Based on what we’ve seen with other guys with his size and height, the 10k is about the max distance where he can be competitive on the national level. This race is of course his first back from injury, but his buildup was ideal, so i doubt this is a case where he has much more potential at the half than what we saw today. In the full he would only struggle more, he’s a 2:11 guy at best. On the track, he’s about reached his limit, he might have a 26:50 in him, but he is not fast enough to ever medal at global championships. He’s like Solinsky, Tegenkamp, and Goucher where he is stuck at 5k and 10k. Not enough speed to compete at mid distances, but just too big to be good on the roads.
Should he retire? Completely up to him, but he might have some success with the triathlon, or maybe just cycling.
The level of r*tardation in this page is amazing. He is at worst a 27 low guy. If he has to retire, 99'99% of athletes should retire. The "why bother run if you arent going to win a medal at the olympics" is a toxic mindset to say the least.
Most of these threads are started by wannabe pros who werent talented enough and gave up running after college and are just jealeous they couldnt achieve what people like Klecker has. You ask athletes to grow up when you are the ones that have to grow up and stop whinning about "what could have been". Bunch of p*ssies
This post was edited 53 seconds after it was posted.
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“Monson and Klecker were injured, but they've been two of the best in the US since they turned pro” THIS SAYS IT ALL. You’ve got two Olympians in the repair shop. Rookie coach.
Here come the excuses piled high and deep. Injured?? Did you read his Strava workouts and follow the threads here on how crazy his workouts were? So he can manage to run incredible times in workouts but when it comes to running his race goal time all of a sudden it’s because he was injured! Listen to yourself
What is it a 4:40 or 4:41 for 13.1? It is hard to find a pace chart faster than this.
I'm pretty sure it will take several tries to find out how fast he can run. How many can you run in a year? after two or three years he will know if he can compete or not.
“Monson and Klecker were injured, but they've been two of the best in the US since they turned pro” THIS SAYS IT ALL. You’ve got two Olympians in the repair shop. Rookie coach.
Here come the excuses piled high and deep. Injured?? Did you read his Strava workouts and follow the threads here on how crazy his workouts were? So he can manage to run incredible times in workouts but when it comes to running his race goal time all of a sudden it’s because he was injured! Listen to yourself
Klecker is fine.
He didn’t post the workouts here and he doesn’t have any excuses. If anything I blame the coaching: way too many the threshold and long fartleks on the dirt roads. He had only about one month and really one a couple workouts that were very specific and grinding (his 10 x 1km workout and his 4 x 3 mile workout which should’ve been 3 x 3 at half pace)
He got beat by a lot of runners who just aren’t as good as him.
if I was Klecker I’d scrap “the ten” track 10k race in a couple months and instead look for a 10 mile race at about that time. Transition to 10k training (less thresholds, more specific work) and see if he can race 10 miles in 45 flat or faster
Here come the excuses piled high and deep. Injured?? Did you read his Strava workouts and follow the threads here on how crazy his workouts were? So he can manage to run incredible times in workouts but when it comes to running his race goal time all of a sudden it’s because he was injured! Listen to yourself
Klecker is fine.
He didn’t post the workouts here and he doesn’t have any excuses. If anything I blame the coaching: way too many the threshold and long fartleks on the dirt roads. He had only about one month and really one a couple workouts that were very specific and grinding (his 10 x 1km workout and his 4 x 3 mile workout which should’ve been 3 x 3 at half pace)
He got beat by a lot of runners who just aren’t as good as him.
if I was Klecker I’d scrap “the ten” track 10k race in a couple months and instead look for a 10 mile race at about that time. Transition to 10k training (less thresholds, more specific work) and see if he can race 10 miles in 45 flat or faster
then transition to 10k races
Klecker needed another month of specific training to have a chance of a good race yesterday: 6 mile tempos at half marathon pace, 4 x 2 mile at faster than half marathon pace, 6 x 2km. Stuff like that
As a wise man once said, "If I had just ran a 61:06 half, I'd still be running victory laps" especially if a team is willing to pay me a bunch of money to keep running. I don't know why there's this obsession with wanting athletes to retire after a bad (61 isn't even that bad) race. Have you never worked a real job and have no idea what a 9-5 grind looks like? Why would you be telling someone to stop RUNNING for their job and go do that?
You need to work on your reading comprehension. My last sentence was literally that it’s completely up to Joe if he wants to retire. So I didn’t tell him to stop running. Learn how to read. You can sign up for a local adult education course for free.
