I'd like to see Dani Jones do well. I feel she has a lot of potential. Nothing against Team Boss, I like them. But I wonder if she would benefit from a different training style.
McGee has improved a lot in Boulder and, while still somewhat inconsistent and kind of all over the place tactically, that has gotten a lot better the last couple years. She is never going to run 3:55 but will be in the mix for teams through 2024.
Her PB is kind of irrelevant - even if she runs 3:58 that's the same as Maclean who has better wheels the last 300 which is what makes teams and wins races. McGee's tactic is more of a long drive from 500 out which works half the time and she blows up the other 50% of the time.
Johnson, Maclean, Hurta, St Pierre (if comes back post baby), Norris (if she returns to the 2021 level), Grace (if she returns to 2021 level), and whoever else rises up will make for tough sledding and great races to watch.
No way is Norris coming back. And we can probably write Elle off at this point
They would definitely benefit from an assistant coach, someone on the same page as Joe who can keep an eye on things when he isn't there - a lot of being a good coach is being a hype man/sports psychologist for your athletes. It's hard to imagine he can provide them all with the attention they deserve. Also having an assistant coach would allow the younger athletes who maybe don't know the system as well to have guidance on how to train correctly within the system
I heard they offer free housing at Emma's family guesthouse in CB. Not a bad deal given the CoL in these mountain towns.
Harambe, why don't you just SPELL OUT the meaning of "CB" and "CoL", for the sake of all the MANY readers who will be clueless as to the fact that "CB" is Crested Butte and "CoL" is cost of living? I guess you couldn't afford the expenditure of energy required to hit a few more keystrokes. You must be marathon training...
It is rather impressive when you consider Joe went from a relative unknown and pretty much zero coaching experience to coaching his wife and then building a stellar top notch coed group from the ground up with zero financial backing from any sponsors.. can any other coach or group even say anything remotely close to that??
I'd like to see Dani Jones do well. I feel she has a lot of potential. Nothing against Team Boss, I like them. But I wonder if she would benefit from a different training style.
The one thing I'll say is she looks tense to me, not relaxed - in races and practice clips alike. Maybe she's always been like that and some runners just are, but IMO it doesn't seem right. Sinclaire looked similar with BTC and now she looks nice and relaxed when racing with her new team. DJ's one of my favorites and I'd like to see her do well, and it's not out of the question that she can do so on her current team, it happens, just not my hunch. And if she's reading, I recommend looking up Justine Fedronic, particularly an 800 she won I think it was the night before Pre, a sort B race, sometime around her last year at Stanford or 1st year as a pro. She comes off the first turn bounding with joy for running, like her mom had kept her couped up all day and finally let her go run around the yard at 5 in the evening. Pure joy. I would say, look for what helps you run like that and it might be somewhere else.
also would like to add that when youre training at the pro level, having that many athletes make it to the start line healthy and perform well is very difficult. joe is easily one of the best coaches in the us.
I thinking this more and more these days. He certainly cares a lot about his athletes. He accompanies a lot of the women on their workouts on the bike even when they are not accompanied by other team members (recent insta of Aisha this week and insta of him with Emma B. in Worlds training come to mind). Also, Cory and Emma C. have both mentioned that he is always researching new developments in training and takes an active role in members' PT sessions (one of the women explained on some podcast that Joe accompanied her to a session so he could better understand exactly what was going on with her injury so he could adjust training based on the medical advice given). Additionally, Emma C. mentioned today on Fifth Avenue interview with Citius that although this would normally be the time for a vacation for her and Joe (often to Mexico), this year they are headed back to CO following the race because Joe needs to prepare Emma B. and Scott F. for NYC Marathon in November. Many coaches would not make this kind of sacrifice (especially since the race is still months away) and many wives would not be too pleased (but Emma C. seemed like a very supportive teammate and husband when she was explaining this).
Having all the traits you just described...might...be things you find in a great coach, but you can have all of these traits and not be a great coach too. It's better to have them that not have them, but having them alone doesn't make you a great coach.