German Fernandez Fades To 4:03.13 at Arkansas Last Chance Meet

Just an opinion I suppose wrote:

But, this is not just "some sub par indoor races". This has been going on for over a year and a half. Was anyone really impressed by GF's 2010 XC finish where he couldn't even keep up with Girma and Stanford's #2 at the end? Come on, this is the guy who crushed Puskedra and Derrick at USA Junior nationals two years ago and had Derrick openly wondering if he would ever be able to beat GF.

Here's the thing, Jr. XC means nothing, GF's 7:47.9 and 3:55 mean nothing, all that matters is GF injured himself running those times, which many athletes before him could have run faster than but knew better, and thus missed Indoor nationals. Chris Derrick probably could have run 13:25 if he'd been willingly to risk his health and coming XC season chasing a time. A whole pantheon of college greats (and Chris Derrick doesn't even belong among that yet) could have run better than GF's best times, but didn't, because they're not fools.

I just think it is funny with track peeps. This is the LEAST watched and popular sport in America and alleveryone does is hate on every athlete that doesn't PR in every race or is not within 2 seconds of the PR. Just do this people jump off GF jockstrap and jump into the next great performer. This is just a bandwagon sport anyhow, so forget GF, if he ever runs faster i'm sure he wouldn't mind you all jumping back into his jock again.

No one is hating on German. If someone hates him they probably wouldn't be trying to figure out what is wrong.

One honest question....does this mean that no one from the Big 12 will qualify for the NC Indoor mile? I believe it takes a 3:59.0 to qualify and I believe that the 16 spots are taken by runners from other conferences who have made the auto time. I too am concerned about GF. Something is not right again this year. Should he just bag the college scene and turn pro? If he could get different coaching, would it make a difference?

I agree with the overall sentiment on this thread, no one is hating on GF, but just really puzzled..

When he ran his amazing freshman times he was coming off a short build-up after being injured, it seemed so easy for him.. now he seems to have months and months of uninterrupted build-up and he seems to be really struggling just to get within throwing distance f those times.

There simply has to be more to this story.

Did he really really over do it, stretching his season out just to get that 13.25? Chronic over training can take a long time to recover from, and reconciles pretty well with his sub par runs.

Is there still some diet / injury problems?

I have it on good authority that Some of the OK State guys are training through indoors.

dfadfsdf wrote:

I have it on good authority that Some of the OK State guys are training through indoors.

If GF is just "training through" indoors why is he going out of his way to try to get the mile qualifier?

Doesn't make sense. Something just aint right.

Primadonna wrote:Here's the thing, Jr. XC means nothing, GF's 7:47.9 and 3:55 mean nothing, all that matters is GF injured himself running those times, which many athletes before him could have run faster than but knew better, and thus missed Indoor nationals. .

You're the only fool. Many athletes? GF ran times in college that compared to other collegiates 1) nobody beat as far as his 3:55 goes, 2) only a handful beat referring to his 3k, and 3) probably only a dozen or two in the 5k in college. And all of this at 18. But yea you're right. Many people could have run faster but knew better and decided to never touch his time their entire career.

J.R. wrote:

He didn't have "medical issues" with his high school coach.

Torn Meniscus, Januaary of '06 arthroscopically repaired in May '06

Shin Splints that kept him on the bike for most of spring '07

Achielles Strain that kept him out of Arcadia in '08

I am good friends with Bruce Edwards and the Riverbank coaching staff. German has always been injury prone.

The amazing performances he put down at OK State as a frosh came at the end of a 2 year period that was almost completely free of injuries (except for the time he missed in April of '08 due to the sore achilles). Reserve judgement until he can put together another 2 year stretch of uninterrupted training.

CoachB wrote:

... Reserve judgement until he can put together another 2 year stretch of uninterrupted training.

Reserve judgement of GF? Sure. 99% of running fans are rooting for him.

