NotAustin18 wrote:
Galen, like Ryan Hall, works very hard and has the ability to win medals on the biggest stages, but is hindered by his pansy-ness. Rupp and Hall, bless their souls, just aren't able to tough it out and go to the well. They lack the same degree of competitiveness as guys like Lagat and Farah. You have to be so competitive to push yourself to the absolute limit and have a great feel for the fluidity of the race to be tactically savvy, another aspect that they both lack. Rupp just tries to use his huge aerobic motor to overpower guys, but that doesn't cut it in championship races. Rupp and Hall don't need to change training or anything, they need to change their mental psyche and attitude.
+1
To me this what happens when running a fast time becomes the mark of a successful career. Webb is the epitome of this thinking. Look at him when he finishes races in a good time. In Paris he could barely contain himself just because he ran 3:30. His entire running career has been defined by his ability to run fast relative to the high school and american mile record TIMES. I read it on the boards here all the time. Someone like Webb or Hall will sh*t the bed 9 times out of 10 but then everyone will justify it by saying "oh, he ran fast times, therefor it compensates for everything else. You couldn't run that fast, so STFU" or something along those lines. Hall is no different. He managed a 4th place in Boston, which is respectable, but the one thing I remember during his race was the amount of times he checked his watch. When he started to get dropped, he checked it even more, as if he couldn't understand what to do next. "Shit, they're running faster. What do I do? Well, my watch says they those guys are ahead of the pace, so I should cool it and stay put." And he never saw them again. Just race man! Who gives a sh*t if you blow up in the last 2k. At least try!
You need to run fast, that's a given. But the whole point of being able to run fast is to use it as a tool. A good time just indicates a good ability to run fast over a great range of paces. So what if Rupp runs a 3:50 mile indoors? It was a time trial which means nothing when racing against these Africans who are HUNGRY to win. Desperate as Craig Mottram put it. Ol' Buster put up a good fight lots of times using his fitness as a tool to win, rather seeing a medal as a given because of his fitness.