I was responding to the thread title, which posed the question if Joes should retire. Such a question would invite responders to cite any number of reasons for retiring from pro racing. I just simply provided a few examples of reasons for Joe or anyone in his position to retire. Sometimes if the outlook for improvement or success is bleak, some individuals may seek other jobs or other opportunities elsewhere. My post had nothing to do with demanding Joe to retire. I was simply citing objective observations about his skillset and performances.
It isn’t just one bad race. If you look at Joe Klecker’s career, it’s everything I described in my earlier post. He’s stuck at 5k and 10k but seems to have maxed out and it’s doubtful he has the speed to win at those distances. You can’t disagree with facts. Every guy as big as Joe has never been successful at the half or full marathon.
Now in terms of your baseless accusation that I’m unemployed and can’t relate to having a job, I actually have a great career and I work normally 60 hours per week. So nice try.
For all the downvotes you got here, after reading my post I almost edited it to say "You didn't say he should retire, just that it was up to him", but I decided not to because I figured the obvious answer at the end of that was still no.
Klecker could still be making US teams for years to come, even if he doesn't end up winning medals or DLs, he'll still be one of the top runners domestically.
And since you want to talk about my reading comprehension, I never said anything about him moving to the half or the full. Personally, I think he should do what Mantz does and give the marathon a go while also doing a bunch of track races (Rupp also had a foot in the track world after moving to the marathon). If he can't break 2:10, he can stick to the 5k/10k and reap the benefits of the larger base of his marathon training block. I think Ritz ran his 12:56 AR after his first marathon training block. I also don't know why you'd think he's maxed out there when he was improving every year until last year when he got a season-ending injury super early in the year.
Ok 60 hours a week sounds awful to me, 40 hours a week killed my soul. But since you do know what it's like to work a real job, if you were in his position, what would you do? Would you retire and start working the job you have now (I assume you enjoy it but idk), or would you continue running for as long as On was willing you pay you good money? When I ask myself that question, the answer is laughably obvious, but every person is different.
As a wise man once said, "If I had just ran a 61:06 half, I'd still be running victory laps" especially if a team is willing to pay me a bunch of money to keep running. I don't know why there's this obsession with wanting athletes to retire after a bad (61 isn't even that bad) race. Have you never worked a real job and have no idea what a 9-5 grind looks like? Why would you be telling someone to stop RUNNING for their job and go do that?
Thanks. That's what people on this board seem to forget... it isn't like he's running for free. He is a sponsored professional.
I know his fans wanted him to do better (and he probably did too) but he debuts in the event with a 1:01 flat and is getting paid to do it. The fact that he did it in a race where so much talent came together is the only reason it looks "bad."
1:01 for your debut is great if you are building and uninjured. If his sponsors will pay him to run, there is zero reason to "move on" and get a real job.
Ah I think you're the wise man I was quoting, but I messed it up a little lol. I think one of the brojos read it on the LR podcast and I was like "Every time someone makes a 'Should x retire' thread, that's gonna be my response" because lmao trueeeee
There is NO WAY you're comparing Sean Brosnan to Eyestone Smith, Thomas, etc. sure, a phenomonal highschool coach, but those are different worlds.
Before #1 Trump hater by tag was #1 Sean Brosnan fan lol it was a bit tongue in cheek but I do still think he'd be very successful at the pro level. I did leave out Miltenberg on accident but he deserves to be on there too.
Comical amounts of recency bias, delusional extrapolation, butthurt and hyperbole in this thread (and on this board in general (and on the internet in general)).
Based on what we’ve seen with other guys with his size and height, the 10k is about the max distance where he can be competitive on the national level. This race is of course his first back from injury, but his buildup was ideal, so i doubt this is a case where he has much more potential at the half than what we saw today. In the full he would only struggle more, he’s a 2:11 guy at best. On the track, he’s about reached his limit, he might have a 26:50 in him, but he is not fast enough to ever medal at global championships. He’s like Solinsky, Tegenkamp, and Goucher where he is stuck at 5k and 10k. Not enough speed to compete at mid distances, but just too big to be good on the roads.
Should he retire? Completely up to him, but he might have some success with the triathlon, or maybe just cycling.
The level of r*tardation in this page is amazing. He is at worst a 27 low guy. If he has to retire, 99'99% of athletes should retire. The "why bother run if you arent going to win a medal at the olympics" is a toxic mindset to say the least.
It’s not retarded. My last sentence literally stated that it’s up to him to retire and maybe choose a better more lucrative career option. I didn’t write that he had to retire at any point. I was just stating observational facts.
