webb or brannen come spring/summer

If Webb has a serious training plan, is sticking to it, and is quite rightly focussing on outdoors, then he will be better. Its crazy to think to Webb will be in super form for right in the middle of prepatory phase. The fact that he is only a second behind Brannen now, DESPITE Brannens training plan containing a hell of a lot of speed work (dont be fooled by claims from Michigan that 55 second 400's, 1min21 600's, and 25 second 200's are NOT speed) It is just not likely that Brannens training plan has much room for progress. Not dissing the guy, great, VERY fast runner, just Webb will be better, because he is looking at the long term picture. No harm, or nothing wrong with that.

In my opinion this comes down to raw speed, Razko is always talking about speed but unfortunately for him Brannen has more leg speed then Alan, this will lead to Nate being able to close on him at the end of races. Alan could beat Nate if he took advantage of his strength advantage that he has when working with Warhurst but I don't know if he still has that advantage on Nate. Nate is such a raw talent and although he has been doing a fair bit of speed work he also has had a few bumps in the road this winter and will be much fitter come outdoors.

The fact remains they will never race until Nate is out of college unless it is at a major championship because in my opinion Webb will avoid Nate because to lose to Nate would look poorly on him.

Why are you comparing a Canadian collegiate to an American non-collegiate? They won't meet at NCAA's. They won't meet at any National Championship. They are unlikely to face each other in the World Championships. And they probably won't meet in any other events either. You're just going to have to wait until the end of the year and see where they land on the world list for the 1500.

if webb is in a "preparatory" phase, then why the hell is he expecting to run blazing miles??? and why is he so upset at not running so fast?

shouldnt he be happy to be running sub 4 in a "preparatory" phase....

i think this is all bullshit...his coach and him are just saying that its a "preparatory" phase to hide the fact that he isnt running fast during the indoor season

I agree. I know that Lunn and Stember have done almost no speed and its not stopping them from having good indoor seasons. Webb will lose to Brannen any time they meet. Brannen has way too much underspeed along with his top 25 xc finish.

Oh really, what is Brannen's best 400 split??? Best ncaa xc place? Hmmm... Webb has better speed and better strength.

I hope the world lists go beyond top 10, otherwise they're not going to be on it.

I'll take Webb's mile PR over Brannen's anyday, what's it about 5 seconds?

Brannen will not have the opportunity to get in any really fast 1500s. If he did, he would run faster than Webb.

Warhurst is going to get that kid strong as an ox while keeping his speed. Webb will no longer have the strength advantage and the speed advantage was suspect to begin with.

M

Webb is younger than Brannen by 4 months.

He has run faster for open and relay 400s than Brannen, though they rarely run them. He placed higher at NCAA XC, as a true freshman, than Brannen did this year as a true soph. Brannen has run 1:46.0 in a great NCAA field, whereas Webb has run 1:47.7 winning by about 8 seconds, I think.

Conclusion: They are both great athletes, and when properly prepared are probably pretty well-matched, which hopefully we'll see often in the future.

Brannen: 800m runner

Webb: 1500m runner

Brannen: Headed for Warhurst Injured Reserve

Webb: Already a Raczko Psyche Case

maybe webb's 400 split is faster than brannen's, but i'm pretty sure that 99% of those on this board would agree that brannen vs. webb in a 400 wouldn't even be a contest. brannen would feed it to him.

Brannen has run 47.2 relay split (outdoors Big 10's) and 48.3 (indoors big 10's). I don't think Webb has gone that fast. Plus Brannen beat Webb over 800m last spring (only after being out of the pool for a couple of weeks and Webb having a from Feb on of training behind him. When Brannen was in high school he was running 1:48's in May winning by 12 sec.

When Webb was in high school he would triple :

mile 2:20-1:55 (somewhere in that vicinity)

800 1:47

400 split 47 high

That was all in like an hour and a half. I think that point was proven.

Just accept it, Brannen is the faster of the two over the shorter distances. Besides he gets all the ladies. The dude is a pimp.

800, 1500, Mile, 3000 whatever... Nate Brannen will beat him. I got $100 on Brannen any takers?

Just a quick reply on Webb's strength while training under Ratkzo (sp?):

When he came to U-M, he was already as strong as an ox. Some of this may have been due to Warhurst's input for summer training, but Ratkzo deserves most of the credit. Therefore, it would seem that Webb would likely have the strength now.

now someone can throw ritz in the comparison just for old times' sake

Webb's muscles may be strong as an ox, but the past two months proved that his mental temerity is mush.

Raczko is an inexperienced, non-runner HS coach who has absolutely no idea how to handle Webb in his current situation and the results will continue to prove it. Unfortunately for Webb, the two are joined at the hip by their Nike contracts.