The athletes have entered the last inning of training before the big Trials dance.
Graduation is behind her. All of the other distractions need to fall away. You show up to work each day, and then you have three race-practice sessions remaining. You dial-in the sleep, the diet, and the race-day ritual for these three sessions.
Coach may put a pacer out there in at least one them so that she can get practice in a hyped environment following on the rail, while running at 3min/k pace, learning how to relax in her long stride while following for a while. The purpose is not to throttle and slow her down. It is to practice following while still opening up the stride and relaxing. 😎
Yesterday, Alabama’s Lemngole demonstrated she can run in the heat and kick like a mule, closing her steeple race in 71 and 68. Valby would be well-advised to run her race and not get complacent.
But should she break the Outdoor 5000m record tonight, you-know-who will almost guaranteed pop off with his usual schtik, “she was just running reckless in order to break the record…and she showed no signs of fatigue, either!”
The red flags are there. That is not a schtick, just a fact. No natural athlete runs the way she runs. If someone does not run like a clean athlete, I will notice it, especially in college. Nor are the explanations remotely credible. Her fellow athletes have noticed it. Simple fact is nothing prevents a college athlete from doping and UF is a perfectly place for it. We already know the top college sprinters do it.