Women faster than her won't change what they are doing. That is a silly question. But if she can get to the point of running more amd cross training less, she will be one of the top women in the world. She is a generational talent. She is a natural.
I'm not sure that's the route she is going to go. The major benefit of the x training regime is that she remains healthy, so she can keep stringing consecutive seasons of training together.
Even though she has still had some niggles, she really hasn't missed an NCAA season in about 3 years.
The idea for improvement would be to
1 - gradually increase difficulty of the running workouts to match new ones
2 - keep increasing the difficulty level of the cross training.
If she wanted to try marathon (I'm not suggesting any time soon) just increase long run, increase length of cross tr sessions and change workouts to fit marathon.
In the colorful and often dubious annals of exercise machine endorsements, it is hard to imagine a better setup than Valby's for the Arc Trainer. They need to give her the supermax.
In the colorful and often dubious annals of exercise machine endorsements, it is hard to imagine a better setup than Valby's for the Arc Trainer. They need to give her the supermax.
Valby seems to be largely training by herself apart from her teammates and even the school's coaches. The coach basically said that he doesn't know what she does and absolves himself from having anything to do with her performances. The article doesn't have a single comment from a teammate which is unusual for an article about an athlete especially one on a college team. Then there's the Lance Armstrong type of deflective focus on the flashy gimmicks that fans tend to latch onto - crosstraining is the new superior bicycle technology. Valby's training also sounds similar to Jakob's insular training setup and extensive use of treadmills.
The current overall increase in the quality of high school and college times is attributed to supershoes and the year hiatus of competitions and training leading to older athletes and fresher bodies. I believe that another factor is that better athletes were directed away from team sports towards individual ones, so this trend should be reversing right now especially with the popularity of Caitlin Clark. Another possible contributor not mentioned much is that younger athletes have already been incorporating crosstraining for years perhaps to copy Jakob and now Valby.
I'm enjoying her progress and hope that more athletes and coaches experiment with crosstraining.
I don't understand why so many of you are having such difficulty understanding her training and why it works.
well - I guess the fact that most on here are just followers and would never try anything new on your own is really the issue.
I trained on 4 days per week myself two years out of college and had big improvements in my times. Why?
1) this allows you to feel fresh on the running days = meaning you can get a much better hard workout
2) the cross training day is great for building strength in ways your muscles have never experienced. I was using biking and rowing for mine (but much less volume than she is doing). My method worked well for about 1 year, but I was not getting any volume - so it plateaued. I think she is doing it exactly right.
Women faster than her won't change what they are doing. That is a silly question. But if she can get to the point of running more amd cross training less, she will be one of the top women in the world. She is a generational talent. She is a natural.
I'm not sure that's the route she is going to go. The major benefit of the x training regime is that she remains healthy, so she can keep stringing consecutive seasons of training together.
Even though she has still had some niggles, she really hasn't missed an NCAA season in about 3 years.
The idea for improvement would be to
1 - gradually increase difficulty of the running workouts to match new ones
2 - keep increasing the difficulty level of the cross training.
If she wanted to try marathon (I'm not suggesting any time soon) just increase long run, increase length of cross tr sessions and change workouts to fit marathon.
umm what place did she finish in the 3k indoors in 2023? She has also missed a ton of other races. But you could say that about lots of runners
it isn’t remotely clear that she is close to having world class speed(sub 4:00 for 1500m) that is the min when you are talking about being competive. 30:50 is great but it is like 90s off medal contention. Hopefully she keeps improving but we are still talking tons of time. And yeah odds are it makes no sense to give up what has been working…
. The coach basically said that he doesn't know what she does and absolves himself from having anything to do with her performances.
😂Which coach? The one, per the article, that sometimes prescribes interval workouts on the Arc Trainer? 😂
The Florida coaches Palmer are not taking any credit in terms of coaching for her performances. It's all Parker Valby and Solinsky. They're so hands off that they characterize what she's doing as "cool". I'm surprised they didn't describe it dismissively as a "clever" use of technology. Will Palmer doesn't buy into it and believes the lack of a strong road running base will hurt her in the future.
