Jenny Simpson Moving Back to Boulder to Be Coached by Mark Wetmore

I'm not convinced it will make any difference but good luck to her.

She still needs to fix "University of Colordo."

http://www.trackjenny.com/about/

One step beyond wrote:

This is becoming Webb like. Keep chasing coaches , looking for the magic.

Wetmore has a full plate and he has said it before. Other elites from his college ranks have not stayed under his umbrella post collegiate. Training with the team isn't going to cut it.

HAHA do you know how fast she ran before trainging on her own with Wetmore? 3:59,9:12, 15:00...She didn't come close to those marks under Juli. Now she has Coburn as a training partner. Those two are going to do some big things.

I don’t think you understand coaching at all

this makes sense....not wrote:

One step beyond wrote:

This is becoming Webb like. Keep chasing coaches , looking for the magic.

Wetmore has a full plate and he has said it before. Other elites from his college ranks have not stayed under his umbrella post collegiate. Training with the team isn't going to cut it.

HAHA do you know how fast she ran before trainging on her own with Wetmore? 3:59,9:12, 15:00...She didn't come close to those marks under Juli. Now she has Coburn as a training partner. Those two are going to do some big things.

Maybe so , history Im afraid doesn't count . What she is facing is the future and how can she elevate herself back into the elite mix consistently. Her best event for now is the 1500 , Coburn is a steeple chaser and has not shown sub4 speed.

Wetmore is responsible for all M &W T&F and x-country , its a full time job. I hope it works out but at first glance Im not so sure.

Moving back to Boulder is a good move , there are other pro's for training runs , better Physio support , lets hope for the best.

There are only 2-3 women who can run sub 4. Are those the only people she can train with? Coburn ran 4:09 last year as a 21 year old. She could very easily run the A standard this year (sub 4:06). I think that is a qualified training partner. Also, Heather Burrhoughs (spelling?) is the co-head coach at CU these days so it's not all on Wetmore. Teams add 5-15 new freshman every year and that isn't considered an issue, yet adding 1 runner to a Wetmore's list is too much?

What other coaches in Boulder match up to Wetmore for her distance specialties? Jenny ran 3:59 9:12 15:00 with training partners who were no better than where Coburn and Kipp are now. Now that Wetmore has Billy Nelson working really hard for the program he might have a little more time for prodigies like Jenny. And I'd like rojo to clarify his comment because the way it reads is confusing. I disagree with it and think a proper coach can be essential to an athlete's success.

coach d wrote:

Is Jenny going to have a role with the CU program like Volunteer Assistant or something? Otherwise, track access is going to be interesting.

Potts Field is pretty much open access to the public.

umm coach wrote:

Potts Field is pretty much open access to the public.

no

it has very limited hours to the public

most likely, money.

my guess is Simpson offered her coach a pay cut following the disappointing/horrid 2012 campaign. after delivering a world gold, major insult and now limited upside for Simpson to boot.

2012 take away lesson was more isn't better, and that strength training/h20 running may lead to needless hypertrophy in a world champ 1500 runner.

Simpson will now trade the marketing draw she adds to the Colorado program (it's been dwindling steadily) for free coaching and a promise in return to take over in a few years (big payoff).

basically she becomes a recruiting engine and mentor and she also figures she can't do much worse than 2012. so long as she is in anywhere near 2 flat shape, the 1500m spot for the US is hers.

downside is she is leaving a superior coach who simply made some bad calls in a tougher spot, easy to do after being on a roll: things happen. upside she lives in a much nicer town and also begins to transition to post-athletics coaching career.

No...

I'll take the most negative things we can think of for 200 Alex.

fghrunner wrote:

Looks like Lisa Uhl started a trend

Actually, veteran athletes like Bernard Lagat, and female Olympians like Diane Nukuri and Kim Conley, are the trailblazers in this area. Nobody notices a trend, however, when that 'trend' involves staying put with a coach and remaining committed to what is working.

2013 US Steeple Team

Simpson, Coburn, Kipp

All from Wetmore, would be funny/cool to see

Trend setters wrote:

Actually, veteran athletes like Bernard Lagat, and female Olympians like Diane Nukuri and Kim Conley, are the trailblazers in this area. Nobody notices a trend, however, when that 'trend' involves staying put with a coach and remaining committed to what is working.

Not to mention Clyde Hart's athletes going back at least to Michael Johnson. It's nothing new.

No way Jenny runs the Steeple. If she lost to Coburn, which is a 50% -50% proposition her career would be in shambles. Not too mention risking re-injuring her femur.

Plus why would Wetmore want to pit those two against each other?

"its been dwindling steadily......"

Let's see, the 2012 Olympics in the distance events had 5 current / former Buffs. No other school close to that.

Let's see, in the last 4 Olympics Colorado has had close to 20 Buffs in the distance events. No other school has been close to 10.

Let's see, Mens XC has had podium finishes the last two years.

Let's see, the current Buff women, still in school, had TWO distance Olympians in London.

That's not dwindling!

Thanks for the plate, mark

Let's See wrote:

"its been dwindling steadily......"

Let's see, the 2012 Olympics in the distance events had 5 current / former Buffs. No other school close to that.

Let's see, in the last 4 Olympics Colorado has had close to 20 Buffs in the distance events. No other school has been close to 10.

Let's see, Mens XC has had podium finishes the last two years.

Let's see, the current Buff women, still in school, had TWO distance Olympians in London.

That's not dwindling!

My sense was that Henner (=Benson?) was more of a fan of the shorter, faster school of training and that this did not generally work very well in terms of long-term development (see Chris Lukezic, a 3:33 runner at 23 or so as someone training with Alan Webb, but who declined and left soon for the big prospects of airbnb), so that you might get some initial improvement from the speedwork while you still have the base from your old coach but when the base is gone, you no longer have anything to sharpen. She took advantage of two top contenders falling and won world's, but as the times fell back to normal doping territory before the Olympics, her chances as a 4:03-4:07 runner were nil. Wetmore, contra Rojo, developed her over a period of numerous years into a 3:59 1500m runner and 9:12 AR steepler and he did it in part by getting her a great base. If next summer is not too soon, we'll see that runner again and maybe something even better in the following years. As for NCAA rules about training with athletes, that may make some sense for money sports like basketball and football, but we need all the help we can get to develop running in the United States, because our elite athletes do not have $20 million facilities created for them: they usually need access to college tracks and training partners, and their presence would be mutually beneficial for the college athletes by providing far better training partners and great examples, and you shouldn't have to do the assistant coach thing for that to occur. Training partners make people better and there's no harm in that.

jjjjjjj wrote:

My sense was that Henner (=Benson?) was more

Pretty much what I suspect as well. This is a tough Strike Two for Benson after the Lukezic fizzle (he was progressing perfectly every year until he ended up with her)