How is Chris Solinsky as a Men's Distance Coach?

Don't tell me you can run fast at UF. Quenton Cassidy ran 3:52.5 for the mile in Central Florida. Jerry Mizner ran well too until he got hurt and then killed in Vietnam.

“You don't become a runner by winning a morning workout. The only true way is to marshal the ferocity of your ambition over the course of many day, weeks, months, and (if you could finally come to accept it) years. The Trial of Miles; Miles of Trials.”

Outside of maybe northern California, it's miserable for a good portion of the year anywhere in the US. Here in the midwest we have oppressively cold and dark winters, but we run 100+mpw in the winter. It sucks, but it's not impossible. Yeah, the south is realllly hot, but if somebody wants to actually be good, and not just when it's convenient, they'll get the training done. If he can find athletes willing to run even when it's hot (bless their souls!) I imagine he'll do well.

Soft Kids wrote:

Outside of maybe northern California, it's miserable for a good portion of the year anywhere in the US. Here in the midwest we have oppressively cold and dark winters, but we run 100+mpw in the winter. It sucks, but it's not impossible. Yeah, the south is realllly hot, but if somebody wants to actually be good, and not just when it's convenient, they'll get the training done. If he can find athletes willing to run even when it's hot (bless their souls!) I imagine he'll do well.

It's not that it's uncomfortable, it's that running in 90 degree weather with 99% humidity is extremely taxing to your system and takes much longer to recover from. I've run in 20 degree weather. Yes, it's miserable, but if you bundle up, it's not that bad, just uncomfortable. Running in the heat every day is VERY hard on your body. How about you run in 90 degree's/99 % humidity for a month straight and tell us how you feel.

Name one pro that lives in Florida YEAR round. Yes, they come to train here in January and February. Then they go back home.

Lots of misinformation and exaggeration in this discussion about running in Gainesville. (where I have lived for 19 years). This is NOT Miami. Yes, it is too hot and humid for summer months, but unlike Miami (where I lived/taught/coached and ran competitively for over 30 years) summer mornings are usually low 70s, not Miami's 78-82. And the humidity while bad, is, of course, not the 99% some have claimed. Besides UF runners can presumably spend most of the summer in milder climates.

Gainesville winter avg. temps high/low: Dec.: 71/47 Jan: 68/43 Feb: 70/45 . Thus Fall and Spring are also quite good.

Hills? Yes. Not big ones but lots near and on campus of 40'-60'. Fine for repeats but on pavement.

UF academics:

I have zero personal insider knowledge of UF track but I do know Coach Holloway knows something about distance running. In a relatively short career at Buchholz H.S. he coached 4 State Championship Cross Country teams. Like others, I assume he puts scholarship money into sprinters and jumpers and throwers, but I'm hopeful that Chris Solinsky's reputation as both runner and coach will lure some blue chip distance kids to UF. Yes, the days of Shorter, Bacheler, Liquori et al are long gone, but if they thrived in Gainesville, other talented runners can too.

Oops, started to comment on academics and got sidetracked. UF is highly ranked among public universities. Tied for 8th, in U.S. News rankings, with Georgia Tech, and well ahead of such as Wisconsin, Texas, Ohio State et al.

Soft Kids wrote:

Outside of maybe northern California, it's miserable for a good portion of the year anywhere in the US. Here in the midwest we have oppressively cold and dark winters, but we run 100+mpw in the winter. It sucks, but it's not impossible. Yeah, the south is realllly hot, but if somebody wants to actually be good, and not just when it's convenient, they'll get the training done. If he can find athletes willing to run even when it's hot (bless their souls!) I imagine he'll do well.

The cold sucks, yes.. but when it comes to distance running you WARM up as you do it. Yes it's hard, yes it'd difficult to get out the door but running in the heat day after day after day takes a toll on you that until you live in it, you cannot understand.

It has nothing to do with being "soft," heat has real physical limitations on a person's ability to run long distances well.

Gainesville was the home of the great Florida Track Club back in the day which featured Frank Shorter, Jack Batchelor , and others.

codaayyee wrote:

exactly.

I'm from Florida, and all the kids who are signing with UF are smart kids with good grades/test scores from instate schools and produce only decent results (i.e.. 15:40 5K, 1:58 800, 4:25 1600, 9:20 3200)

Wrong. His top freshman is exactly the opposite of this.

