What has Alberto apparently figured out that no other coaches have.

Sounds good for the USA. Any Medals yet ?

King Maker wrote:

Why does every athlete seem to be making such remarkable strides under Alberto that they were never able to make under their previous coaches? Not implying anything(seriously), what does he do so differently?

Alberto has his athletes run, other coaches have them do cross fit.

Seriously though, from what I understand he has his athletes do everything to the edge of the law/rules. Constant blood work. Thyroid levels a little low/high...bam, thyroid meds (all registered with WADA, IAAF, USATF, etc). Testosterone levels a bit below what the rules allow...bam, testosterone meds (all registered with WADA). Altitude tents, Alter-G, etc, etc.

Everything they do is within the rules, but they push right to the limit of the rules.

Combine that with a group of similar talent runners pushing each other and smart, solid training plan.

This is what I've heard...put it probably goes back to the cross fit thing.

alsal uses the POSE method

Despite his own record and his runners' impressive recent achievements at shorter distances, Mr. Salazar has yet to successfully train an athlete to be a first-rate marathoner. It will be very interesting to see whether Dathan will become the exception to this trend.

So Kara Goucher's third place at New York and third place at Boston does not make her a first-rate marathoner?

She finished this close at Boston:

http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/runners/2009/04/09-Boston-10.jpg

Not just AlSal, but also Schumacher with Teg/Solinski/Flanagan seems to now be doing really well.

Agreed, no medals yet, but having 3/4 white guys to ever break 13:00 and the only white guy to ever break 27:00 has to count for something, with probably much more to come in the next 5-10 years. I'm not even a Salazar fan really, but you can't argue that they've taken big steps closer to the next level.

Use solid financial backing (Nike) to entice the best of the US to move to one location and train together. When was the last time you saw so many talented runners in one place in the US? I'm thinking maybe in the days of Shorter and crew.

This plus what the other poster said about pushing to the extent of the legal boundaries.

where is the wise one wrote:

Use solid financial backing (Nike) to entice the best of the US to move to one location and train together. When was the last time you saw so many talented runners in one place in the US? I'm thinking maybe in the days of Shorter and crew.

This plus what the other poster said about pushing to the extent of the legal boundaries.

this is it. this set-up is what everyone was crying for back in the 90s, as well. doesn't anyone else remember all the complaining that top guys were unwilling/unable to train together like the africans all did? we all new that was a big missing piece of the equation.

then hansons moved some 2nd tier guys in together and got them working hard...and got good results. was this a surprise? i don't think.

now, sala- er, nike is doing it with the top people and giving them some serious resources to work with... and we are getting even better results. simple, and this is exactly what we should expect.

not to trivialize their accomplishments, because they deserve a lot of credit for restoring some pride to american distance running. just gotta keep one eye on that salazar!

Darren Treasure.

How do thyroid meds improve running performance?

I know some skeptics believe that PEDS are responsible for the success of his athletes. Perhaps he has created a positive atmosphere where the athletes can live and train and not worry. The trust between athlete and coach could be enough to get talented athletes to succeed. Let's just enjoy the depth we have in this country and support and publicize our sport.

Last I checked Goucher got a bronze medal at the world championships.

You guys are dumb as hell

Exactly coach. They were knocking on the door of World Class, they just needed the right atmosphere and the right races. Confidence is so important. Salazar doesn't use any radical training methods, just common sense stuff.

Having talked to many people involved not only in the professional running, but also to those on the sports med side of professional running, what Stolen Bikes wrote sounds fairly accurate. Athletes aren't "doping" because their levels are not above the maximum allowed numbers. That being said, the athletes are probably receiving something to boost their levels as close to the maximum allowed limits while guaranteeing that they stay under. The money available to Alsal certainly helps in this situation. Now, before we go and bash them for this, remember that this is probably very common amongst world class athletes.

Stolen Bikes Ride Faster wrote:

Alberto has his athletes run, other coaches have them do cross fit.

Seriously though, from what I understand he has his athletes do everything to the edge of the law/rules. Constant blood work. Thyroid levels a little low/high...bam, thyroid meds (all registered with WADA, IAAF, USATF, etc). Testosterone levels a bit below what the rules allow...bam, testosterone meds (all registered with WADA). Altitude tents, Alter-G, etc, etc.

Everything they do is within the rules, but they push right to the limit of the rules.

Combine that with a group of similar talent runners pushing each other and smart, solid training plan.

This is what I've heard...put it probably goes back to the cross fit thing.

The thyroid influences just about everything in the body.

For a physiological discussion, see:

http://www.ironmagazine.com/article561.html

In everyday words (from Wikipedia):

The thyroid controls how quickly the body uses energy, makes proteins, and controls how sensitive the body should be to other hormones.

Yes, they are pushing every boundary and going right after every gray area out there in Oregon. And yes, it is effective. To this point I don't know what evidence there is that they are doing anything illegal, although there were some really shady activities in Park City a few years ago from what I have heard.

Bronze for the half marathon championships.

Any Medals yet ? wrote:

Sounds good for the USA. Any Medals yet ?

Stolen Bikes -

I'll tell you this. The training definitely isn't the answer. As far as training technique and training methodology, Salazar actually knows less and has less coaching experience than other coaches. Runners training together??? Kara Goucher trains with who? male rabbits maybe? Yoder Begley? She used to have a hard time breaking 34 minute for 10K on the roads. Now she's on the verge of breaking 31 minutes.

Salazar's training isn't that effective.

The Shumacker guys, well, they've trained together in the past. Their improvement? not training technique either.

Thus, let's remove training techniques, solid training plans, methods, or whatever off the equation because that isn't the reason.

Hows webb doing under Salazar