WTF: Beamish out of steeple

^^I may be getting places mixed up. Paris, not Stockholm. And maybe Stockholm, not Oslo. But point remains.

Ritz=Hudson. Most athletes make nice jumps after Ritz coaching menu for 1-2 years. Then he has no idea what the hell to do with them, because he already threw in the kitchen sink. Can’t just do same workouts at a faster pace. If you’re gonna increase intensity and maintain volume you’ll break or get stale.

I can understand people questioning Ritz but I think it is important to note that he's had success with most of these guys for more than 1-2 years. Geordie and Olli were original OAC members and they've both improved significantly since college under Ritz. What was weird about this year was Olli seemed to be coming back nicely and Geordie was having a career year. I think that's what feels so disappointing. I actually think Ritz has handled these guys really well so far but it will be interesting to see how he re-tools training after this year. Geordie has been doing a lot more mileage this year and maybe that just left him a little spread thin with all the travel and what should've been a week out with a cough turned into this lingering nasty bronchitis. Same with Olli and his comeback but that also might've been affected by him needing to be in racing shape way earlier to run the Aussie trials, which seemed to really mess with the whole team. I still rate Ritz as a coach but I'm definitely paying attention to how he handles a rough year for pretty much all his athletes.

I believe Beamish did the best he could with the equipment he had on the day. And took it on the chin. I hope he'd back and healthy soon.

They hired a beginner coach, and he's making rookie errors. It was a stupid appointment, and he should've had the humility to realise he wasn't ready to handle this level of talent.

Now the last Coffee Club pod(s) make very much sense now. I got a feeling that they were very vague, avoiding any direct discussion of the races - which seemed odd. I found the Pods disappointing listens. Looking back, it's very clear why they were - and I am sure it is they who are most disappointed, knowing they got to Paris being far off the shape they wished they were in. It feels they knew exactly what was in store for them.

Good luck to them turning it around again.

Olympic years are tough...

A) Honestly don't see a reason as to why he wouldn't run the 1500 instead as he beat out both Hocker and Kessler who are currently bronze contenders Indoors.

B) Unless goose proves me wrong tomorrow, Ritz completely overcooked this one. All of OAC has struggled.

That being said Olli had just come off winning London? Granted it wasn't some crazy performance (with the top 3 guys falling it was a Repechage-level field and Nordas). But clearly he could've been feeling very confident about the Heats. Beamish understandably could be down. Morgan I guess I just hope he's the exception though the fact he pulled out of that race is not ideal.

Olli winning London was definitely solid, but nothing tantalizing ...and there were some great runners/solid kickers who fell.

yes Olli winning London was a high. Yet he was already hedging by saying he wish he had won it against everyone, which seemed to weigh heavily on his mind. While I don't know what he feels, it seemed like insecurity about the win was quite a dominant feeling, which suggest he didn't quite think he is quite up there yet.

It looked like he was running a little overconfidently. You could see he kind of started to get a bit scared the last 600 meters when they started getting away from him. It looked like he had a good kick and was expecting to catch a runner to get a Q, but obviously, those runners had another gear still yet.

If we're talking about Olli Hoare here too, I wanted to say I watched his 2022 Commonwealth Win and 2024 London win, and the guy is pretty freakin fast. Seems like things just didn't come together at Paris. Hope he bounces back mentally quickly.

I wonder when coaches will start looking at illness precautions better to ensure healthy athletes - not sure why you would risk running with a cold which turned into bronchitis leading up the olympics when you already had a qualifier. Same goes for illness precautions in the olympic village - certainly some athletes have been told to wear masks, and other athletes are coming down sick and underperforming or pulling out of races.

It's just an Olympic year. Everyone won't have a fairytale finish.

yeah the Paris DL might have been too much: a 8:09 steeple PR but struggling with sickness and injury pain. what was the long term cost? (and the real benefit?)

Obiri has a chance to do really well but she was a fully formed athlete long before joining OAC so I don't ever consider her performance to be that reflective of Dathan's coaching (whether rightly or wrongly)

Ollie looked so god-damned tired. was expecting semis for him before this but not even out of the heats unfortunately despite the London DL win. Garcia Romo disaster too (but has been having an off years since indoors). Is J. Raess in there somewhere in 5k?

Morgan I am hoping for the best but having to pull out from the recent race with shin issues is making me very nervous.

Nuguse's talent can make up for a lot of the questionable coaching that is perhaps going on there bc I just get the sense that he is much more restrained in his training than Klecker and the CC boys (less injuries recently and less hard on himself so less need to prove fitness in workouts). But I fear that he is not going to medal in this final tomorrow either. Maybe another 5th place finish or something moderately disappointing.

Exactly. He ran like an idiot. No wonder he's such a fascination on a forum loaded with Americans, and today on the American network NBC. They love that late closer sucker crap.

I'm a huge fan of Coffee Club and the boys as human beings, they're clearly fantastic people and I hope any criticism doesnt get misconstrued as trolling.

That said, hard to not be utterly dejected by the OAC performances so far. Olli looked to be on the right course, and then it sounds like he ran his race in a session(s) between London Diamond League and the Olympics.

Geordie, going by the interview posted on page 1, was still completely broken but they kept doing sessions? I'm honestly aghast that he couldnt walk for days afterwards but they persisted with sessions! WTAF. Add in that he got ill in Oslo, flew to and ran in Stockholm still unwell, and then flew to St Moritz or all the way back to Boulder (think it was the latter but memory fails me at this moment). No wonder the bronchitis persisted.

I completely get that careers in top-level athletics are fleeting, but it certainly feels like OAC needs someone heavily involved in the group to protect the runners and Ritz from flying too close to the sun. I want these guys to be in the athletics world for as long as possible, because seeing them perform to their best level gives me as a fan such a good experience, as they say, Geordie, Olli and Morgan are good for the sport, and I only want the best for them!

Man it's a tough sport to coach and coach well in.

Your point about getting too close to the sun is very true but on the other hand getting close to the sun is how amazing things happen if you don't get burned!

Ritz will most likely learn a lot from this and be better for it moving forward. It's just really unfortunate that it's happened during a olympic year. Maybe it's best to fly close to the sun on non olympic years and stick with a game plan that you know won't overcook your guys on olympic years?

The group had so much success and momentum last year that it's hard to wrap my head around how this outdoor season has gone.

He's been struggling with an injury. He discussed this after he ran his PB (a NR) a month or so ago.