On occasion, one of the coaches will stop by to see how she’s doing. “She’s pretty dialed in on what she needs to do,” Will Palmer said.
Her sophomore year, Valby was in excellent shape when she sustained a fracture in her right foot. Her coach at the time, Chris Solinsky, suggested cross-training.
They knew of Valby, of course, and they didn’t need to be convinced that the cross-training was working for her. “She’d already been NCAA runner-up twice,” Will Palmer said. “You didn’t have to sell me too much.”
“She raced two completely different races at indoor nationals [in ways] she hadn’t before. I thought the coolest part was how she put more tools in her toolbox that people assume she doesn’t have.”
Will Palmer hopes she’ll be able to incorporate more and more running into her weeks, but it might take years to get her up to running five, six, or seven days per week. “It’s going to be a really slow burn to get there,” he said.
😂Which coach? The one, per the article, that sometimes prescribes interval workouts on the Arc Trainer? 😂
The Florida coaches Palmer are not taking any credit in terms of coaching for her performances. It's all Parker Valby and Solinsky. They're so hands off that they characterize what she's doing as "cool". I'm surprised they didn't describe it dismissively as a "clever" use of technology. Will Palmer doesn't buy into it and believes the lack of a strong road running base will hurt her in the future.
On occasion, one of the coaches will stop by to see how she’s doing. “She’s pretty dialed in on what she needs to do,” Will Palmer said.
Her sophomore year, Valby was in excellent shape when she sustained a fracture in her right foot. Her coach at the time, Chris Solinsky, suggested cross-training.
They knew of Valby, of course, and they didn’t need to be convinced that the cross-training was working for her. “She’d already been NCAA runner-up twice,” Will Palmer said. “You didn’t have to sell me too much.”
“She raced two completely different races at indoor nationals [in ways] she hadn’t before. I thought the coolest part was how she put more tools in her toolbox that people assume she doesn’t have.”
Will Palmer hopes she’ll be able to incorporate more and more running into her weeks, but it might take years to get her up to running five, six, or seven days per week. “It’s going to be a really slow burn to get there,” he said.
What’s the injury’s ? Hass she ever said? Is it bone density?
😂Which coach? The one, per the article, that sometimes prescribes interval workouts on the Arc Trainer? 😂
The Florida coaches Palmer are not taking any credit in terms of coaching for her performances. It's all Parker Valby and Solinsky. They're so hands off that they characterize what she's doing as "cool". I'm surprised they didn't describe it dismissively as a "clever" use of technology. Will Palmer doesn't buy into it and believes the lack of a strong road running base will hurt her in the future.
On occasion, one of the coaches will stop by to see how she’s doing. “She’s pretty dialed in on what she needs to do,” Will Palmer said.
Her sophomore year, Valby was in excellent shape when she sustained a fracture in her right foot. Her coach at the time, Chris Solinsky, suggested cross-training.
They knew of Valby, of course, and they didn’t need to be convinced that the cross-training was working for her. “She’d already been NCAA runner-up twice,” Will Palmer said. “You didn’t have to sell me too much.”
“She raced two completely different races at indoor nationals [in ways] she hadn’t before. I thought the coolest part was how she put more tools in her toolbox that people assume she doesn’t have.”
Will Palmer hopes she’ll be able to incorporate more and more running into her weeks, but it might take years to get her up to running five, six, or seven days per week. “It’s going to be a really slow burn to get there,” he said.
I'm pretty sure some coaches are checking on her when she's the #1 runner on their team and #1 runner in the NCAA.
The article only mentions there being a foot fracture. Presumably the result of increasing mileage, workouts, and racing in college but it doesn't say.
😂Which coach? The one, per the article, that sometimes prescribes interval workouts on the Arc Trainer? 😂
The Florida coaches Palmer are not taking any credit in terms of coaching for her performances. It's all Parker Valby and Solinsky. They're so hands off that they characterize what she's doing as "cool". I'm surprised they didn't describe it dismissively as a "clever" use of technology. Will Palmer doesn't buy into it and believes the lack of a strong road running base will hurt her in the future.