Didn't Frank Shorter and Jeff Galloway train there in preparation for the 1972 Olympics?

Gainesville is a great running town, but the men's team will never be good as long as Mouse keeps giving them ~ 1.5 scholarships to work with every year. Their model was based on getting all the top Florida talent for cheap, which worked 10 years ago, but not today. These days the UF distance job is a poison chalice.

And your point is? wrote:

That gets you nothing in coaching

Only a job at Florida.

I am wondering. Suppose the program can to find willing talented endurance from the equatorial rainforest native athletes such as indigenous South and Central Amerikans, also Bantu peoples and also including Indonesian and Melanesians. they might be able to handle the humidity! may not then be seen advantages in meetings for regular humidity. When pride is The issue, they would at homebase host. It would be like Kip Keino at the Mexico City.

Ocr wrote:

Kind of a stupid move if you ask me. W & M is a super high-caliber school with smart, engaged kids to match. UF is snowbirds, rednecks and the uneducated. That said, if he's a punk rock fan, you can't do better.

you fool, he just won a national championship indoors. i guarantee you he has no regrets. his distance runners didn't score any points but he gets a big ring and a big bonus. W&M was probably paying garbage.

StevenspointHS wrote:

I am sure Chris is a good coach but Mouse goes through distance coaches like J-Lo goes through husbands. Pigg, Morgan, Spangler all lasted about four years.

spangler was garbage, he deserved to be fired. Mouse upgraded big time, he did the right thing.

Gainesville is a great running town, but the men's team will never be good as long as Mouse keeps giving them ~ 1.5 scholarships to work with every year. Their model was based on getting all the top Florida talent for cheap, which worked 10 years ago, but not today. These days the UF distance job is a poison chalice.

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1.5 scholarships to work with every year? I doubt the men's distance program has had more than 0.50 invested into the entire program at any one time.

moneyball wrote:

Gainesville is a great running town, but the men's team will never be good as long as Mouse keeps giving them ~ 1.5 scholarships to work with every year. Their model was based on getting all the top Florida talent for cheap, which worked 10 years ago, but not today. These days the UF distance job is a poison chalice.

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1.5 scholarships to work with every year? I doubt the men's distance program has had more than 0.50 invested into the entire program at any one time.

All you pansies rely too much on scholarships. Yared Nuguse of Notre Dame was a walk-on. The girl from Penn (Ivy League is non-scholarship) would have won an NCAA championship in the 800 if she didn't slow down.

Solinsky just has to hustle. Recruit talented but raw runners. Sell more talented runners on the fact that they'll have an opportunity to win an NCAA team championship every year on the track. Sell them on your pro experience.

Everyone here is trying to make Mouse seem evil. The dude won an NCAA team championship a few days ago - he knows what he's doing and he did his job beautifully. If Solinsky can recruit someone that can score at NCAAs as a freshman, Mouse will toss that runner some money. Mouse understands points, but you won't get $ to be a 3 year distance project.

Ocr wrote:

Kind of a stupid move if you ask me. W & M is a super high-caliber school with smart, engaged kids to match. UF is snowbirds, rednecks and the uneducated. That said, if he's a punk rock fan, you can't do better.

The U.S. News Rankings of public universities which show Florida tied with Georgia Tech for 8th have William and Mary behind them in 10th. Yes the U.S. News Rankings are far from perfect, but your description of UF is clearly inaccurate in 2019. One might hesitate to go to a school with 50,000+ students, lots of huge lecture sections, and on a campus that is steadily burying everything under buildings and asphalt, but clearly a good education is available.

You say it gets you nothing in coaching, but Solinsky used that to debut at William and Mary and parlayed that short stint with nothing of great significance into the Florida distance job. Next will likely be a major program. The expectations are low and so all he needs is some minor successes such as an NCAA xc nationals appearance and a track all-american or two. Come back to this thread in a few years and prove me wrong.

The truth is that it is a joy to run much of the year in a lot of the country, whereas it is only semi-pleasant to run in Florida in the winter and very hard to go fast or recover from roughly March to October. That being said, it toughens you up and if you take your adequate workout times down here and run races up north a bit, you should see some impressive times. They say that the effects are similar to altitude, except that they come from an increased blood volume adaptation to the hot and very humid weather.