Alan Webb Takes A Trip Down Memory Lane

The CITIUS MAG Podcast

January 12, 2018

Alan Webb, the American record holder in the mile, joins the CITIUS MAG Podcast to take a trip down memory lane and catch up on what he’s up to nowadays. Webb retired from track in 2014 and then made a run for the 2016 Olympics in the triathlon. The triathlon chapter did not pan out as planned and he now owns a truck repair business in Oregon.

“For me, I started to kind of take on a different mentality,” Webb says. “I started to enjoy watching others be in that moment. You kind of know when someone is building that momentum and seeing it…You just have a genuine appreciation of someone going through something you felt…It changed for me and that’s when I started to know that it was time to step away.”

“It became hard to genuinely give it everything I had,” Webb adds. “I couldn’t dig down deep like I used to. That’s when I was like ‘You’re not digging!’ It was hard. It was honestly hard mentally to dig down deep. I wasn’t what I would recommend to someone else. If I was coaching I wouldn’t want them to do what I was doing…I would give up sometimes. That was hard. Knowing I was doing that.”

We delve into the magic of that 2007 season and what the impact was of that 3:46.91 at a tiny meet in in Brasschaat, Belgium. We did start to think about how long does he think the record will stand. The closest someone has come is 3:50.53 by Matt Centrowitz in May 2014 and that’s still 4 seconds off.

Among the questions explored:

What was it like stepping off the track at the Millrose Games and retiring at 31 years old?

Does he believe in the idea that runners who thrive so early in their careers simply can’t maintain that peak?

We get the full rundown on Webb’s weight room training including how much he would bench before his races and what his routine was.

What’s the deepest that he’s ever had to dig for a race?

As he begins his coaching career soon, what coach from his career does he think he may resonate the most with? He was coached by Scott Raczko, Alberto Salazar, Ron Warhurst, Jason Vigilante, Jerry Schumacher and Jon Marcus in his career.

Whose career would you rather have: Webb’s, Ryan Hall’s, or Dathan Ritzenhein’s? Can Webb make the case for why they should pick him? Or does he have a different opinion?

We take a few listener questions and more.

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Chris Chavez

Chris Chavez launched CITIUS MAG in 2016 as a passion project while working full-time for Sports Illustrated. He covered the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and grew his humble blog into a multi-pronged media company. He completed all six World Marathon Majors and is an aspiring sub-five-minute miler.