Voice of G.Rupp Fans wrote:
nice long post. all of what we are saying is that he's not going to have much of an impact on world stage. He'll improve but how much we are talking here. I say he goes 27:14 for 10k and 13:07 for 5k. That should be good for him. I DONT see him going sub 27 let alone sub 13. Do any of you guys now how fast that is. It seems like most of you guys are underestimating these barriers and just think rupp closes really fast at 28min paces and 14min paces means that its a lock for him to go sub 27 and sub 13. I'm afraid not. There is a reason why arturo barrios 10k record have yet to be broken by a non african. Its hard as hell. But all in all, I would be really happy for him to prove me wrong. -Peace-
are you saying this season or ever? i'd agree for this season simply for the long collegiate schedule and probable lack of opportunity before worlds. but 27:14 and 13:07 is essentially mebs prs before he moved on to the marathon. all due respect to meb, but i never saw meb as the runner that rupp currently is. i don't know if meb ever ran an indoor 5k but if he did it wasn't nearly as fast as galen. i guess part of my thinking is that I have spoken with guys who saw galens workouts when he was coming out of high school, and these are good runners mind you, olympic runners, and they said that the workouts he was doing were better than the best workouts they'd ever done. the thing that stuck in my mind was when one of them told me that at the intensity he was working out at he was probably not going to be "on" very often. he'd probably be flat most of the time but yet still run very nice times. they also said he may spend a lot of time dealing with injuries. the key part was when they said, if he can stay healthy and put in the years of that kind of training and build on it that he was going to be unreal and capable of things that no americans have run. that's kind of where i see rupp now, getting older and physically maturing and adjusting to all this mad intense aerobic work, and now with the addition of speed being a really, really good runner. lets just say he can run 27:05. in a race that is on 27:18 pace with 1000 to go 24:34 say he can close in 2:30. that would be 27:04 in a championship race. now i don't know if he can run 27:05 by berlin, but i'd be shocked if he was slower than abdi and meb's bests of around 27:15. i also don't know if he can close in 2:30 off of that kind of pace, put closed out his 5K in 2:25 the other night and he only kicked on about 700 of that. even if he is on 27:30 pace at 9K (24:45) and can close in 2:30 for the last 1K that is 27:15. that fares pretty darn well in international championships. it seems like nearly every race he's run from 1500-10K this year he can close at 1:55 or better while joggin in, including his 3:39 1500 so a 2:30 1K off of 27:30 pace doesn't seem unreasonable at all, does it?