Run-Down Forums

Distance_Guru · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 8:24 am Post subject:

First off I'm glad to hear your mother in law is going to be alright.

I don't find myself saying this very often so everyone pay attention. Conway you are right. Expectations are very tough on athletes.The pressure that they put on themselves can be termendous. Once you get taped as being a talent things change. I know from personal experience. As a high school athlete and a freshman in college I was always the kid that worked his tail off and was good but not real good. Then my sophmore year I went nuts, trained like a machine and ran some very impressive races. I went from being the guy who was doomed to be a hard working above average runner to being the best runner in the history of the my university (which although small had a history of producing some good runners). I went from David to Goliath. And I was never the same. I don't know if I had just had a fluke year, or if the pressure got to me, or if I started believing my own hype. But whatever it was I didn't deal with it well. And that is just little old me, who no one's ever herd of. I can't imagine the pressure guys with real talent are going through. Throw on top of that pressure of the label "the next great American miler" or even "the savior of American distance running" and it's no wonder Webb has had a rough time.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

Dan · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 8:43 am Post subject:

One happened after that year? Did you drop off or just fail to improve further?

Dan

Distance_Guru · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 8:50 am Post subject:

I droped off. If you look at my freshman, junior and senior times, they look like they were run by the same athlete over different seasons. Where as my sophmore year was way beyond anything I had run before or have run since. Confused

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Time is the fire in which we burn

Dan · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 8:53 am Post subject:

Did your training change from sophomore to junior year? As a fellow coach, I'm sure you would agree it's those "unexplainable" things that drive a coach nuts... Smile

Dan

Distance_Guru · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 9:12 am Post subject:

The training did change a pretty good amount. The mystery to me is why. I went to a school that only had cross country and it always took me a long time to get into shape so summer training made my season. As a sophmore I ran 90 miles a week (six days always takeing one day off) I really didn't know that much about training at the time. What I did know was the centeral philosophy behind my training and has remaind to this day. Run a lot run hard and you will get faster. I alternated days running medium to medium hard one day (6:30-5:45 per mile) and the next I would run hard (5:50-5:10 per mile). I always ran over hilly terrain and I lived with my folks. Which was real good motivation to get out of the house and go for a run. Which I almost always did alone, and since all my runs were for distance rather than time the faster I ran them the less boring they were. Long story short I had a real good season (setting the school 8k record twice both times at altitude with no adjustment! and at the conference championship I beat something like 11 or 12 guys that were all american that year). My team was good but thin 4 studs and a week 5th man. At regionals I had a little bit of an off race and another of our big guys had a bad day and we missed nationals by six points. After that summer I stayed and took summer classes. And I trained with a partner. Although I did approach the mileage totals I never equaled the intensity and I would run 7 days in stead of 6 a week to get the totals.

So basicly I had a mental block that lead to a drop off in my training. Which resulted in a drop in performance. In hind site I would like to go back and kick my own tail for slacking. But since that isn't possible I spend a good amount of time trying to get athletes to do what I did as a sophmore without the hang over.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

Conway · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 10:49 am Post subject:

Conway · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 10:50 am Post subject:

When I was in Jr High school they had track and field and we had a very good team ... We had 4 very good sprinters including myself so we had to spread out to cover all of the events ... So I mostly ran the 100 and 120 hurdles and 2 relays, but also got to run the 200 and 400 a couple of times each ... Anyway I was undefeated that year against frosh/soph competition ... Wish I could say I was that dominant over everyone but actually I won several close races in the 100 and a couple of nail biters in the hurdles ... Anyway talk started before the summer of whether or not I could do that in high school ...

Conway · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 10:52 am Post subject:

But the real clincher came during the summer ... I ran for a club and of course ran mostly age group stuff ... Except that in the 4x1 I sometimes moved up and ran on the older guys team (they had a member who couldn't always make the meets) .. Anyway we ran in a meet that had as its anchor a guy that had finished 3rd in the high school state meet that year in the 100 dash ... And I got to anchor angainst him ... To make a long story short he got the stick a meter or so in front of me and I ran him down and finihsed an meter up on him !!!! From that point forward I was supposed to go undefeated, and win a gold medal at state !!!!

