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I am very much convinced that many more Americans can run as well as AWebb and DLincoln have today if they got their heads in the right place. Krum was really the first one to bust the barrier a couple years ago. Now its Alan and Dan. Slattery seems to have that fearlessness as well. The mid-d guys seem to not get scared of the big bad Kenyan's, Ethiopians and Moroccans... now the mythical barrier has to be shattered in the 5k and 10k. The reason why guys like Riley, Torres, Ritz, Goucher, etc won't run 12:50 in the 5k or 26:50 in the 10k is NOT because they are not capable of it, but rather because they are not capable of believing that they can do it. Its because they are not willing to go with the rabbit and leave it all out on the track and risk dying or dnf'ing. I hope these gus get inspired by Alan and Lincoln and the next race they run, they go out at "breakneck" pace. Maybe they'll find that they can handle it better than they thought and shatter through some barriers.
Despiet common logic, you don't have to run 13:20 before running 13:10 before running 12:59 before running 12:50. As Ritz showed us, you can go straight to 27:38 and as many a Kenyan has showed us, you can go straight to 13:00 if you just believe you can.
Its funny, I have seen some Kenyan's run workouts that are not all that impressive. Yet when they are done with them, they think they are in fantastic shape... lets say 3:30 for 1500 or 13:00 for 5k. I'll then see some American's running not much slower in their workouts and they're letting the rabbits go and settling for the 'A' or 'B' standard. The expectations have got to change.
The most personal example I have is one of my best friends from college. He surely can run 2:20 in the marathon, but thinks that is insanely fast. He ran 2:35 in his debut off of a decent college career that was not high milage (60s). He probably put in 10 months in the 80s and then ran that at 22/3 years old on his first try. The reason he won't run 2:20 or faster (besides the fact that he is not willing to train for it) is because he doesn't think its possible. If he doesn't think its possible, he won't train for it. If he doesn't train for it... well, you get the picture.
Despiet common logic, you don't have to run 13:20 before running 13:10 before running 12:59 before running 12:50. As Ritz showed us, you can go straight to 27:38 and as many a Kenyan has showed us, you can go straight to 13:00 if you just believe you can.
Its funny, I have seen some Kenyan's run workouts that are not all that impressive. Yet when they are done with them, they think they are in fantastic shape... lets say 3:30 for 1500 or 13:00 for 5k. I'll then see some American's running not much slower in their workouts and they're letting the rabbits go and settling for the 'A' or 'B' standard. The expectations have got to change.
The most personal example I have is one of my best friends from college. He surely can run 2:20 in the marathon, but thinks that is insanely fast. He ran 2:35 in his debut off of a decent college career that was not high milage (60s). He probably put in 10 months in the 80s and then ran that at 22/3 years old on his first try. The reason he won't run 2:20 or faster (besides the fact that he is not willing to train for it) is because he doesn't think its possible. If he doesn't think its possible, he won't train for it. If he doesn't train for it... well, you get the picture.
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