Uhl leaves Schumacher & OTC

A little surprising, but she'll still have good training partners at ISU and she obviously works well with Ihmels. In this post-Olympic season, there will be plenty of movement like this. At least she left on good terms with Schumacher and is focused forward on continued improvement.

Having run under Jerry, I admit that it is often overwhelming. I have nothing but good things to say about him, but he doesn't have much patience for anything that isn't pushing you towards your goal. That is probably why he coaches so many champions.

I bet Uhl had a hard time in Portland and wanted to have a more normal life with her husband. Does anyone know if he is still running? If not, that may have caused some tension, too.

I wish her the best of luck and hope she continues to run well.

She never really ran better under Jerry than she did her last year at Iowa State, so this makes sense in that regard.

asdgfh wrote:

She never really ran better under Jerry than she did her last year at Iowa State, so this makes sense in that regard.

Didn't she make the Olympic team then ran a PR at the Olympics?

She improved less than 10 seconds for 10000 over her 2 years with Jerry. She got worse for 5000 and was a huge bust for longer distances.

Much of this board predicted that she was going to be a great marathoner. She appears to have taken several steps backwards in that area.

Hardyboy wrote:

Does anyone know if he is still running?

I didn't include it in the story, but Lisa told me Kiel is running 90 miles a week!

David Monti, Race Results Weekly

David Monti. wrote:

I didn't include it in the story, but Lisa told me Kiel is running 90 miles a week!

David Monti, Race Results Weekly

Nice, thanks for the update. Good for him. i wish i was running 90 mpw right now!

wait a minute here wrote:

asdgfh wrote:

She never really ran better under Jerry than she did her last year at Iowa State, so this makes sense in that regard.

Didn't she make the Olympic team then ran a PR at the Olympics?

She didn't even finish in the top 3 at the Trials. She went into to the Olympics without bettering the PR she ran at Stanford in March of her senior year. She ran 31:18.07 with no competition. She was 22 at the time.

She's 25 now (birthday was after the Olympics) and she lowered that PR to 31:12.80 at the Olympics. Not exactly the kind of progress you would have hoped for.

In the 5000, right before she joined Jerry's group she ran 14:55.74. Her PR under Jerry is 15:15.22.

I realize she was hurt last year. But still, I think you'd have to categorize her results under Jerry as disappointing. During the Olympic Trials 10,000 I was wondering if she'd had more injury trouble that we didn't know about.

Des Moines is the Mid West with a great running culture, training partners, and lifestyle.

It makes perfect sense the way she explains it. She's not a good fit with the other 2 women with Schumacher because they are only running marathons and she just wants to run track, and she misses her home state and family and friends in Iowa. It just sounds like a bad fit for where she is now. I assume she can find women at ISU whose training matches up more with her own.

Just another lifestyler who can't move on from college life... NEXT!!!

She makes it pretty clear she doesn't want to do the marathon for several years, and the two other notable women in the Oregon group were marathoners. There's no big mystery to any of this.

"I think taking balance out of my life has been difficult for me. I think I need to get back to a situation where I have more balance in my life outside of running and I think that will help me perform better athletically. I just really struggled trying to find happiness both personally and athletically out here. That has nothing to do with the group or the coaching; it's just not the right fit for me."

I think this is the end for her. I can't remember of recent coaching changes that have helped athletes. Shalane was better with Cook. Ryan was better with Mammoth TC. Alan Webb was better with Razcko.

"Enjoy life" is another way of saying she doesn't want to put 100% effort into training. Because, at the elite level, training is your life. Then comes sleeping and eating. If you aren't willing to put in the work you will never be good enough.

She will find that being an assistant track coach isn't about keeping the same lifestyle as college unless it's just a title or unless she is a volunteer assistant. She should have finished vet school. This would be the time to go back and finish school would "balance her out."

asdgfh wrote:She's 25 now (birthday was after the Olympics) and she lowered that PR to 31:12.80 at the Olympics. Not exactly the kind of progress you would have hoped for.

In the 5000, right before she joined Jerry's group she ran 14:55.74. Her PR under Jerry is 15:15.22.

I realize she was hurt last year. But still, I think you'd have to categorize her results under Jerry as disappointing. During the Olympic Trials 10,000 I was wondering if she'd had more injury trouble that we didn't know about.

I wouldn't say they are disappointing. She probably finds it disappointing, but from watching many top collegiates try to become pros, a good amount run slower, especially when they are already one of the best American's ever (time wise). I would say it's mid of the road.

She ran a pr, and did it at the olympics. It wasn't the world's ideal race situation like Stanford, although the pacing was very good for the first half of the race. Her 5k pr under Jerry is obviously not relevant. She's obviously faster than that when she ran her new 10k pr.

Why didn't she extend her year and run in Europe after the Olympics? We were told that her lousy performance at the trials was because she was not yet ready. That would mean that she should of had plenty of race left in her after the Olympics.

The social aspect is something that is not taken into consideration in these groups. 30plus year olds have nothing in common with someone coming out of college.

Mrr82 wrote:

Her 5k pr under Jerry is obviously not relevant.

Huh, not relevant? She's run a lot of 5K's since she went to Jerry's group. Even if she just considers herself a 10K specialist, her 5K PR is still relevant. Rupp going under 13 was an important step to becoming a medalist at 10K.

She shouldn't have left Ihmels anyway, she was progressing just fine there. Nike needs to stop messing with things that are working just to give Jerry or AlSal people to coach.

This is what is wrong right now in America, that College coaches either abandon their athletes - I won't mention their names, even if it is understandable given it's not what they are paid for - or are incapable of taking their athletes to the next level (in which case they shouldn't really even be allowed to coach at the College level IMO). Why develop an athlete for 4 years years only to send them off to someone else? It's not High school, yet that seems to be the predominant attitude here, and is why so much talent is wasted or destroyed.

It's like there are a handful of coaches (all in Oregon except Cook) who can develop athletes to the Olympic level? That's a crock and is testament to the terrible job that USATF does in mentoring development of coaches. It is no accident that Jerry has taken his Wisco guys to a higher level, (although developing Marathoners doesn't seem to be his thing - if Shalane doesn't run under 2h20 then she hasn't developed in the event) - and AlSal took Rupp from a HSer to Olympic medalist. Guys like Coe, Cram, Ovett, Moorcroft, had the same coach their entire careers yet in America it's fine to change coaches like you change your underwear! No wonder there is so little consistent development with the talent that does exist - which shouldn't be much worse than the Africans as the coaching should be much better. Look at the reverence on this board for Renato Canova. There should be dozens, if not hundreds, of guys with his knowledge in the US, not just a few in Oregon employed by Nike.

Good luck to Lisa U, maybe she can get back in the groove again and progress along the path she was originally on, before the detour. This isn't a slam on Jerry (he has done a great job with the Wisco guys, less so with others however), but in the "system" which mandates that this is how things should be - it's a system that is broken and needs to be fixed.