Now that Klecker has bombed his first and only half marathon, his value has gone way down. His future contract offer is probably going to be much smaller, because at this point he has shown about what he is capable of. He’s a solid 5k/10k who can’t win international races and who it appears will struggle to succeed at the longer distances. He can prove that yesterday was a fluke, but until he does the status quo is that he is a sunk financial investment and a disappointment.
The level of r*tardation in this page is amazing. He is at worst a 27 low guy. If he has to retire, 99'99% of athletes should retire. The "why bother run if you arent going to win a medal at the olympics" is a toxic mindset to say the least.
It’s not retarded. My last sentence literally stated that it’s up to him to retire and maybe choose a better more lucrative career option. I didn’t write that he had to retire at any point. I was just stating observational facts.
Now that Klecker has bombed his first and only half marathon, his value has gone way down. His future contract offer is probably going to be much smaller, because at this point he has shown about what he is capable of. He’s a solid 5k/10k who can’t win international races and who it appears will struggle to succeed at the longer distances. He can prove that yesterday was a fluke, but until he does the status quo is that he is a sunk financial investment and a disappointment.
How many coaches in the US are getting better results than Ritz? Not saying this was a good result from Klecker, because I expected better (as did Ritz), but Beamish won a gold medal indoors, Nuguse got a 3k silver and 1500 bronze last year + a 3:27. Monson and Klecker were injured, but they've been two of the best in the US since they turned pro. Hoare is a CWG champ (waiting to see how this season goes before deciding if he should go somewhere else).
Of course I'd like them to do better, but I'll always want athletes to be better, that's what the whole sport is about, and there's only a handful of coaches you could even argue might be better (Eyestone, Smith, Thomas, maybe Powell, maybe Schumacher, Brosnan ofc, maybe a couple others), and I doubt most of them are able/would want to switch to On.
This is the first time one of OAC has raced a half iirc (besides Obiri but she was already world class coming in). I think we can wait a bit longer before saying they should fire Dathan based on a January race coming off of their most successful year as a group.
I don't care about regional (non-global) championships at all. I value a commonwealth games champ as weaker than a 1x NCAA champ. And Obiri doesn't count as a success because she only had a bronze despite being a silver/gold level talent. She was hurt before this OG
How many coaches in the US are getting better results than Ritz? Not saying this was a good result from Klecker, because I expected better (as did Ritz), but Beamish won a gold medal indoors, Nuguse got a 3k silver and 1500 bronze last year + a 3:27. Monson and Klecker were injured, but they've been two of the best in the US since they turned pro. Hoare is a CWG champ (waiting to see how this season goes before deciding if he should go somewhere else).
Of course I'd like them to do better, but I'll always want athletes to be better, that's what the whole sport is about, and there's only a handful of coaches you could even argue might be better (Eyestone, Smith, Thomas, maybe Powell, maybe Schumacher, Brosnan ofc, maybe a couple others), and I doubt most of them are able/would want to switch to On.
This is the first time one of OAC has raced a half iirc (besides Obiri but she was already world class coming in). I think we can wait a bit longer before saying they should fire Dathan based on a January race coming off of their most successful year as a group.
I don't care about regional (non-global) championships at all. I value a commonwealth games champ as weaker than a 1x NCAA champ.
This is an astute point from a commenter with tons of credibility. To his point, most NCAA 1500m championships feature three different world champions, so they are comparably presitigious and competitive.
There is NO WAY you're comparing Sean Brosnan to Eyestone Smith, Thomas, etc. sure, a phenomonal highschool coach, but those are different worlds.
Before #1 Trump hater by tag was #1 Sean Brosnan fan lol it was a bit tongue in cheek but I do still think he'd be very successful at the pro level. I did leave out Miltenberg on accident but he deserves to be on there too.
You may think he’d be very successful at the pro level, but there isn’t any evidence to suggest he’s even close to the level of coach as those you listed. I guess it’s possible he may end up at some point, but until he accomplishes anything remotely close to the others, it’s nothing more than your belief. First step is for him to start coaching someone. ANYONE
Before #1 Trump hater by tag was #1 Sean Brosnan fan lol it was a bit tongue in cheek but I do still think he'd be very successful at the pro level. I did leave out Miltenberg on accident but he deserves to be on there too.
You may think he’d be very successful at the pro level, but there isn’t any evidence to suggest he’s even close to the level of coach as those you listed. I guess it’s possible he may end up at some point, but until he accomplishes anything remotely close to the others, it’s nothing more than your belief. First step is for him to start coaching someone. ANYONE
Let’s get back to Klecker here.
i think he should race another half or a ten miler somewhere.
It’s quite obvious that he needed another month or more of specific race training. And by specific I mean the stuff that is obvious but works, like a lot of the stuff that Mantz does.