It's official: Salazar can't coach the marathon. Puskedra gets dumped by AlSal - runs 18 minute pb!!

The obvious problem for AlSal is that the marathon eventually destroyed him. He now has an deep-rooted aversion to the distance. This is obvious from his "inexplicable inability" to coach runners at his best distance.

..yawn. Frank Shorter ran 2:10:30 in December of 1972 after winning a gold in September. 2:09-2:12 is very 1970-1980. Steve Jones ran 2:07:12, SOLO in Chicago in 1985....

Now that Luke has gotten really fast at the marathon, I for one will begin calling him Luke 'Skywalker' Puskedra. :D :D

"Promising marathon career scuttled by Salazar"--? Ritz had run a PR of 2:10 with Hudson, and 2:07:47 with Salazar. In your hurry to excoriate Salazar, try not to bypass the facts so quickly.

marathoners stay clear wrote:

You tell it, bruthah wrote:

THIS. AlSal will never be a marathon coach. He simply doesn't have it. I knew Puskedra was headed for greatness when I watched him win the Vancouver Sun Run this year. NICELY DONE, PUSKEDRA.

Dathen Titzwentup had a promising marathon career scuttled by Salazar.

Sal had Mo doing 200m repeats a month before London, and at 26/59/2:08 the Mobot is the world's most underperforming marathoner.

Now Luke is back from the dead after getting away from Sally.

Facts don't lie.

2:07:12 & 2:07:11 was performed in 1985..zzzz blah blah puke. 20747Ritz was pulled around by his high school buddy J. Hartmann by his nose for most of that race ... Ritz never made it to the top; face the facts; other than the first 6 months he visited the druggist from Apr-Oct/2009 (12:56/27:22/1:00.00).

Something that might derail the whole thread:

http://www.runnersworld.com/chicago-marathon/with-210-pr-luke-puskedra-makes-comeback-at-chicago-marathon

Don't judge the fact that it is a Jogger's World article.

'"His training was mostly based on speed work, such as kilometer and 200-meter repeats, in order to get a different stimulus after focusing on longer distance work leading up to Grandma's. He said that the quick paces prepared him for more tactical races.

"Maybe it's better for me and other Americans to actually be underprepared on the longer stuff and have something left in the tank to be able to go the whole distance," he said. "I felt the best off the least marathon-specific training."'

Montesquieu wrote:

"Promising marathon career scuttled by Salazar"--? Ritz had run a PR of 2:10 with Hudson, and 2:07:47 with Salazar. In your hurry to excoriate Salazar, try not to bypass the facts so quickly.

marathoners stay clear wrote:

Dathen Titzwentup had a promising marathon career scuttled by Salazar.

Sal had Mo doing 200m repeats a month before London, and at 26/59/2:08 the Mobot is the world's most underperforming marathoner.

Now Luke is back from the dead after getting away from Sally.

Facts don't lie.

Salazar was handed from Hudson an incredibly talented runner, with 12:5x / 2:10:00 shape on arrival. After five years under Salazar's "marathon program" with unlimited resources, Olympic medalist training partners and "grey zone" methods, Titztwentup barely sneaks under 2:08.

Yeah, Salazar really showed some coaching ability there.

Let's not even get into how badly he failed at the distance with Farah and Puskedra.

Montesquieu wrote:

...try not to bypass the facts so quickly...

You are one the worst of the Salazar fanboys.

- He can do no wrong.

- He is the greatest coach in the world.

- When his runners fail to perform it is their fault.

- When a different coach creates a base for a runner Salazar gets all the credit.

- When a runner loses it their fault.

. . .

You want to have his babies.

RW Effs Us Up wrote:

'"His training was mostly based on speed work, such as kilometer and 200-meter repeats, in order to get a different stimulus after focusing on longer distance work leading up to Grandma's. He said that the quick paces prepared him for more tactical races.

