Rupp, Goucher altitude article..a good read

As far as the techno goes - who cares, I think it is more about the training. Techno has not done a whole lot for the US running scene in the past except for distract its runners from hard core training and preparation that has been proven to work. The 2:08 marathons of the 80's vs the dull 90's illustrate that well. There really have not been any legal, earth shattering scientific breakthroughs. The physiology has not changed. Some of these threads have turned into tabloid trash rather than a running forum. We really rip on these guys, but Gouchers, Rupp, Meb, Webb, Halls etc. are really working hard. From what I have seen, most of them are really nice people. On top of that, they are making running a lot more interesting to follow here in the US. I love it, when was the last time that the US running scene showed so much promise and excitement?

In Reference to Salazar Group wrote:

Alberto's group has failed to produce any medals at Worlds nor Olympics even though the group has existed for some time and has had the unlimited resources of Nike at their disposal....hooray for bad science.

You spoke too soon!

As I previously said-- Power to science!;)

Either that or YOU did.

From the articles the OP linked:

"In the mountainside condo here, the runners (except Rohatinsky) slept in high-altitude tents that allowed them to sleep at oxygen levels equivalent to 13,000 feet elevation."

Yikes.

I find the link to the these articles about Nike Sponsored group troubling. I think it is a mistake to advertised that Rupp has been on a altitude system at 13,000 ft since his was in High School. There are lot of HS kids on here and now they are going to think that to be best US distance runner that they will have a buy a CAT or Hypoxico System ($6,000).

What ever happened to just plain intelligent consistent training? People forget about Nenow who ran ran very fast without suport of a coach, USA training group, nor organized track sessions. He ran ran very hard very consistently and ran sub 27:30! However I might add he never medaled at the World Champs nor Olympics (dooh) but at least we have one US A runner who did Billy Mills in 1964!

Anyway, the science gadgets that Rupp used didn't workout for the World Champs and this might be a strong message to HS runners that science gadgets can't replace training and racing effort.

P.S. I don't what happen to Ritz? Congrats to Abdi for running sub 28 and being competitive!