Reserve judgement of his current coaching until he has a 2 year healthy stretch? I think that the whole point is that current coaching may be causing him to NOT have that 2 year stretch. In which case, reserving judgement until after all problems are solved doesn't really make any sense.

You missed my point.

The healthiest 2 years in his running career were his senior year of HS and freshman year of college.

The way I see it is that he has had about 1 year back healthy since returning from the horrible outing of CC '09.

YES

casual commentary wrote:

He ran times above his talent level? It must be over 9,000!

CoachB,

I don't understand your reference to his injury free Freshman year. He sustained an injury at NCAA XC Nats his freshman year, recovered quickly to then run an amazing indoor and then (If I remember correctly) Sustained ANOTHER injury around the time of Junior XC Worlds, in between indoors and outdoors.

Therefore, Both his successful freshman indoor and outdoor season each occurred shortly after sidelining injuries, no?

This is where the confusions sets in . . . as far as we're aware, he has been almost completely healthy for the last almost a whole year. If he can throw down AMAZING seasons, despite coming off injuries, why can he no longer match his times after a year of health? It seems this might be the longest stretch he has gone yet without being injured/sick, yet he is doing poorly (By his freshman standards).

GERMInator wrote:This is where the confusions sets in . . . as far as we're aware, he has been almost completely healthy for the last almost a whole year. If he can throw down AMAZING seasons, despite coming off injuries, why can he no longer match his times after a year of health? It seems this might be the longest stretch he has gone yet without being injured/sick, yet he is doing poorly (By his freshman standards).

Maybe they are taking his season/year a different route. He ran a decent 3k and a much slower mile. One should see how his year plays out first. I'd be nice to see him tearing it up, but it'll be nicer if he's healthy and tearing it up this spring/summer.

GERMInator wrote:

CoachB,

I don't understand your reference to his injury free Freshman year. He sustained an injury at NCAA XC Nats his freshman year, recovered quickly to then run an amazing indoor and then (If I remember correctly) Sustained ANOTHER injury around the time of Junior XC Worlds, in between indoors and outdoors.

Therefore, Both his successful freshman indoor and outdoor season each occurred shortly after sidelining injuries, no?

This is where the confusions sets in . . . as far as we're aware, he has been almost completely healthy for the last almost a whole year. If he can throw down AMAZING seasons, despite coming off injuries, why can he no longer match his times after a year of health? It seems this might be the longest stretch he has gone yet without being injured/sick, yet he is doing poorly (By his freshman standards).

What I am saying is that he was RELATIVELY injury free for those two years. He missed time in the neighboorhood of weeks rather than in months.

Perhaps the breaks in training provided by the injuries allowed the regeneration needed for him to come back and throw down the times he did.

You don't get it wrote:

I don't care about Scott Gillespie, I have followed German for years and want him to do good. Why would I be excited about him getting beat?

Scott Gillespie doesn't care about you.

Mrr82,

Fair enough. However, it seems the only reason someone goes to a last chance meet is to get a qualifier (i.e. 3:59) and therefore also believes it is attainable. 4:03 isn't even close to 3:59. Furthermore, It seems fair to conclude that German was planning to run the mile over the 3k at nats, otherwise, why go to a last chance qualifier instead of resting up for the 3k? I have a hard time believing he was going to double at nats . . . it would seem rather pointless.

Also, we've never discussed how he got beat handily, with a sub-par time, in the 3k at Big 12's, after an also sub-par mile time. I do concede that I have not seen the race, and perhaps it was more of a workout given his teammate won the 3k.

Also, he busted that 3:55 and 7:47 while training for World XC and probably having little speed.

With all that said, 4:03 should be jogging for him, no matter what approach, stage or training through he might be doing.

Scott Gillespie, what a MAN! Who PR's by 8 seconds in one race you ask? Welp i'll tell ya who, Scotty G does.

it must be the hair

German Fernandez-GDI...Scott Gillespie-TFM. come on guys, is it really worth debating anymore?