Try living with that as a 15 year old high school soph (actually 14 at the start of the school year) !!!! Only thing that saved me was my club coach who did everythign he could ot build a cocky streak in me (for my own survival) ...

Conway

Distance_Guru · Posted: Mon Aug 12, 2002 10:57 am Post subject:

From a coaches point of veiw that's a pretty good way to deal with that sort of expectation. Of coarse the trick is to get an athlete to believe they're #1 while still keeping them training like their #2.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

Dan · Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 11:12 am Post subject:

Here are 2 more articles on Webb's new contract and related things:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/olympics/summer/2002-08-15-webb-focus_x.htm

Paul · Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 3:33 pm Post subject:

Two interesting articles, thanks. The poll results were interesting , too. I definitely agree on the Raczko thought. Raczko may be a very personally ambitious 30 year old. I feel the big loser in this whole mess is going to be Warhurst, not because he had anything to do with it, but because this has happened on his watch. I am concerned this will be a bad break for his coaching career.

Paul

Dan · Posted: Thu Aug 15, 2002 5:20 pm Post subject:

All the quotes I've seen from Warhurst during this event have been very short, choppy, guarded, and rude/angry sounding. I've seen very little from him prior to Webb, so I don't know if that's how he normally comes across or if this situation really has him riled up. At any rate, he sounds quite unhappy about the whole thing.

Dan

Distance_Guru · Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 8:37 pm Post subject:

I can't say I blame him. The US produces a runner like Webb once in a career and if you can get him on campus it's the chance to become a legend in coaching. Let's be honest if it wasn't for Pre how many people outside of Oregon would know who Bill Bowerman was? Not many, and that's with him being co founder of Nike!

Heck,I had a couple of runners quit the team this summer and I talk about them in a manner similar to how Warhurst talks about Webb (at least in his interviews). And only one of the guys even had a chance of really contributing to the team, much less making or breaking my career.

Just for the record this next bit is pure speculation so take it at that. But I wouldn't be real surprised to see Warhurst leave UM one way or another in the next year or two. Webb leaving wasn't just a big loss for him personally and professionally as a coach. This was a big, big loss to the track and field and athletic department at the Uninversity of Michigan. In terms of booster money, corpoate funds coming in because of the increased media attention Alan Webb generates, and of coarse the huge boost in terms of recruiting prestige that he added to the Maize and Blue track and cross country teams. They had a chance to jump into the ranks of Arkansas, Stanford and Colorado in terms of recruiting. Instead now the chances of them landing the very best in the US on a yearly basis like the three schools I just mentioned has really been hurt. Of coarse a person who will have a huge say in that is going to be Chris Lear. If his book on the U of M track team makes it look like Webb withdrew himself and was just a head case with a good coach and team around him that tried but were unable to bring him back into the fold, then the damage will be at least contained. If the book makes it look like Warhurst just wasn't able to coach Webb and that he didn't give him the attention he needed then it could really hurt Warhurst in terms of recruiting and boosting for the program.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

Dan · Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 9:07 pm Post subject:

Distance_Guru · Posted: Sat Aug 17, 2002 9:20 pm Post subject:

I see your point in terms of legend in terms of his contemporaires. But if I ask my dad (who doesn't follow the sport) who was Bill Bowerman he'd answer "That was Pre's coach". And that is how he is known as Pre's coach. That is what Warhurst could have become. Webb's coach. Like Bowerman, Warhurst could have had mainstreram exposure. Which is the difference between Bill Bowerman and the guy coaching at Stanford in the 60's. Who's name I either don't know or can't remeber because he never coached Pre or Webb or anyone like them.
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Time is the fire in which we burn

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