his shiny new PR would put him ahead of most of the field, but in a more tactical race, would he have had the kick to keep up
should he have done the 5k instead of 10k, or is there just a lot more to come in the longer distance
his shiny new PR would put him ahead of most of the field, but in a more tactical race, would he have had the kick to keep up
should he have done the 5k instead of 10k, or is there just a lot more to come in the longer distance
A LOT more to come in the longer stuff. Not even funny. Just you wait, my pretties...
I think Ritz would have finished lower in the 5K than in the 10K. In the 5K final , Ali Adbosh needed a 54-second final lap just to finish sixth. I have seen Ritz run well and I have seen Ritz run poorly, but I have never seen him finish an elite track race with an impressive kick.
Had Ritz run the 5K, I suspect that he would've finished around 10th, probably behind Tegenkamp. But who knows?
I think Ritz would have done worse in the 5k final as well. Someone pointed out Ritz has never broken 4 in the mile.
His best 1500 is only 3:42.99
At worlds, I went inot the mixed zone and was shocked at how excited Ritz was. From watching the overall race, paying more attention to Rupp as he tried to go with the leaders which Ritz didn't do, my general impression had been "he cherry picked some guys who went out too hard and died to get in the top 10." On it's own I'm not more impressed with that than a guy like Rupp who tried to go with it and only finishes 2 places behind.
Then I heard Ritz's time 27:22. Immediately I said, "oh his run today was better than the American record but no one will realize it."
Ritz said he thought it was worth 27:10 at least in cooler conditions. I disagreed. It was really hot the night of the 10k final and I think that is worth more than 2 seconds a mile.
So I'm glad people got to see how fit Ritz was. He should take on the 10k record while he can as well. Having said that I'm still shocked he ran 12:56. I can't believe it.
Wejo, seriously you are so stupid sometimes. Do you even realize how old his 1500 meter pr is?
Wejo
I bet that it´s the first time and it will be yje last time tha Ritz did one sub 13:00. You will see. The more Salazar training it´s jus sexy training, quick and fast progress in short time period and then...
I bet that Ryan Hall wiiln´t break his own HM AR and that Webb willn´t break his mile AR.
That performances are once in a lifetime performance. You will see.
ritz's performance was spectacular, but there's a big difference between even splits and dropping a 53 at the end of a surge-and-sit tactical championsip race
i'd honestly be surprised if ritz could run a a flat-out 400 in 53, he's always had talent, but was never much of a kicker
Getting a great time in the 5K and winning a major 5K are two very different things. No way does he finish 3rd in Berlin. I'm not sure if I even put him higher than the 3rd best American at the distance right now.
But it will be interesting to see how his speed continues to develop. He openly says that speed is his weak point and I gather that is why he went to the Marathon. Yet Salazar seems very determined to develop that speed.
I think he would have been right behind or right infront of Teg. Perhaps if he ran it now, with the added confidence that comes with his PR, he may have got 4th or 5th, but I can't see him kicking well enough for bronze.
-STS
You all assume that Ritz would play coy and run the race that would offer him the least possible chance of winning? I say that if he took it on from say 2000-2400m out that he could manage a 4th to 7th based on his form. If he really injected a couple quick laps, odds are Bekele would've took it on - similar to his last 2000m at Beijing - to kill any chance for Bernard and in turn much improving Ritz's chance of a high finish. I don't know if Ritz would've had the confidence to do that and we never will but those are my thoughts.
His Worlds 10K set him up to run a fast 5K. There's no way he would have been in medal contention in the 5K. He lacks the finishing speed. However his strength came out big time and allowed him to hold a fast pace in Zurich.
If he can stay injury free over the next couple years he'll run a fast marathon. It would be nice to see him at Chi Town in 2010.
In the WC 10k, Ritzenhein and Rupp beat multiple sub-27 10k runners.
Doesn't mean jack shit in the race the OP is talking about.
Everyone talks about how Ritzenhein lacks the necessary speed to have a good kick, and everyone is pretty right on.
After Ritzenhein recovered from his foot injury in 2004, his new coach at the time Hudson didn't want him doing reps any faster than 60/61 because it was too stressful on his foot and he didn't want to re-injure it, so at a time when most elite runner's in Ritzenhein's position would be doing faster reps, Ritz and Hudson went in the 10k/marathon direction.
Well, I think after spending so much time training and running the 10k and marathon, his foot has regained a lot of strength. It's possible that it's stronger before so that he can now handle doing faster reps.
Salazar took Rupp from a 4:02 mile to a 3:57i mile in less than a year, also training him to a 1:49/50i 800m. If Salazar could do this with Rupp, I think there's a good chance he can do it with Ritzenhein as well.
the OP questioned what Ritzenhein's potential stands at now in the 10k, so my comment was directly related to the OP question.
antagonistic wrote:
Doesn't mean jack shit in the race the OP is talking about.
Half Fool wrote:
His Worlds 10K set him up to run a fast 5K. .
A 10k set him up to run a fast 5k...yea good logic on that one. Lot's of people do hard over distance races to set them up for shorter faster ones....
Ritz was just fit, and had plenty of rest time. The 10k didn't set him up to do anything. Maybe gave him confidence, but is hardly a good set-up race to run fast in a 5k.
cpxqwxmqw wrote:
Wejo
I bet that it´s the first time and it will be yje last time tha Ritz did one sub 13:00. You will see. The more Salazar training it´s jus sexy training, quick and fast progress in short time period and then...
I bet that Ryan Hall wiiln´t break his own HM AR and that Webb willn´t break his mile AR.
That performances are once in a lifetime performance. You will see.
And I bet you don't have ANY american records!!!! Better to have a first time than a no time!!
And Salazar has been training Rupp for how long?
Don't see him beating teg. So maybe a 9th or tenth place finish? Tactical sit and kick 5k's are different than paced rabbited 5k's. They are ususally slow from the gun and plus you have to rely on your kick if you want to medal.
Mrr82 wrote:
Half Fool wrote:His Worlds 10K set him up to run a fast 5K. .
A 10k set him up to run a fast 5k...yea good logic on that one. Lot's of people do hard over distance races to set them up for shorter faster ones....
Ritz was just fit, and had plenty of rest time. The 10k didn't set him up to do anything. Maybe gave him confidence, but is hardly a good set-up race to run fast in a 5k.
You are wrong my friend... And hard over-distance does work well for some athletes. I do agree Ritz was very fit but the stimulus and rest was perfect for him.