German Fernandez fit as a fiddle + ANSWERS

[BlackIrish]

Originally Posted by Gummy Shark

$20 says he's not American. Taking our jobs and all.

Relax troll.

[Ray Ray]

Originally Posted by Cant_touch_this

2.5 minutes? How much time did you take off? I think I could take a few months off and go run within 2.5 minutes of my 5k pr easy.

I took a month off, and ate nothing but junk food and my sleeping habits became worse than usual. 2.5 may have been an exaggeration but on my first day back I could barely complete a 6 mile run at a fairly easy pace; no way I could have broken 17.

[Zat0pek]

Originally Posted by orthostice

As we speak, there are guys who will have great cross seasons who are just jogging, or still on their breaks. This happens all time - whether it's guys who raced in Europe over the summer, or got hurt at the end of the track, or whathaveyou. It's simply not necessary to be super-sharp to run well in a hilly 10km on grass, dirt, maybe mud, etc. I'd certainly rather round my way into form during the season as opposed to ripping at Pre-Nats then having a bunch of guys in the triple-digits at NCAAs.

Cross country is not 'right around the corner.' Nothing of import happens until mid-October.

The lad has apparently been training since April. I see this all ending in tears.

Maybe, maybe not.

I would expect anyone who was sick/hurt indoors, redshirts outdoors and was able to start training again to be "training since April." Training since April? Big deal. We trained all year round. Everybody does (with breaks, of course).

The question is, HOW has he been training since April? If all he's been doing is "summer of malmo" (for the uninitiated, see: http://www.bunnhill.com/BobHodge/rtp3.htm ) type stuff since April, he's fine. The little I've seen on his FB page doesn't indicate anything over the top or hard. Just . . . miles.

He can keep that up through September, and just adding a race here and there will start to round him in to form. Add some real workouts in starting in early to mid-October, then start to pull back on the throttle in November. Nobody's going to blow up doing that.

An extended period of training for a kid who's been sick/hurt can be just what the doctor ordered if the training is of the appropriate type and level of intensity (which should be approaching nil).

"Training since April" is, in and of itself, completely irrelevant. HOW he has been "training since April" is what matters.

[orthostice]

Originally Posted by Zat0pek

The little I've seen on his FB page ...

[JMegs13]

Originally Posted by Cant_touch_this

Anyone who wouldn't want to be fit at the beginning of August, with cross-country right around the corner, is a dumbass. I stand by that statement. I think the most important part of improvement is the base you can put in during the summer. If you aren't fit on August 1st, then how are you going to start running quality tempo runs in the next few weeks? Personally I haven't done a workout since track season and I had a bit of a nagging injury throughout the start of summer. But, with the past month of great training I think I'm more fit than I've ever been. Being fit doesn't mean I'm in great racing shape, just that I'm ready to deal with the hard workouts and toil of a season.

The definition of fit is what we're talking about though. What you were saying before was that being within 20 seconds of your 5k PR was being fit. For German, that would mean he's in 13:45 shape. I don't think it's outrageous for people to say, "too much, too soon," for a guy to be in that kind of shape on August 1, especially considering his injury history.

Again, I pretty much agree with you: yes, you need to be putting in miles over the summer, maintaining your aerobic fitness with some light aerobic workouts, building neuromuscular and core strength, etc. so that you can handle the season. Generally, it's good to be building momentum in your training over the summer. But without a copy of German's log or having resided in Stillwater for the last few months, I'm not gonna go around calling people dumbasses (and introducing low-level discourse on this board--does it really need more of that?) because I don't know the details, nor do you.

[Cant_touch_this]

Originally Posted by JMegs13

The definition of fit is what we're talking about though. What you were saying before was that being within 20 seconds of your 5k PR was being fit. For German, that would mean he's in 13:45 shape. I don't think it's outrageous for people to say, "too much, too soon," for a guy to be in that kind of shape on August 1, especially considering his injury history.

Again, I pretty much agree with you: yes, you need to be putting in miles over the summer, maintaining your aerobic fitness with some light aerobic workouts, building neuromuscular and core strength, etc. so that you can handle the season. Generally, it's good to be building momentum in your training over the summer. But without a copy of German's log or having resided in Stillwater for the last few months, I'm not gonna go around calling people dumbasses (and introducing low-level discourse on this board--does it really need more of that?) because I don't know the details, nor do you.

I think you underestimate how easy 13:45 is for a 13:25 guy. Its obvious in that article that German isn't out there killing workouts, he's just fit, but maybe the first poster for some reason thinks the definition of fit is ready to kill some races.

[greenman]

Originally Posted by Cant_touch_this

I think you underestimate how easy 13:45 is for a 13:25 guy. Its obvious in that article that German isn't out there killing workouts, he's just fit, but maybe the first poster for some reason thinks the definition of fit is ready to kill some races.

How "easy" is it exactly?

Remember 13:25 is a best effort. So 20 seconds over 5k beyond that, while it wouldn't be considered maxing out certainly isn't "easy".

[Cant_touch_this]

Originally Posted by greenman

How "easy" is it exactly?

Remember 13:25 is a best effort. So 20 seconds over 5k beyond that, while it wouldn't be considered maxing out certainly isn't "easy".

I'm saying if he wanted to take a couple days easy, and actually race it. He should be able to run 13:45 at about any point in his training (not coming off of injury, etc).

[xcrunna]

Just because 13:45 is a quick time doesn't mean it take like 3 months of intensive injury-free training for German to get there. Recall that he ran 7:50 pretty banged up this year in his first race back. That's a killer time, but it was pretty clear he was not at his best and had not a huge amount of training. He's a special talent and the only concern right now should be health. Running 70-80 miles(or the equivalent with X-Training) with limited speedwork should be fine for his fitness and his health.

[Gummy Shark]

Originally Posted by BlackIrish

Relax troll.

Relax, no sense of humor. Without trolling how can this forum survive?