Josh ran a solo 7:54 for his first race of the season. Not terrible for shaking off the rust.
Josh ran a solo 7:54 for his first race of the season. Not terrible for shaking off the rust.
Jordan Mc wrote:
Josh ran a solo 7:54 for his first race of the season. Not terrible for shaking off the rust.
Very good race, this early. Some may believe that with runners around him, he would've run faster. But Josh has proven that he runs as fast (or maybe faster) if he's "free" to just go. It didn't happen last year, but with his obvious endurance and new speed the last year, he seems ripe for a huge 10K... given the right thresholds & tempos to benefit from. It's still a surprise he didn't run a faster 10K last year, given his mile, 5K, XC abilities and training mileage.
and how much you want to bet he was running over 100 miles a week when he ran that 7:54?
Probably a 120 mile week. Not bad for his first race since November.
I don't want to downplay this because 7 54 is great but people shouldn't get too worked up about it. sure its his first race of the season but other people's firsts this season have been faster. Sure he's probably running well over 100 miles this week but when isn't he? He doesn't know how to taper right so he's pretty much given up on tapering and runs everything on high mileage. There isn't anything wrong with that but no one should be amazed when he runs fast on high mileage because thats what he does everytime.
thats cool whatever wrote:
He doesn't know how to taper right
Can't really agree with you there
Farmer wrote:
thats cool whatever wrote:He doesn't know how to taper right
Can't really agree with you there
Sorry but I agree with the other guy! He doesn't taper well!Prove me wrong!
he runs the longer distances(5k, 10k) better off high mileage, but it isn't necessarily true that he runs the shorter distances (1500, 3000m) as well for himself as he does for the other distances. it might be that he runs faster for the 1500m off 80-90 mile weeks, and although 3000m is not a shorter distances really, it is less than 1/3 the distances of a 10k, so maybe running 100+ miles a week for racing a 3k doesn't give him his optimal performance like running 100+ mile weeks for racing 10k's does. yeah, it's not really surprisingly spectacular for him and we're just scrutinizing and speculating a bunch, but it's a still a healthy, positive way to start out the year.
He knows how to taper right, however it just doesn't work for him as well as it does for others. He knows this, so he just always runs 100+mpw just slightly easier like he did for NCAA XC CHAMPIONSHIP. That's his form of "tapering"
irun wrote:
it might be that he runs faster for the 1500m off 80-90 mile weeks.
yeah i'm pretty sure that his 3:57 mile was off of a 125 or so mile week so i don't think you really know what you are talking about
Yes most of you are extrapolating too much. We don't even know if he did taper, what his mileage is right now or anything really.
(anyone know any splits, how he looked, how many miles for warmup/cooldown?)
McDougal has a history of great performances early in the season and to bomb when it counts, so I'd take it with a grain of salt.
Tapering is overrated. The dude has won an NCAA championship. Run races off of what has worked in the past, the magical taper that drops 30 seconds does not exist.
He's been running about 130. No taper. The guy doesn't know taper.
do what works for you. what a bunch of posers.
Good for early in the season though I would like to remind you all that I was faster when I was his age. Its okay, we can't all be great.
Sincerely,
Alan
micro raptor wrote:
McDougal has a history of great performances early in the season and to bomb when it counts, so I'd take it with a grain of salt.
actually hes only really bombed once, his junior year when he got like 27th or something at ncaa xc. Other than that he's run decently well at championships. I think this fall though he really got it down and realized that tapering didn't really do it for him, and I think this year will be the year that his championship performances match or exceed his early season performances.
I agree-from what I have seen he always has solid performances and even when he has a bad day he doesn't totally collapse.
didn't he run his opener right after xc nationals and get a qualifing time before shutting it down over winter??
no fastwitch wrote:
Tapering is overrated. The dude has won an NCAA championship. Run races off of what has worked in the past, the magical taper that drops 30 seconds does not exist.
In all the years I've been coming to this site, this is the most brilliant post I've read.