Solinsky moving up to marathon

How the hell is his hamstring going to survive 26.2 miles? I see problems arising.

Payday. Payday. Payday

You must be young wrote:

Payday. Payday. Payday

and swansong

Another Olympic team? I think you mean an Olympic team.

Brian Jacobs wrote:

He knows his body best. I, like many I'm sure, would love to see Chris back to form. Big powerful runner that could do some damage.

Just not sure he's a sub 2:10 guy.

"Big powerful runner" - LOL. he got knocked of the track horizontally by 100-lb. African.

Nice article by Flotrack.

Dang.

Solinsky: I would say that's probably been my biggest regret, if I have one, is not making the Olympic team. And to be honest, there's been a few points of the last two years that I've been really, really close to hanging it up altogether. The only thing that has kept fully driven and not allowed me to do that has been the idea that I haven't made an Olympic team… That would be a huge regret to walk away without giving it one more shot. It's almost like the fear of being… I don't know if I'm over-presumptuous, but being the most decorated runner without (a) a national title. I've never won a national title and (b) never going to the Olympics. Those things stick out to me and those things are kind of a thorn in my side. I will definitely be using that as fuel to get me to hopefully get the best out of myself for the marathon.

Is he the most decorated runner never to win a national title or make an olympic team? I'd be curious if anyone has a better candidate for that title.

Would love to see Sol do well, but it's over. The dream is done. Hope he gets this one last paycheck and gets into the coaching game.

Just don't see it happening.

10k strikes me as the perfect distance for a guy of Solinsky's build and impressive aerobic capacities.

Since his injury, the half marathon may have become more of the ideal event for Chris, but I struggle to envision someone with a frame that large being in it with 6-8 miles to go in the full marathon.

Wow. I was expecting this so soon. I hope he pulls it off and has success. The US is about due for 'another' international competitor in the marathon.

Solinsky and Teg shouldn't give up on the 5K and 1500m so soon. If they would only micro dose... I mean work on their form and speed, I think they could PR again like Mo and Galen....

I don't understand why, to this day, US runners still use the Marathon as a natural progression from track as they get older. Clearly the case with Solinsky.

Don't you all realize that 2:04 is almost average these days amongst East Africans? If you don't have the speed on the track - how are you planning on running 2:04 in the marathon?

It's like we're still OK with 2:09-2:10 performances and just making the olympic team.

Clearly he still has "speed" with a 13:23 and decent 1500 last year, but it makes sense that since he is not the factor he used to be on the track that he would try his hand in the marathon. After all the talent has not just disappeared, it may just take a different form. He got slim once and ran real well, so who's to say that getting back to that kind of volume won't get him back to being lean and mean.

Who knows maybe this kind of training is what he is missing from getting back to being a great 10k runner. Worth a shot in my opinion, he's got nothing to lose.

It's really incredible how one injury could send him off course so much. And realize when I say that, that he's been saying that's he's been injury free for quite awhile. My point: it is one thing to have a single recurring injury that just won't go away, or that leads to many other injuries, ruin your career, but its quite another to have a single bad injury, then completely or 99% heal from it, and still not be able to get your mojo back whatsoever. strange.

I think Solinsky was that rare beast that just kept pumping up the volume and intensity up a little bit every month, every year, and just kept getting stronger and stronger and stronger from it (with no leveling off), with incredible performances at the end of this long build up, and then......bam, the injury took all the wind out of his sails, and he would need another 5 years of building to get back to where he was, and I guess that's just too long. Again, strange. After he came back at first, he was quoted as saying he could barely run one 5:00 mile! And this was after training for awhile. The months off, and then months of easy/small training just seem to sap all of the fitness he had gained over the years. Again, unusual, but there it is.... and of course some it might be a confidence thing too: once you struggle, you don't believe you can do it, and that makes it even harder to come back.

I kind of saw this coming, but certainly not this degree: i thought- 'this is a guy who THRIVES off very high volume/intensity/pushing the envelope constantly (Remember his teammates hiding from him on "easy" days, because he was sure to start hammering sub 6's?). If he gets hurts and has to back off of a lot of this training, he might not be able to be quite the same runner.' But I didn't expect THIS drop in performance. Some guys can adjust, or achieve a lot off of reduced volume/intensity, or simply lower amounts of training. But his gift, and it turns out achilles heel also, was that he could really push the volume/intensity to high levels without burning out/getting hurt, and get stronger and stronger, however....he NEEDED this maximum amount of training to succeed. Any cut-back would reduce his ability a lot. Really, really too bad.

or why they move up so fast...meb and abdi made the marathon team at 35+. it's not like solinsky couldn't take one more crack at the 5K/10K in 2016, and then give the marathon a go in 2020. i suspect the urge to give the marathon a shot & then call it quits is waaaay more mental than physical. guys just get tired of training at a high level for so long.

No Way Jose wrote:

I don't understand why, to this day, US runners still use the Marathon as a natural progression from track as they get older. Clearly the case with Solinsky.

Don't you all realize that 2:04 is almost average these days amongst East Africans? If you don't have the speed on the track - how are you planning on running 2:04 in the marathon?

It's like we're still OK with 2:09-2:10 performances and just making the olympic team.

BBD wrote:

Clearly he still has "speed" with a 13:23 and decent 1500 last year, but it makes sense that since he is not the factor he used to be on the track that he would try his hand in the marathon. After all the talent has not just disappeared, it may just take a different form. He got slim once and ran real well, so who's to say that getting back to that kind of volume won't get him back to being lean and mean.

Who knows maybe this kind of training is what he is missing from getting back to being a great 10k runner. Worth a shot in my opinion, he's got nothing to lose.

13:23 is not speed. Those 2:04 guys are running sub 13.

can't say that for certain. we didn't have an experiment going with a "control Chris Solinsky" clone concurrently doing 10-15% less work. maybe that CS is a world-beater today. just because it seemed to be working doesn't mean it was the best/only way to do it.

Tyrannosaurus Rexing wrote:

....he NEEDED this maximum amount of training to succeed. Any cut-back would reduce his ability a lot. Really, really too bad.

Another case of no middle ground in training.

140 miles including intensity wasn't giving results and 90 miles would allow the speed but not keep his strength up.

How about 110-115 including speed?