Mike Smith lifts the veil on Galen Rupp's training and talks about what makes him great

Whathemean? wrote:

How does someone achieve that? What needs to be done to alter a house like that?

There is a special machine called a "Colorado Altitude Room", the company may not still be in business, not sure. Rupp had it installed when he bought his house. It cycles air in the house through a ventillation system to remove oxygen from the air to simulate living at whatever elevation you choose. That's why Rupp bought a house in Portland with vents in every room. So he could live at 10,000 feet and train at sea level, best of both worlds. I believe the machine costs about $20,000-25,000 to have installed if your house already has vents to all the rooms.

xcskier66 wrote:

The more I get to know and read about top athletes, the

More I think the head matters.

Working on a solid head game is the most important thing in this sport. The perfect training will fall into place if the head is there.

The head matters a lot, probably more than most of us realize. For example, everything lined up for Steve Holman and Alan Webb several times to win a global medals. Both of these athletes had the talent to be among the best when it really counted. They came into the biggest meets of their careers healthy, fit and capable and it didn't happen for them. I know Steve and worked out with him for a brief period and I know about Alan from following his career since he was 16, listening to his interviews and reading everything written about him . Both of these athletes had lot in common that got them to the elite level, but they also had the same head problem. A race was like a algebra problem or a suspension bridge, everything had to fit just right for it to work out. Train as hard as you can, race as hard as you can and don't overthink things too much beyond that.

I had never thought of the similarity of Steve and Alan, but now that you mention it...yeah.

robert678 wrote:

Whathemean? wrote:

How does someone achieve that? What needs to be done to alter a house like that?

There is a special machine called a "Colorado Altitude Room", the company may not still be in business, not sure. Rupp had it installed when he bought his house. It cycles air in the house through a ventillation system to remove oxygen from the air to simulate living at whatever elevation you choose. That's why Rupp bought a house in Portland with vents in every room. So he could live at 10,000 feet and train at sea level, best of both worlds. I believe the machine costs about $20,000-25,000 to have installed if your house already has vents to all the rooms.

Yep, it is likely this same system. They outfit a house for the Oregon Project at one time. Wild. The rich get richer.

I wanna know what Galen did to fix the weak left side and tight painful right side?

It's highly unlikely that galen's entire house is chambered. most likely he has his master bedroom/bath plumbed from the garage or a spare room, with about 8-10 generators to create the flow needed to maintain a 5 figure elevation. I have been to the original OPJ house and this is how you can set up a house, but it takes a crap-ton of generators to do so.

for example, it takes one generator to put a tent at 7500-8000ft. it usually takes two to put the tent at 10-11K ft. It takes 5-6 units to put the whole bedroom at that elevation, and if there's an attached master bath, add another 2-3 units. He also would likely have a workout room that is plumbed with 2-3 units, so I wouldn't be surprised if he has 10+ units in his garage to get the effect he wants/needs.

I watched Rupp and the others warm up before the Trials Marathon. He started out with a hoodie on, sunglasses, ear buds in and just doing light jogging. A few of the other runners stayed to themselves (Hasay, Sara Hall, others) but Rupp seemed the most apart and focused of any of them. Most of the runners jogged in packs. He and Hasay did the most drills. He stayed looking straight ahead the whole time. I never saw him look to either side. I yelled out support one time when he was 10 feet away and he never looked over or acknowledged. It didn't bother me a bit; I hoped he heard me but I loved that focus. Hasay was kind of the same way but she is more smiley and seemed to maybe have a little interaction with others. As the warmup continued, Rupp kept losing items of clothing. Hood came down, then hoodie came completely off etc. It was all very calculated. He did lots of drills. Then started moving into some strides. Watching the warmup was one of my favorite parts of the experience. About 10 minutes before the start, I jogged back up to my building which was right at 1/9/17 on the course and I watched from there. When they passed, I went up to my Airbnb and watched the race on TV for a few minutes, then came back down as they came past again. When the men passed 17, I moved about .75 down the street to catch them as they came back from the out and back and passed 22.5. Then I ran to the finish about 1.5 miles away, and saw the top guys come in. I'm 60 years old and I have been to a lot of sporting events but this was, by far, my best experience.

Just read Part 2 of the interview. I don't know what's dumber - the questions asked or the answers given. Piss poor journalism, and Smith can't put together a coherent sentence.

Tell us more about you, boomer. Please!

https://giphy.com/gifs/star-trek-wow-spock-n8SkNR77udWlG

Do you happen to remember any of the specific drills he was doing? This fascinates me for some reason.

This interview gives off the vibe that Mike Smith is Rupps lawyer and they have a lawyer client confidentiality agreement. He almost completely doesn’t answer most questions. But to be fair to him, the questions weren’t great.

Can you tell us in detail about Rupps training. How did you specifically prepare him to win? What was his diet like? You say Rupp opened up to you, tell us about that, in specific. These and more in this vein would have been good questions.

And Smith is right, Rupp has given up on the media but this interview doesn’t shed much light on anything we didn’t already know. Were they even pleased with the performance? What’s next for training?

There’s so many things we still don’t know, which doesn’t include allegations of wrongdoing.

Well M Smith talks in a way that's hard to decode if you're not reading between the lines. Did he dodge the questions?

Well ask yourself first what all he can say? Rupp needed a coach immediately after Chicago. Not a lot of time for him to form a decision or Rupp would have found someone else. He's only seen Rupp a couple time since he's still in Portland and he's only coached him for 4 months. When he decided to coach him he probably knew less than someone who's been following the story profusely since 2015.

You can tell by the interview his decision to coach him was partially instinctual and that would have been the case for any coach who picked him up. I'm sure if M Smith was rubbed the wrong way at anytime or some later reports through the vine came out confirming he doped, M Smith would drop Rupp in a minute.

automorphic wrote:

mileage and mileage wrote:

Never did a fartlek before working with Mike? Mind blown.

The one knock on Rupp has always been his change of pace. He's got endurance, he's got speed, he's got tactics, and he's got grit. But he's never had that sharp kick that others have got. I wonder if the lack of fartleks, and maybe broader patterns in Salazar's workouts, are the reason.

I have noticed that in big championship races Rupp is usually right there in the pack at the start of the last lap, but when everyone accelerates Rupp is dropped instantly -- the only exception being the 2012 Olympic 10k.

Hasay should move to Smith.

Texas sized fart wrote:

Perhaps a room or two but I dispute this claim of ‘his entire house.’ That would require no windows to ever open. With him having three small kids I find this to be an exaggeration.

Doesn't mean you can't ever open anything, but yes you wouldn't want to keep it open longer than needed. It's not as hard as y'all think.

Awful interview. Were those written answers he provided? Incredibly unclear and rambling, run on sentences, and "gotta" ever word.

Was he raised on a farm in Kentucky? How do other people not see what a horrible interview he gave? Please please bring back Alberto or at least someone with half a brain.

Idk if it’s been mentioned. But the idea that Rupp’s never done a short rest workout is nuts. Here’s a workout from 2010 where he does very fast running with short rest. https://www.flotrack.org/video/5228622-galen-rupp-euro-workout-wednesday