On occasion, one of the coaches will stop by to see how she’s doing. “She’s pretty dialed in on what she needs to do,” Will Palmer said.
Her sophomore year, Valby was in excellent shape when she sustained a fracture in her right foot. Her coach at the time, Chris Solinsky, suggested cross-training.
They knew of Valby, of course, and they didn’t need to be convinced that the cross-training was working for her. “She’d already been NCAA runner-up twice,” Will Palmer said. “You didn’t have to sell me too much.”
“She raced two completely different races at indoor nationals [in ways] she hadn’t before. I thought the coolest part was how she put more tools in her toolbox that people assume she doesn’t have.”
Will Palmer hopes she’ll be able to incorporate more and more running into her weeks, but it might take years to get her up to running five, six, or seven days per week. “It’s going to be a really slow burn to get there,” he said.
I upvoted this, because I too felt there were some curiosities in the piece, and was left with some unanswered questions.
One curiosity I found was the highlighting of Solinsky.
Blank suggested RunnersWorld was given access for this piece, in prep for last night’s 10000m. So who has clout to set that up? Who would want to set it up? U of Florida? Or instead….maybe the big Nike?
Give it some thought, and consider if something might be going on in the background.
The article only mentions there being a foot fracture. Presumably the result of increasing mileage, workouts, and racing in college but it doesn't say.
Valby broke two bones in her foot in early spring 2022, coming off of Solinsky’s training that had her up to 65-70(?) miles/week that winter prior. Her results later in Outdoors (a 15:20) surprised her, and sold her on the benefits of cross-training.
In spring of 2023, while dealing with a change in coaching staff, she developed a weird unexplainable lower limb injury that might have been due to a nerve issue up in the core.
Anecdotally, I can see how this training is extremely effective. You can get some tremendous aerobic work done on the arc trainer with basically no risk for injury. About 10yrs ago I ran my 1500m PR 3wks removed from being out for 2mo w/femoral stress frx. As soon as i could arc with minimal pain (about 2wks after initial injury), i went HAM everyday; like HR 150s-180s for 1-2hr sessions; did a 3hr session, lots of "intervals" 3min on/1min off etc. with no recovery days and often 2xsessions/day. Running felt slow and clumsy coming back but with probably the biggest aerobic engine I had ever had; after a single rust buster and 3 total interval sessions I ran a huge PR, and I never actually ended up running faster, despite consistent training at 65-75mpw for the following 3yrs. I think this is a strategy that even healthy runners should tap into.
Anecdotally, I can see how this training is extremely effective. You can get some tremendous aerobic work done on the arc trainer with basically no risk for injury. About 10yrs ago I ran my 1500m PR 3wks removed from being out for 2mo w/femoral stress frx. As soon as i could arc with minimal pain (about 2wks after initial injury), i went HAM everyday; like HR 150s-180s for 1-2hr sessions; did a 3hr session, lots of "intervals" 3min on/1min off etc. with no recovery days and often 2xsessions/day. Running felt slow and clumsy coming back but with probably the biggest aerobic engine I had ever had; after a single rust buster and 3 total interval sessions I ran a huge PR, and I never actually ended up running faster, despite consistent training at 65-75mpw for the following 3yrs. I think this is a strategy that even healthy runners should tap into.
I love when people try to compare their hobbyjogger results to the NCAA record holder. I wonder if these people are like I played basketball in my backyard while I was sick, just like LeBron.
I upvoted this, because I too felt there were some curiosities in the piece, and was left with some unanswered questions.
One curiosity I found was the highlighting of Solinsky.
Blank suggested RunnersWorld was given access for this piece, in prep for last night’s 10000m. So who has clout to set that up? Who would want to set it up? U of Florida? Or instead….maybe the big Nike?
Give it some thought, and consider if something might be going on in the background.
To the person that downvoted this, do you care to chime in with an explanation, or are my optics here so acute they totally escape you? Or is this Valby train just bumbling along without thought of where she is to end up?
We've updated our BetterRunningShoes.com web site to make it easier to find good deals on the best shoes. To keep it great we need new shoe reviews from you.