Quigley bashing BTC

Quigley is just mad bc her Olympic dream is over.

her own narcissism only allowed her once cha ce to qualify for the trials…. ONE… and she blew it. She has done no races in the last year. She’s goofed off w triathlons while the rest of the world and her countrywomen were training to be elite on the steeple.

when it comes down to it, she just isn't as talented as she'd like to think. or maybe she knows but tried to overcome it by outworking those who were more talented. but now she's in denial.

The entire newsletter..Trying to drive with the parking brake on…
My sophomore year of high school I was able to use money I earned modeling to buy a car. My parents helped me pick out a used Hyundai Elantra and I remember going to Chicago with them to get it. I loved that car and drove it from 2008 until 2019. Besides oil changes, the only maintenance I had on that car was replacing all of the tires once and replacing the brakes. Not bad. One thing I remember about “Bella” was that the parking brake was only kinda useful. I must have left it up a couple times on accident and started driving because it got to the point where if I left it up and tried to drive off, it would definitely go… it just sounded a little funny and you had to push the gas pedal down harder than you normally would.
You shouldn’t be able to drive a car with the parking brake on, but if you tried to do so, Bella would do her best to comply even though it was bad for the car and she wouldn’t be able to go as fast.
You know where I’m going with this right…?
I’m Bella. By body’s parking brake has been on and I’ve been trying to drive right on through it. I raced in Portland at the beginning of June to try and get a qualifying time for the Olympic Trials and the whole time I was running I felt like I was trying so hard, yet felt myself slowing down. My finishing time was 10:01, the slowest time I’ve run since college. (big) Yikes. It was embarrassing, painful, physically challenging, and emotionally trying. I walked around on the infield for a few minutes after the race trying to gather myself and let the shock of running that poorly and feeling that awful sink in a little.
After the race I went back to Austin to check in with Dr. Moos again and see if we could make sense of what just happened. One way to understand what’s been happening to me is a concept that Dr. Moos describes as a governor that my body has adopted. The governor is there to keep me safe, keep me from doing more damage to my physical body. And even though I feel like I don’t need it anymore and want to get rid of it and run free, it’s reason for being there is valid.
For 6 years when I was training on the Bowerman Track Club (2015-2020), I was encouraged to override my body’s distress signals and keep pushing through workouts and training blocks and mileage that was all too much for me and causing my body to break down in a way that I couldn’t keep up with. My training plan was never tailored to me and my needs or current fitness. I was always asked to do whatever the group was doing, which was always dictated by whoever was the fastest athlete in the group at that time. If I was coming back from injury, (which I was constantly doing) I would be instructed to hop in with the group and do as much of the workout as I could- hold on until I couldn’t. If I was feeling pain, the message from the coach was always to run through the pain until you can’t. Foot hurts? See if you can warm up. Still hurts after the warmup? See if you can just get through the first few reps. Still hurts after that but not getting worse? See if you can finish the workout.
More mileage. More intensity. More high altitude training. More is more. If you survive you will be a champion. If you don’t, well, there’s more women coming after you to take your place.
The only time I got “less” was when I was injured. And when I was hurt I spent an insane amount of time in the pool, on the bike, and on the elliptical… which all added up to a lot of work and not much rest. My body needed less. Less work and more rest. The only thing I got less of was attention from my coach as the injuries piled up.
I couldn’t appreciate at the time how much damage I was doing to my body and how once I truly broke down it would take me an incredibly long time to build myself back up again. Looking back at my training log from those years, I can see now that there were plenty of warning signs. I pushed through so much pain and so many issues that just needed rest. I felt like I had to do that because didn’t I want to be great? I needed to be tough.
I had stopped respecting my body by pushing through all of those warning signs, so my body decided to take matters into it’s own hands. And that’s where the governor comes in. Just like Brittany Spears’ dad, my body said “you are not fit to make decisions anymore, I’m in charge now,” and it put a governor on me.
Now when I go to push my body hard in running, it won’t do it. It’s a protective mechanism because in the past if my body said, “woah that hurts, that’s too much,” I would ignore it.
I don’t want to do that anymore. I haven’t overtrained in a years, but I’m still getting injured, breaking down too easily every time I try to ramp up my training. I can run easy (although that doesn’t feel right either), but when I go to run hard my body rebels.
It won’t trust me, which breaks my heart because I’m so deeply grateful for my body and what it has done. I know it works hard for me every day. I also know it’s fair for my body to be hesitant to let me take back control and trust I won’t abuse my power.
What I want to say to my body is:
I’m sorry. I’m so sorry I didn’t listen sooner. I’m sorry I didn’t respect your boundaries. I’m sorry I wasn’t strong enough to stand up for you before. I’ve learned so much in the past few years. You can trust me now. I will push you, but I will also give you rest. I will listen and honor you. I want to work WITH you, not against you. Thank you, body, for everything you’ve done for me. I want to be friends again. And I want to be in control again. If you let me, I promise I won’t let you down again.
My body is separate from me, but we are a team. I believe my body wants the same things that I do, which is to feel strong, powerful, confident, happy, joyful, fearless…
I don’t need my governor anymore. It’s time to let it go.