"Maybe it's better for me and other Americans to actually be underprepared on the longer stuff and have something left in the tank to be able to go the whole distance," he said. "I felt the best off the least marathon-specific training."'

Interesting that you mention this. Kind of reminds me of Frank Shorter. Frank had these intense speed workouts but they weren't marathon specific. He did lots of mileage and frequent racing though which probably helped with his marathon preparation though.

Crawl back under the disrespectful rock from which you came. Trolls fancy themselves as being clever and maybe even smart. Instead, the only skill they exhibit is an incapacity to take anything seriously. I hope by the time you graduate from high school or college--surely you're no older than a college sophomore--that you learn to take things seriously and learn to treat people, even on a message board, with a bit more respect: those are virtues, not vices.

marathoners stay clear wrote:

Montesquieu wrote:

"Promising marathon career scuttled by Salazar"--? Ritz had run a PR of 2:10 with Hudson, and 2:07:47 with Salazar. In your hurry to excoriate Salazar, try not to bypass the facts so quickly.

Salazar was handed from Hudson an incredibly talented runner, with 12:5x / 2:10:00 shape on arrival. After five years under Salazar's "marathon program" with unlimited resources, Olympic medalist training partners and "grey zone" methods, Titztwentup barely sneaks under 2:08.

Yeah, Salazar really showed some coaching ability there.

Let's not even get into how badly he failed at the distance with Farah and Puskedra.

Montesquieu wrote:

Crawl back under the disrespectful rock from which you came. Trolls fancy themselves as being clever and maybe even smart.

You described yourself, perfectly.

agc5k wrote:

He ran 2:15 under Powell prior to Chicago, so this is a 5 minute PR not an 18 minute PR.

It's still an 18 minute PR since leaving ALSAL!!!! And hopefully more than an 18 minute PR in the next year.

It's too bad this is the big Puskedra discussion. He put together a great race that should inspire other Americans of similar talent. People switch coaches or train differently and get different results. Ritz improved his pb by two minutes under Salazar. I am sure he hoped for more but it is what it is. One could easily pick a few Schumacher athletes who are faster than Luke (Bairu, Nelson, Teg, etc.) and make similar points. It still would be BS - Schumacher is a great joke.

I am happy the guy gave it another shot. I have to think that this will inspire guys coached by many different coaches including Salazar.

Luke is a "big man" for the marathon distance. His 1:01 half from college showed great potential, but 2:10 for a 6'4" runner is pretty unique and probably on par with a little 5'7" dude running 2:07. That said, it will be interesting to see how much he can improve. He's very much in the conversation for the 2016 Olympic team.

He's not had a lot of luck in coaching men in the marathon. Puskedra was there only as training fodder for Rupp/Farah in the longer runs, though highly qualified for that with a 61:36 in college. Obviously, Powell knew how to coach him in college and was the right guy to do so later. Probably Puskedra was run into the ground trying to keep up with or help Rupp and Farah (but the latter trains elsewhere much of the time) and so couldn't equal his college performance. This also shows that the marathon is sui generis.

marathoners stay clear wrote:

Dathen Titzwentup had a promising marathon career scuttled by Salazar.

Sal had Mo doing 200m repeats a month before London, and at 26/59/2:08 the Mobot is the world's most underperforming marathoner.

Now Luke is back from the dead after getting away from Sally.

Facts don't lie.

*embarrassingly raises hand*

A HUGE outlier for that era...makes you wonder how it was possible doesn't it? In today's world, a performance like that would label you a cheater on this site.

It's official: correlation EQUALS causation!

The best thing about Luke's run is that he was able to split 14:55 when the leaders made a big move and was still able to keep his legs moving to get a 2:10. I cannot count the number of times I have seen US runners in the lead pack try to match a surge late in the race and end up running the last few miles 20-30 seconds a mile slower than the rest of the race. Luke was racing and not time trialing for a 2:10. That is good news for the Olympic Trials for Luke.