.end of rant???????

-Clay

Now that you're out of my life

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(Beyonce)

Oh (oh) oh (oh)...

After of all of the darkness and sadness

Soon comes happiness

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I'm gonna make it (What?)

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Keep on survivin' (What?)

Clay,

Another pearl of wisdom from you - "The thing is that while 3:53 certainly is a GREAT high school time, it is not going to cut it at the next level."

Thanks for telling us that. We would have never known.