What I’m excited about right now
I sat in front of Robin Arzón at the ESPYS last week and she asked me a great question: “What are you excited about right now?”
This year I found a health practitioner who is able to address the connections between my brain and body, addressing the emotional, physical, chemical, neurological…. all of it (see my last update if you don’t know what I’m talking about)
I made a coaching switch. I’m now working with the only female coach I’ve ever had and the last person who coached me when I was consistently healthy (in college). Karen Harvey recruited me to Florida State with her passion for the sport and her attention to detail. Working with her again the last couple of weeks has been such a relief. We have both changed a lot over the years, but I think this full circle moment is exactly what I need.
I reached out to UCLA and asked the new head coach, Joanna Hayes, if I could volunteer coach for the team during the cross country season this fall. I want to get connected with young student-athlete energy again (I did this at Portland State when I lived there) and offer any advice and support to those athletes that I can.
I’m learning some new form cues from Paul Mackinnon and working to undo some of the compensations I’ve picked up due to injuries over the years. If you’re interested check him out on IG or his website.
xemptyz
Thank you
Dear gentle reader,
This author is filled with gratitude when she thinks about all the athletes from all over this beautiful earth who take the time to read this silly little newsletter and it’s musings about life and sport. Sometimes it feels like what is shared here is of the utmost importance, while other times it feels trivial in light of the greater challenges our world faces. It brings this steeplechase runner great joy to find connection and commonality with others in this community and for that she is forever in debt to each one of you reading these words.
Yours Truly,
Lady Quigley

the entire newsletter.

Quigley was at her best ( by far ) with BTC . Usually pushing though barriers is a sign of improvement . That’s how get better not taking it easy 7 days a week

Bashing BTC has become her whole personality, which is a shame bc she objectively has other things going for her, whether you like her or not.

I have mixed feelings.

Jerry’s coaching program doesn’t seem to put a lot of individual thought into his athletes. And it is very rigorous. But Colleen was an adult the whole time with choices and she did not have to stay with btc if that system did not work for her. She should have absolutely recognized it wasn’t earlier and made a change. Jerry’s system might suck (for her) but he actually doesn’t have to change it for her. She can leave.

blaming Jerry when as an adult she stayed and played along is silly to me. I didn’t feel this way about Mary/salazar where abusive tactics were deployed. Colleen was not abused or manipulated. She just permitted herself to train in a program that didn’t work for her.

Mixed feelings as well. Hindsight's 20/20. She was about 23 when she joined BTC, so while that is technically an adult, most people aren't fully self-aware and confident in advocating for themselves at that age. I wonder what kind of guidance she had when signing contract(s) and joining the team.

