Ritz Goes 1:00:56 in Philly

What has not been mentioned here is his history of hamstring issues in past marathons- fitness has not been the limiting factor for Ritz- his hamstrings have cramped every time forcing him to slow down. If the've corrected that problem, he will go 2:07 weather permitting.

While on a perfect day with perfect training, I still think Ritz has the talent to run 2:06 FLAT and maybe dip under, this 1:00:56 half doesn't tell me he's at any different place than he has been leading up to a marathon. I wish it weren't true.

I say he runs 2:09:14.

My point is that you must not know shit about running because this dude has already run 60:00 for a half marathon. So that's my point. He's got no shot at being competitive in the marathon. Zero. There are a shit ton of young Kenyans who have broken 2:06 and the Ethiopians aren't too shabby either. This dude needs to stick to the 5000/10000.

The worst thing for Ritz is that he is targeting 2:06. I hope for his sake that means 2:06:59 and that he goes out in 1:03:45. Any faster than 1:03:30 and he will blow up.

Ritz should play it "conservative" and try and get to 20 on pace for 1:07:30. If he can't run his last 10k fast enough to get under 2:07, than starting faster would not have helped.

Hope he realizes this.

Seems like Ritz has been forcing it for most of this year since the marathon trials. First he ran 13: high teens in the 5k and declared he's in sub 27:00 shape. Now it's 60:56 and he's ready to run 2:06. Maybe he feels father time creeping up on him. Maybe it's something else. I love Ritz, but it just seems like he's trying the "the more I say it, the more likely it is to come true" tactic.

It would be crazy if Ritz broke Ryan Halls official PR 2:06:17.

When Ritz was in 12:56 shape he could have broken 27 if he was able to stay healthy and put in the base.

He is not now. He can't break 27. 27:30 would be an accomplishment. 2:09 will be a good race.

2:06 won't happen, he'd have to go out under 63 that will kill him. Pure marathoners can run the pace even, 5k/10k guys must positive split to PB.

McMillan equates his half to 2:08:14. He probably didn;'t fully taper and may have taken something off his effort because of the marathon, I'll predict high 2:08's with good weather in Chicago. Ritz seems better at the half than the full, so the ueqivalent is probably a bit generous.

High 2:08 would be great for him and I think he can do it if he runs smart and goes out in 64. Unfortunately, it sounds like he is delusional again and is going to repeat the same cycle of going out too hard, dying and having "fueling" issues and finishing in mid to high 2:09's.

Take a look at history with Alberto's lack of understanding in the marathon.

Monster half marathon efforts 3 or 4 weeks out have not produced success for Alberto coached athletes.

Kara ran 68 minutes at Chicago Half 3 weeks before her 2:27 in Berlin.

Kara did the same thing prior to Boston in 2011.

Her best marathon was her debut in New York where she ran her monster half 7 WEEKS OUT.

I hope things work out with Ritz, but I have my doubts based on Alberto's inability to make obvious corrections.

Here's the way Chicago typically works. There are ten to fifteen guys who go out fast. These are all the sub 2:10 guys. Then there are the guys who don't go out fast. These are the 2:14 guys. Usually there's no one in between in terms of pacing. You either go out in 63 or, if you hope to run 2:09 or faster with more even pacing, you are alone. Also, with three months training he went out in 63 at the trials and didn't exactly crack. I'm encouraged he's committing himself to high 62s/63.

WhatYo wrote:

The worst thing for Ritz is that he is targeting 2:06. I hope for his sake that means 2:06:59 and that he goes out in 1:03:45. Any faster than 1:03:30 and he will blow up.

Ritz should play it "conservative" and try and get to 20 on pace for 1:07:30. If he can't run his last 10k fast enough to get under 2:07, than starting faster would not have helped.

Hope he realizes this.

Alberto has continued to do the same marathon schedule since day one. The only time results have improved is when he has better athletes. THIS IS WHY KARA LEFT. It is the same reason why his marathoners don't improve from their debut.

A Salazar pattern wrote:

I hope things work out with Ritz, but I have my doubts based on Alberto's inability to make obvious corrections.

Well, yeah. He has been objectively proven to be the most overrated marathon coach on earth.

FrankstheMAN wrote:

Hope Ritz didn't just blow his wad here in Philly. Only 3 weeks to go before Chicago.

This is precisely the point I was trying to make with my irritable post earlier in the thread. He's not stupid enough to run a flat-out half only three weeks out. He's still training hard and want to leave a little something in the tank. I strongly suspect that although he's approaching peak shape right now, he did NOT run Philly as though it were a goal race. This is why converting this time to the full distance is a mistake and means nothing.

If one looks at the splits, he was with the fourth place finisher from a bit over three miles in to ten miles in, and no one else was around.

kudzurunner wrote:

FrankstheMAN wrote:

Hope Ritz didn't just blow his wad here in Philly. Only 3 weeks to go before Chicago.

This is precisely the point I was trying to make with my irritable post earlier in the thread. He's not stupid enough to run a flat-out half only three weeks out. He's still training hard and want to leave a little something in the tank. I strongly suspect that although he's approaching peak shape right now, he did NOT run Philly as though it were a goal race. This is why converting this time to the full distance is a mistake and means nothing.

Biwott is gunning for the NYC marathon, seven weeks from now. Ritz is gunning for Chicago, three weeks from now. Biwott could afford to go harder without fear of blowing his wad in the goal race. Ritz can't afford that luxury.

Ritz spoke not to that issue, exactly, but to the question of race-specific training--or not:

"They (the two Kenyans) broke away about 5K and I stayed in third place the rest of the way," Ritzenhein said. "I wanted to run a good, solid race, about a 4:35 or 4:40 pace. And that’s what I did. Training for the Marathon makes it so hard to respond to those fast miles, and I couldn’t. The first mile was slow. Then they took off. I ran 4:25 for the second mile, they ran 4:21. They were running fast miles and I couldn’t keep up."

What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, in training terms: Biwott and the other Kenyan runner are, like Ritz, in marathon training, not half-marathon training, so the fact that Biwott was able to pull away suggests that he's simply the stronger runner right now. Still, Ritz, a month closer to his goal race, is also closer to the burnout point; one would expect some lag in his legs for that reason, too. And I wouldn't rule out the Noakes internal-governor rationale: Ritz knows that he can't afford to go balls-to-the-wall in Philly. Truly digging down into the mud would risk his goal race.

I personally think all this is moot. He hasn't yet managed to put together a truly stellar marathon--nothing that looks like his World Champs half in 2009, when he came in third and looks tough as nails doing it. If he gets a cool day in Chicago, times his training right, and doesn't go out too fast, I think he could finally run a fast one. But that is a lot of ifs.

I think a good day for Ritz in Chicago will bring 2:08 low. A superb day could bring 2:07 high. He has a great effective range, 5K to Half Marathon, nada mas.

loofler wrote:

I think a good day for Ritz in Chicago will bring 2:08 low. A superb day could bring 2:07 high. He has a great effective range, 5K to Half Marathon, nada mas.

Everyone thinks 2:08 is ho-hum, but keep in mind that anything under 2:08:47 would make him the 3rd fastest American after Hall and KK.

What is the over number that you give Ritz that would make it a bad day? 2:08:00?

If he is slower than that can we agree that Alberto should be banned from ever working with anyone in the marathon again?

If Ritz fails will this board stop getting excited for Rupp's debut?