0/10
Troll insults are tacky, useless, and not nice.
0/10
Troll insults are tacky, useless, and not nice.
When you set PR's it is not a plateau.
When you stop setting PR's and stay consistent, you plateau.
He surpassed the American record this year and made indoor World finals.
Nice breakthrough year.
Python wrote:
Rupp vs Solinsky
http://a.imageshack.us/img693/6179/screenshot20100708at841.png
What on Earth is that?
Trimble wrote:
What on Earth is that?
Their best performances of the year in iaaf points are plotted with a power regression line.
He ran 13:37 as prepster and like 7 years later only improved 27 or so seconds - that is indeed a plateau. Most make enormous strides during 4 years of college and often even more during a professional career. Rupp improved less than half a minute during his entire collegiate career and his professional career. This is what Bob in What About Bob might call "baby steps."
Rupp is so far from his physical peak it is crazy to suggest he has plateaued. If he stays healthy, he will improve. Maybe not to 26:40, but how many people have? Cmon.
You're so caught up on his 13:37 to 13:10 stat.
He ran 28:15 in 2005, and has cut a minute off that in 5 years. Pretty cool.
Won 5 NCAA titles 2008-09. That's recent.
He's set PRs in 4 distances this year...and isn't done with his efforts to improve in the 3K and 5K.
Thanks for the laugh
Careful observer wrote:
Never said he wasn't in sub 13 shape dude. All I said was that he doesn't have what it takes to win a world class 5k race. Hell he can have a 12:49 5k p.r for all I care and never win a medal. Theres probably dozens of kenyans who have sub 12:55 credencials who have never won a 5k medal. Fast times arent everything you know.
I don't care who you are, 12:49 is going to get you something.
Fattty R. Belt Buckle wrote:
He ran 13:37 as prepster and like 7 years later only improved 27 or so seconds - that is indeed a plateau. Most make enormous strides during 4 years of college and often even more during a professional career. Rupp improved less than half a minute during his entire collegiate career and his professional career. This is what Bob in What About Bob might call "baby steps."
You don't know what a plateau is. He is still improving. It doesn't matter if it's 27 seconds or 5 freakin' minutes. He hasn't plateaued yet, obviously, but you just can't seem to understand that. Plus, he is probably capable of faster than that 13:10 he ran. Besides, he's not going to make a jump from 13:37 to 13:10 just like someone jumping from 16:00 to 15:33. It's different when you're faster.
Rupp is probably capable of a sub-26:55 10,000 right now. And he is far from reaching his physical peak. Yes, there are diminishing returns, but let's see how this guy is running in four years.
Why don't you plot a graph of his best times for every year for the last 8 years for every event from 800-10000.
Do the same for the top U.S. distance runners, then reavaluate your statement. The numbers won't lie.
Rupp is the anti-plateau, or the definition of progression.
Python wrote:
Rupp vs Solinsky
http://a.imageshack.us/img693/6179/screenshot20100708at841.png
LOL, only on letsrun will you see something like that.
Interesting nonetheless.
Clearly the guy who started this thread is a troll. That's why I can't believe athletes and coaches get so worked up on what someone says on here. You think ARod doesn't take a beating on online forums?
Back to the main point, I remember when Rupp was in high school and I would talk to people in the Oreogn Project. And they would tell me, "This kid will burn out. Alberto works him too hard." That was the impression I got from a lot of people. Clearly that didn't happen. Rupp and Alberto proved a lot of people wrong.
Rupp has far from hit a plateau. 2 years ago I thought he was overrated. He had no finishing speed and had not won a major title. That all changed last year. He never went sub 4 in the mile until last year and then after 5 or 6 years of high level running somehow he got a kick and more speed. That is called stepping up a level.
As for Solinsky and all the Americans the one thing they don't have that the Africans have is the NECESSITY to win. With 150 to go, Solinsky can in the back of him mine be content to be up there. For the Africans that is not the case. They get very little in terms of endorsement $ so they need to, HAVE to try and win the race.
Look at Gebremeskel (2nd place yesterday). He was behind Solinsky coming into the final 100m and then he just gutted it out and finished 2nd.
