If You Were Coaching Andrew Wheating, What Would You Have Advised Him To Do in Men's 1500?

I would have him start off very conservatively vis a vis the "Field" ... for

the first lap .... being careful to maintain contact though he be in last place.

The first lap should be about 60 seconds .... again ... even if that is last place in a field of 15.

Second lap he will intelligently survey the "Field"...... carefully watching what

is evolving. Perhaps the "Field" remains as is on this lap except for a few that move up a position or two. Wheating, (if he is close to last .... moves effortlessly forward 2 or 3 positions. The pace, collectively, quickens and the Pack closes in on the 800 in 1:57.

We are advising Wheating to control the Race from the back of the pack while staying in touch and advancing as the pace quickens. Which it does from the 800 meter pace going forward.

Kipligat and Willis move at what appears to be a significantly quicker pace

and step up the pace to 2:25 at the 1000 meter mark .... increasing the average lap pace to 58 seconds ..... but 58 seconds and accelerating.

Wheating takes command aggressively and, without stress, rings the Bell in a

time of 2:52 .....

With 300 to go the horse is no longer restrained and those energies that were so conservatively contained are allowed to "let lose".

Wheating crosses the Finish Line in the Lead in a Time of 3:27:00.

A Race well run in preparation for the World's.

May have already been said, but I would advise Andrew to watch a bunch of championship races, daily. Watch and learn on a daily basis. Watch and get motivated to do what the consistently great milers of the past did. e.g. Seb Coe, Walker, etc... on and on.

Watch and learn they were doing and what they are not doing. Take notes and write a narrative about how champions did it. What did they have in common, or what was special about each individual. Make this your project as if it were a dissertation. In fact, you could publish it and make all sorts of money considering your status.

Then after doing this for a long while watch some of your own races and find out how you fit into this narrative. What are you doing and what are you not doing? After a while you will play the role that you studied and you will be a champion. I know you have the gift, but you got to play the role really well.

This may have been said:

You have to be prepared for this type of race at USATF's. Always be in position to make a move- on the line between lanes 1&2 or in lane 2 and within striking distance of the leader. Seb Coe talked about this- always being in a position to be free and clear to move. It was obvious after the first 500 meters that this was gonna be a 1500 meter race with a mile time. He was all tangled up and people were in his way.

That's one of the keys, being in a position to dictate a viable pace in the race.

There was a comment that Alysia Montano's talent gap was far in excess of the field. Not true, Maggie Vessey, for example has run 1:57, Schmidt and others have run several 1:58-59s, so they were within her range.

After watching the race it was clear Andrew Wheating was not 100% fit, but he probably should have done a better job of getting closer to the rail and keeping the pace honest.

One of the challenges facing "today's" runners who tend to race a lot less than runners of 25-35 years ago, is they do so at the expense of race experience. There is no need to race 30 weeks a year as did the old school runners who didn't always know better, but one thing they did not lack was the racer's edge.

Any runner can gain a lot of feedback with each race, and the way Wheating ran it looks like he needs to learn how to race. Chronologically he is new to running, even compared to runners in his age bracket, so this is likely to lend itself well to his future development.

He should do what people in other sports do...study tapes/videos of previous races and come up with various strategies.

And don't be afraid to get out fast at the beginning.

Watch Lagat.

Do that.

Lagat runs the same damned race every single time. If you are a kicker (Wheating) that's what you should be doing.

If you review the tapes from the Athens men's 1500m final, you will see that El Guerrouj ran most of the race from lane 3 but progressively started to run each lap faster. He employed this strategy knowing that Lagat and his Kenyan teammates were going to force him to run wide early on. Given that both El Guerrouj and Lagat ran sub 1:47 for the last 800m in that 1500m finals is an indication that El Guerrouj was confident that no one could stay with him during the final 600m. I believed Lagat learned a lot from that race going forward.

In the case of Wheating, he should have continued to gradually increase the pace after the first 600m as a "progressive race" and force the other runners in the field to stay with him the last 900m. Wheating had the fastest 1500m in the field going into the race and should have forced the issue of pushing the pace after the first 600m. Anyway, it will be an important lesson going into the 2012 Olympic trials.

pretty easy answer for me, stretch out the field the last 800. Pop a 54 second lap and then just keep driving hard on the last lap. Make them try to come around you boy!

Someone like Andrew has tremendous acceleration, the problem is he relies too much on his speed and uses it only in the closing. As he gets more experienced he will realize someone like him is capable of a tremendous last 800, but it is really gonna hurt. Hurting for 25 seconds is one thing hurting for 1:48 is another. It is strength & pain tolerance.

If he continues to be a sit & kick guy he will never be anyone internationally, this will be his peak.

However if he were to push himself to the limit in races like Nationals he would probably reach a whole different level.

Coaches used to make 800 meter men out of 2000 meter men because they had the natural speed to be able to follow all the small accelerations in the race. Fighting for position u must make multiple accelerations. Then some coaches would lengthen these guys out to the mile. that is where Andrew is right now. To make him reach another level he has to be able to go to the wall for 800 meters.

Look at the Dream mile

Liquori vs Ryun 202 first half 151 second half.

its called guts & pain tolerance.

Until andrew goes there he will just be a good national class 800 meter man dabbling in the mile

You probably already have your answer but to me it is obvious.

He let the pace go too slow for the first 800.

If you do that, it is anyone's race.

Not Fast wrote:If you review the tapes from the Athens men's 1500m final, you will see that El Guerrouj ran most of the race from lane 3 . . .

Not at all.

But I agree that Athens 2004 is a good model for how Wheating should have run this race. Fine to run in lane 2 when the pace is slow, but once the racing starts get to the rail. Contrary to what you remember, El Guerrouj ran every fast curve right on the rail, and he actually forced Lagat to run on his right shoulder coming around the last turn. If Lagat hadn't run an extra meter or two around the final turn, he'd be sporting gold.

Run the shortest distance possible. How far did Wheating run, spending all that time in lane 3? 1520m? 1530m? Have him stand on the track and study the stagger marks. How can a 3:30 runner, even if not in top shape, lose a race that is won in 3:47? Forget the idea of a "tactical" race. The best tactic is to get to the finish line as quickly as possible.

So this thread was dedicated to judging why Wheating was only 4th at USATF in a race that was won in 3:47, and what he could have done differently.

Now he just finished as the third American, only 0.3 seconds ahead of the 4th American, Centrowitz, in a race that was won in 3:32.

Now going back to two weeks ago, I am not sure he could have done anything differently in that race to place higher.

If he lead, he wasn't going to get away from Lagat, Manzano or even Centrowitz, as we can now see.