German Fernandez Effort in XC

Max effort the first time you go all out is rarely as good as the second time. I suspect he's been holding back, but not as much as he thinks, not as much as Dave Smith thinks, and not as much as your average letsrunner thinks. If he's under the impression that just because he ran a controlled effort he can flip a switch and knock 10 second per mile off his time, he's sorely mistaken.

That said, he's a huge talent who shouldn't be underestimated either. I don't think he'll beat Derrick or McNeil. I think Derrick's talent relative to Fernandez's is underrated because of all the huge things Fernandez did on the track during a season where Derrick was ill and not running.

Derrick was healthy his freshman year of track and cross country.

I agree, if they perform up to their level the top 3 will be Chelanga, McNeil, and Derrick(the better runner over 8k/10?), with Fernandez(better runner over 1500/5k?) being a leading candidate for 4th.

I just wonder the last time he gave a truly 100% effort in a cross country race. Surely not this year, and not last year either. Maybe 2008? Does he remember what it feels like to redline during a race but still have to dig deep because your pack just surged? He can do as many "race tempos" and workouts as he wants, but I question if he's really race ready for Monday. I guess we'll see.

name wrote:

Derrick was healthy his freshman year of track and cross country.

Yes, but wasn't Derrick out for a significant portion of their senior year with mono or something (so his freshman year lacked was behind German's in terms of training time)? I bet Derrick is just as good as Fernandez. That's a good thing by the way, we want as many awesome runners as possible!

The lat two posters make excellent points.

Derrick's training may have been behind due to illness.

Also, if German hasn't "gone" in a long time he may be a little soft when things get difficult out there against guys with the same ability.

Heres what I hope happens but most likely wont:

German hammers from front and runs with Girma; who is also hammering. The both run in no mans land with McNeil chasing Sammy.

themanontherun wrote:

Max effort the first time you go all out is rarely as good as the second time. I suspect he's been holding back, but not as much as he thinks, not as much as Dave Smith thinks, and not as much as your average letsrunner thinks. If he's under the impression that just because he ran a controlled effort he can flip a switch and knock 10 second per mile off his time, he's sorely mistaken.

That said, he's a huge talent who shouldn't be underestimated either. I don't think he'll beat Derrick or McNeil. I think Derrick's talent relative to Fernandez's is underrated because of all the huge things Fernandez did on the track during a season where Derrick was ill and not running.

Great post - I agree 100%. I'm tired of seeing German pracing around in races clearly not going all out. That will blow up in his face again....

Has anyone noticed that Derrick and Fernandez have gone from phenoms to just really good college runners? They're still amazingly talented, but they're juniors now and their peers have gained on them.

Didn't Derrick run 13:25 as a frosh?

bingle wrote:

Has anyone noticed that Derrick and Fernandez have gone from phenoms to just really good college runners? They're still amazingly talented, but they're juniors now and their peers have gained on them.

The candle that burns twice as bright burns half as long.

If the expectation was that because they had phenomenal Senior HS/ Freshman College years, they would blaze a new trail for American running, then that expectation was formulated in error.

There are many things that can make you fast and many things that can make you slow. Talent and Hard work are not enough when it comes to being the best, an element of luck is also necessary. If you are lucky early on, with your training, with finding the right combination of sleep, nutrition, recovery, etc., well when luck turns on you, it can make you look like a disappointment.

Nothing has really changed, you are still just as talented, just as hard working, but lady luck has moved to someone else's corner. In the blink of an eye she might come back to you.

bingle wrote:

Has anyone noticed that Derrick and Fernandez have gone from phenoms to just really good college runners? They're still amazingly talented, but they're juniors now and their peers have gained on them.

I'll give you German since he's been hurt...but what true JR in college has really made giant gains on Derrick? Derrick has pretty consistently been the best runner of his age, I should think, even when he was hurt last year.

He finished ~4th in the 5k as a Freshman and ran 13:29, after running 13:55 in HS...he then gets hurt as a soph and runs pretty much an equivalent performance and place in track, but had improved to 3rd in XC behind Chelanga (27:08??) and McNeill, who has run at the world level.

I fail to see how a guy like Derrick isn't still a phenom. He JUST turned 20, and he's had two consecutive season as a ~13:30 guy, despite one of them with an injury, and has improved to the point in cross country where he is third, rankings-wise, behind the same two individuals who beat him last year, who have also presumably improved and are also 25 years old.

You make it sound like he's lost his lustre. Derrick is still pretty much as good a 20 year old as we've had, isn't he?

Derrick ran 13:29 and beat German who ran 13:30 at Stanford.

Then German ran 13:25 at USAs

In his latest flotrack interview after the qualifying race he said he tried to go with Colby Lowe near the end of the race (so they had been running together for a while) but his calf started tightening up and he couldn't.

That's an awesome message.

The love and passion German had for his running in high school appears to be gone. I don't know what Dave Smith did to him, but German appears to be in total misery. It is sad to see and I hope he can regain what he used to have.

You guys are idiots. GF turned 20 on 11/02/10. He already won 2 NCAA championships. He has run 3:55 and 13:25 you saying he is done.

Any runner that has success and then has a down cycle you idiots slam. They are humans. Very good running humans, but they have their ups and downs like the rest of us.

How can you know what type of passion these runners have. Maybe GF passion is to shut all you nay sayers idiots up and hammer a very good showing at NCAA'S.That why he stated earlier in an interview that he and Smith were pointing to one race.

I think come the 22nd you will see the passion was always there, just some set backs to make you fools talk nonsense.

What they are saying though is that it won't be this year. If he can't even put together one competitive performance before nationals, it isn't happening on the big stage, plain and simple. He couldn't even make a little move with colby at a race that was relatively slow compared to what nationals will be like.

And Colby's move was a trivial little move? How many seconds did he chew up in a mile?

You couch coaches making judgements and comments based on some results you read on a website or seeing 30 secs of video really are laughable. The one in particular comment about him having lost "the fire he had in hs" or whatever is obviously made by one of the aforementioned buffoons. Certainly, it wasn't made by anyone who knows German, his training, or anything about what goes on behind closed doors on the ok st cc team. What a bunch of wannabe tools you guys are. Totally ridiculous statements.

I don't know if anyone can beat Sam Chelenga, but I think if anyone's going to upset, it will be German Fernandez. I have never seen anyone run with balls like German. no homo of course. When he ran the greatest distance double in HS history, pure balls. When he ran that XC state meet record, pure balls. When he won NCAA 1500m from start to finish, bowling ball sized balls. When the only people to beat him where Bolota, Jager, Teg and Solinsky, balls the size of Alaska.