Thanks for sharing the entire newsletter. It helps to read the quote in context. Now that I’ve read the entire thing, here’s my take on it:

• It does seem that her story is a lesson in not pushing your body too far. So in that sense, I can understand sharing it with others.
• There were some unnecessary digs at BTC. She didn’t need to call the group out by name, and the sentence, “The only thing I got less of was attention from my coach as the injuries piled up,” was just a cringeworthy level of bitterness.
• If she’s going to call out BTC by name and write about how unhealthy it was for her, she could at least acknowledge the positive results she had while with them.
• I giver her credit for taking ownership by issuing an apology to her body.
• It was a little awkward reading the full apology. Maybe it might have been better to keep the apology private in a diary, and for the newsletter just write something like, “I take responsibility for damaging my body, and I’ve apologized to it.” But if making her apology public helps her to heal emotionally, then I guess there’s no harm in that.
• It’s nice to see that she’s not giving up. She’s making intentional changes to try to turn things around. I wish her well.

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Mixed feelings as well. Hindsight's 20/20. She was about 23 when she joined BTC, so while that is technically an adult, most people aren't fully self-aware and confident in advocating for themselves at that age. I wonder what kind of guidance she had when signing contract(s) and joining the team.

lol i feel like every year people try to decide that the entry to adulthood is later and later. 23 year olds are not only adults, they've been adults for years.

I wonder if Marissa Howard going to Paris has sparked this newsletter. Marissa is the same age (31). Quigley often beat her in the past.

not sure why she's so bitter at this point in her life. for what it's worth she's had a great career. She went to the Olympics, signed a nice pro contract, and continues to generate an income on Instagram and Lululemon. most US pro runners would be lucky to get just one of those, let alone all three. she's always been a "good" runner, never great, never one who was gonna break records or win medals. her looks got her a heck of a lot more out of this sport than others who are far more talented. she should be grateful. so she got injured. big deal, literally EVERY runner gets hurt and works through it. its part of being a pro runner.

Her top accomplishments in the sport are going to the Olympics in 2016 and World Champs in 2015. Her PR is from 2018. All of these things happened while with Bowerman. One could argue she wouldn’t have her current career without them.

Dr Yuengling wrote:

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Mixed feelings as well. Hindsight's 20/20. She was about 23 when she joined BTC, so while that is technically an adult, most people aren't fully self-aware and confident in advocating for themselves at that age. I wonder what kind of guidance she had when signing contract(s) and joining the team.

lol i feel like every year people try to decide that the entry to adulthood is later and later. 23 year olds are not only adults, they've been adults for years.

I said she was an adult, but it's not like overnight you know everything there is to know about life. I'm not sure anyone ever really does.

Girls have cooties wrote:

A bunch of truths in there that many on the message board have been pointing out about Jerry’s training for years

However, get ready for downvotes and hate because an attractive female dared to open her mouth and speak her mind.

You called it. Bunch of misogynistic pr-cks polluting the board with their know-it-all hot takes as usual. I guarantee that if, say, German Fernandez sent out something like this, the reception would be "yeah, that's terrible, Schumacher just throws eggs against the wall and whoever doesn't break is awesome."

Dr Yuengling wrote:

txRUNNERgirl wrote:

Mixed feelings as well. Hindsight's 20/20. She was about 23 when she joined BTC, so while that is technically an adult, most people aren't fully self-aware and confident in advocating for themselves at that age. I wonder what kind of guidance she had when signing contract(s) and joining the team.

lol i feel like every year people try to decide that the entry to adulthood is later and later. 23 year olds are not only adults, they've been adults for years.

Agreed.

I know a lot more than I did at 23 but at 23 I was responsible for myself. It's waaay different from a kid or a high school senior. She had coaching from high school and college. Sure, she can look back and say "I was in the wrong training program for a while wasn't I!" But acting like the coaches did her dirty by training the way they always do is silly.