I appreciate the thoughts and concerns. As coaches we all have philosophies of training and racing, which change over time. It was a year of high's and low's for sure, as she was leading the US in early June, after back to back 4:04's. Not sure how many women in US history have run two 4:04's within 3 days. Would be interesting to know?
4:04.53 Shanghai, China on May 18, 2019
4:04.06 in Nanjing, China, on May 21, 2019
s she had only been injured once in the past 8 years, I believed that she would be fine with this two day recovery period. Additionally, I thought it would be a good preparation for the World Championships.
Training this year:
Best 10 mile threshold this year by 15 seconds per mile.
Best 3 x 800m workout this year by 6 seconds per 800m.
Best 5 x 1000m workout this year by 4 seconds per 1000m.
Best 100m fly repetition this year by .2.
The past year has been spent improving aerobic power, her training has had a major focus on VO2max, speed and power up until then, with attention paid to aerobic development and threshold running as well. Top end speed peaks out between 19-22 (with small gains coming after this age), VO2max progression slows down around 22 as well, so now is the appropriate time to focus on aerobic power. The process cannot be rushed or the athlete suffers in long term development if these parameters are not acknowledged.
Last years major focus on aerobic development left her flat at the US Championships, which was may fault. It's challenging when you try new things, but the end results was success, as she ran 8:52 (PR) for 3k, 4:24 (PR) for the mile in Berlin on the track, and 4:20 (PR) for the mile on the roads at the fifth avenue mile race.
Major Influencing Coaches: Vigil, Coe, Salazar, Conner, Messer, Christiansen, Dellinger, and many high school coaches.
For the record, I have coached at the following levels: middle school, high school, junior college and NCAA DI (Big Sky, while I realize this is not a Power 5, it is competitive).
My only focus is on helping Alexa win a medal. For some of you it may appear like we are a great distance from this goal, but I feel like we are closer than you think. Thanks for your time and thanks to all of you who believe in Alexa.