Serious question: Why did Alan Webb go from great to, well, terrible so early?

coach d wrote:

impartial observer wrote:

I so wanted to see Webb break 4:00 again one last time. He's only 31, not 41!

Which happens to be the age that Michael Johnson retired at (31, not 41).

But Webb hasn't done shit for 7 years, his body basically retired at age 24.

So explain the hair...he was bald, then he was not, and now he is bald again?

The points that surprise me the most are 1)Dominating the year he beat Lagat at nationals, ran 1:43 and won a diamond league race (then mis-timed the peak but you have to think he was top 2 or 3 in the world that year), then suddenly lost a ton of pace next year, and 2. after he got on track with NOP, beat Galen freakin Rupp in a 5k, and then suddenly became a has been. What the hell happened, especially for #2?

SP wrote:

So explain the hair...he was bald, then he was not, and now he is bald again?

Same as Sean Connery as James Bond: He was wearing a wig. Pretty straightforward stuff.

I find it amazing that an athlete would wear a piece while training and competing.

Think of how that must feel.

I know people who underwent chemo who could barely stand to wear one for a small part of the day while doing nothing physical.

I think Webb went bald, got hair transplants, but then went bald again because his baldness WOULD NOT BE DENIED.

I think it would be awesome if Webb competed triathlons while wearing a toupee, like a giant Levins afro toupee. That would take some serious balls.

1. His form changed. He had more side to side motion, had to compensate his lower body with his upper body.

2. He did a lot of intense workouts starting at a young age, for a very long time.

3.He had a lot of injuries relating to number #1 and #2

Andre Agassi redux?

I believe him when he talks about body weight.

However it seemed Salazar had him on a good return - he beat Galen Rupp in the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. Then he regressed again.

Yeah that is really the big what if, what would have happened if he stayed with Salazar? Beating Rupp at the turkey trot was the first time in a while where he seemed headed in the right direction. Then he goes to Vig and everything went downhill from there.

One thing not mentioned on this thread is the long term contract he signed...motivation is important and a contract without incentives can kill it.

My opinion is that it seems as though Webb never truly bought into a training program 100% in his career (maybe for short periods of time) and so he never had much consistency. All of his coaching changes add up to him not buying into what he was doing and you're never going to run to you're potential if you don't. He was extremely talented and maybe bought in for a while there, but eventually he got older and so even though he may have been training hard, he wasn't able to keep racing well on pure talent without believing in what he was doing. Injuries have also played a major role in all of this (like he gets frustrated easily when he's hurt and so it must be time to switch coaches.)

I think we've been seeing a similar thing going on with a lot of the top athletes (Hall, Ritz, etc.) They have all had a number of coaches that know what they're doing, but they are so talented and know they are that they get frustrated too quickly and make big changes right before they might have taken a big step. IDK, just talking here...

buddy puddy wrote:

Jim Ryun ran a lot of 4:17 miles toward the end of his career in the ITA. Lindgren also ran very poorly toward the end. When you're a high intensity interval guy at a young age, that can catch up to you. It's not easy being a phenom.

^^^^^^^^This - He did not develop himself aerobically over a long period of time. He had talent but run himself into the ground because of heavy interval training at a young age. Jim Ryun did the same thing.

Daryl Basarab wrote:

I believe him when he talks about body weight.

However it seemed Salazar had him on a good return - he beat Galen Rupp in the Silicon Valley Turkey Trot. Then he regressed again.

He also ran 3:53 at Fifth Ave in 2010 taking fourth. That's a bigger deal than the Turkey trot.

He ran 3:53 in high school. He was clearly the top 1500-meter runner in the world at the time of the 2004 Trials, and for a few weeks in 2007 he was the best in the world. He managed some very impressive marks in his few ventures at 5K and 10K and was a fine 800-meter man.

He had a pretty long career. Yeah, mistakes were made, but it was not a brief career.

Bright stars burn really bright but burnout quicker. Webb physically matured at a young age and therefore physically declined at a young age.

Some head case in him didn't help either. Couldn't commit to one coach long enough.

Switching to Vig and training with Robby Andrews and probably screwing up his head to.

Idiot Who Is Typical wrote:

He was clearly the top 1500-meter runner in the world at the time of the 2004 Trials, and for a few weeks in 2007 he was the best in the world.

Give me a break. El-G was around in 2004. As was the young Lagat.

What about what happened to Josh McDougal, Robbie Andrews and Andrew Wheating who should be hitting their prime but instead are slowing down. Injuries are tough and some people never really get back to where they were.

smammer wrote:

He went from being on fire to not even a B-level runner pretty quickly, and well before his peers, Ryan Hall and Ritz, deteriorated (granted, we have no idea what Hall's form has been lately, as he hasn't raced in 2 years...). Anyone have any theories? Teg, too, held up much, much better. I noticed at Millrose that his body style seems to have changed. It's like he went from being an astonishing, peerless runner, to a guy who looks like he was never elite. I don't mean to run him down at all. One of the greats in American distance history with an unbelievable range. I just can't wrap my brain around what happened...It's like he hasn't had any talent to tap into the last couple of years. It wasn't injuries or bad luck.