Of course Solinsky is trying to win, but the bigotry of low expectations I think effects him. He's putting himself more and more up there.
people said the same thing about solinsky 2 years ago!
I would be damn proud to reach PRs of 13:00 and 27:00 solid stuff. I don't get the haters sometimes. I hope he reaches it.
People said the same thing about Webb.
wejo wrote:
As for Solinsky and all the Americans the one thing they don't have that the Africans have is the NECESSITY to win. With 150 to go, Solinsky can in the back of him mine be content to be up there. For the Africans that is not the case. They get very little in terms of endorsement $ so they need to, HAVE to try and win the race.
Look at Gebremeskel (2nd place yesterday). He was behind Solinsky coming into the final 100m and then he just gutted it out and finished 2nd.
Of course Solinsky is trying to win, but the bigotry of low expectations I think effects him. He's putting himself more and more up there.
Wejo I do partly agree with you on this. I really think they are running for different things coming down the last 150 or so. They are running to win, but winning means something different for them that it does for our guys, I don't think they have much fear to win either, it's not much of a mental block. For our guys that still exists to some degree.
But I do think Solinsky is doing his best to win, and perhaps like the 13 minute barrier maybe it takes someone like Solinsky to win a race to open the minds up and make it less of a barrier.
All that said, I think there is something to what Chris himself said. He was anaerobic coming into that last lap. He didn't think they were. He's probably right. It's not a question of can Chris or Galen run the last 200 as fast as them, because they likely can, at least enough to place in the top 3 in a race like yesterday or an olympic final. But the problem is getting there and still being aerobic.
I think Rupp and Solinsky are getting very close to it at 12:55 pace.
The One Who is Confused wrote:
Careful observer wrote:Rupp is good and he will improve but to me he's not mentally tough enough to win a major 5k elite race or championship style race...
How do you infer this?
Easy. He grew up in a high/middle class family and he's competing with a bunch of starving africans. Who do you think wants it more? He's shown nothing on world stage that he can be a threat in a major championship race. He's not racing against a bunch of ncaa guys who he was head and shoulders above everybody. He is trying to win so I'll give him that but from what I've seen he doesn't have that killer instinct to get it done. If he did than he will be more aggressive attacking from the front in these races instead of always starting from the back of the pack. Rupp's aggresiveness has to be the same as the africans if not more in order for him to be competitive because it's all psychological now. He can run the times but the question is can he win a world class race. I doubt it. Your turn......Blast away.
Careful observer wrote:
The One Who is Confused wrote:How do you infer this?
Easy. He grew up in a high/middle class family and he's competing with a bunch of starving africans. Who do you think wants it more? He's shown nothing on world stage that he can be a threat in a major championship race. He's not racing against a bunch of ncaa guys who he was head and shoulders above everybody. He is trying to win so I'll give him that but from what I've seen he doesn't have that killer instinct to get it done. If he did than he will be more aggressive attacking from the front in these races instead of always starting from the back of the pack. Rupp's aggresiveness has to be the same as the africans if not more in order for him to be competitive because it's all psychological now. He can run the times but the question is can he win a world class race. I doubt it. Your turn......Blast away.
When Rupp was racing NCAA guys his 5K best was 13:18. Another guy had run 13:19 and several had run 13:2X. His 10K was 27:33 and another runner had 27:28 and has since run 27:08. What made him head and shoulders ahead of them was the way he raced. Rupp dominated the 10K over the collegiate record holder for 10,000 and he would have been a contender for the 1500 title against guys with faster PRs.
True there is a large gap between the ncaa and the international level, which he is dramatically closing down.
Wejo - the "guy" who started this thread is not a troll. Instead, I noticed his noticeable lack of improvement from his 13:37 as prepster to his 13:10 or so as a pro. He is highly talented but come on - 27 seconds in like 7 years with some of those as a professional? Seriously, some many a 27-second improvement in one year. Rupp has supreme talent but just has not improved as much as perhaps he should have. I resent being called a troll - thought a legitimate question.
