Webb Is In Trouble

The boy can't race. It's unfortunate but I don't think he has it tactically to make the olympic team, let alone do anything in the actual olympics. I hope he proves me wrong.

last year's 3:51 at drake was not a rust buster for webb. he raced all indoors. this was his first race this year and it was fine. Manzano and Lomong will not be able to hang when he is ready in 3 weeks.

wow... wrote:

last year's 3:51 at drake was not a rust buster for webb. he raced all indoors. this was his first race this year and it was fine. Manzano and Lomong will not be able to hang when he is ready in 3 weeks.

They might run with him in the trials, but by the time Beijing rolls around he'll be the only one of them able to get through the heats.

Maybe he's hoping to peak at the Olympics and taking a minor gamble at the trials, assuming he can slip through, even if not as sharp as some others?

but Webb looked awful today in person. Big and clunky. Lagat is humming. Manzano should be ready. I will go out on a limb and claim that Wheating can beat Webb, although rounds might favor Webb over some with less experience.

Has anyone considered he's a male Suzy Hamilton? It's not his physical condition, It's his head.

I think webb is going to be fine. Not a bad way to open up. It looked worse than it was, because it was such a great field. It looks like he is taking a gamble to peak at the Olympics. He has 3 weeks to get sharp.

Jesus it seems as if many of you have no long term memory. Slow starts have generally been an indicator of future success for Webb, and I wouldn't consider 3:55 a disaster. As far as how he "looked", that seems awfully qualitiative to me, I'm certain he'll prove you wrong in a few weeks. Willis always seems to "float along" and never does shit! And although only tangentially related, Big Brown was looking GREAT a few days ago.

Does anyone - anyone - want to post their actual name and also predict that Webb will not make the team?!?! I'll be checking in...

tacomafan wrote:

Has anyone considered he's a male Suzy Hamilton? It's not his physical condition, It's his head.

Good call. Plus you have the cosmetic adjustments: breast reduction in Favor's case and Webb with the Hair Club.

tacomafan wrote:

Has anyone considered he's a male Suzy Hamilton? It's not his physical condition, It's his head.

YES, 2 years ago I said it!

Yeah also, he ran a 3:57 at Furman last year to open his outdoor campaign and people were plenty happy with that result since he "ran it on his own". Really, your kidding yourself if you dont think Webb is in the top 3 at the trials when it counts, this was truly his first race. Last year he had 3 indoor races and a small outdoor race before he ran a time this fast or faster. No one had a problem last year with Lagat when he was having poor results early in July let alone June, and looked how it worked for him. If anything you should worry that Kip is falling into the trap that Alan did last year and rounding into shape too early.

ok heres the facts wrote:

Ok everyone would agree with me that last year was alan webbs best year. Do you guys remember how he did last year at Prefontaine, terrible in the 2 mile....it was just a bad race today, a "rust buster", a

That was no "bad race" yesterday, that was all that he had. He struggled the entire race. He looked "soft" and out of shape. He didn't look race-ready at all. Obviously, the Webb camp has been very good at keeping a secret. There is something going on behind the scenes.

Now for the good news. He ran 3:55. That's a career race for most people. There are 3.5 weeks to go. That's plenty of time, in fact, he might be timing it perfectly.

Will Nike re-sign Webb if he doesn't make the team?

malmo wrote:

ok heres the facts wrote:

Ok everyone would agree with me that last year was alan webbs best year. Do you guys remember how he did last year at Prefontaine, terrible in the 2 mile....it was just a bad race today, a "rust buster", a

That was no "bad race" yesterday, that was all that he had. He struggled the entire race. He looked "soft" and out of shape. He didn't look race-ready at all. Obviously, the Webb camp has been very good at keeping a secret. There is something going on behind the scenes.

Now for the good news. He ran 3:55. That's a career race for most people. There are 3.5 weeks to go. That's plenty of time, in fact, he might be timing it perfectly.

malmo, I thought he looked a little heavy compared to last year. Which is odd to me because all I've been hearing is that he has been focused on a massive training load this spring. I think it's right for him to wait until late spring to race on the track, given that he peaked well before Worlds last year. But I also expected him to look a little more race-fit by now.

But I agree that 3:55 is the silver lining in all this. If he had run 4:01 yesterday the funeral dirge would be playing.

3:55 IS a good race

Just from that race alone he should be able to take around 3 seconds off his next race. There has to be some starting point. Running your best times of the season in your first few races is not ideal. He\'s on the right track, as long as his strength training has been there. He\'ll sharpen up with a few races.

Bagger wrote:

the cosmetic adjustments: breast reduction in Favor's case

REALLY?!?!?!?!?!?!? Nah, fun bags are mostly fat, it was just a factor of training. Besides, remember where you are posting - if you are going to make a statement like this you BETTER back it up with before and after photos.

I love it how many on this thread think that this is all part of his coach's plan and that he's waiting for the olympics to peak. Razco's plan may have been to have Webb at his best come the olympics, but that would probably mean running 3-5 seconds off your goal time right now, not 10. Every other experienced athlete (Bekele, Lagat, etc) is running well right now, even if they aren't at their absolute best.

Others are saying that Webb is just a poor racer (which may be true), but racing had nothing to do with yesterday. Webb did not get destroyed because of bad tactics.

Bottom line is that something went wrong in Webb's training. He probably put way too much pressure on himself in the olympic year(see male Suzy Hamilton posts) and trained way too hard. My guess is his coach had to completely back off for a while to recover and they are just starting to round back into form.

3:55 is a decent time and if him and his coach are smart, he can probably get to 3:51ish shape in a few weeks and that will put him right there to make the team. Then it will come down to his tactics and kick. He will not run away from the field like in the past.

shizzy wrote:

on flocast he said something about Indy? Is there a meet there this weekend?

Well, yes -- June 9, June 11, or June 14. Webb not listed.