Chris Solinsky leaving Portland - accepts coaching gig at William and Mary

scratch n sniff wrote:

Hopeful Runner wrote:

I always hoped Solinsky could return to battle Rupp. Good luck to him coaching

He can't sniff Ruppie's jock. Never could, even when he was beating him. Not that he'd want to...anything to get back to the former glory. It was inevitable that Rupp would surpass him. Better talent + better dope = faster.

They're all doped. Ask Lance, he knows the truth.

I think Rojo's "it completely amazes me" (paraphrase) is clearly hinting at doping -- he's baffled, he can't even fathom that kind of regression...the guy must have been cheating in 2010. That's the subtext.

Someone else above mentioned it briefly - all you need to do is look at the picture of his leg from the RW article - it's simply not right. It's practically deformed. It's almost like being a NASCAR vehicle with a big engine and lots of horsepower, new tires on the right side - and bald tires on the left. You're never going to run optimally. It's almost like an American version of Komen or Ngeny...to his credit, Solinksy has given it a much more serious attempt at coming back than those guys did...

Always been a big fan of the guy. This last year was puzzling. He ran low 13:20's for 5k last year and was on the cusp of getting back to form. Heck, his 5k time in 2009 (year before be ran 26:59/12:55) wasn't much faster than what he ran last year. So why did he scrap the 5 and 10 after last year? I know he said be lacked the speed but low 13:20's is nothing to get discouraged over coming off a major injury. I question the advice he's gotten. Marathon training this year unquestionably made him slower. Add to that his comment in the RW article that he's tired/run down and it's clear that the new training focus isn't working. Solinsky, Bumbalough, Lomong, Heath, and Fernandez have all regressed this year. Did something change with the Schumacher program?

This could be just what W and M needs as they are traditionally a low mileage school (like most east coast schools). I believe Solinsky will do well to teach them the virtues of high mileage and proper work ethic, which has pretty much been lacking throughout the northeast for some time now.

CS to WM wrote:

This could be just what W and M needs as they are traditionally a low mileage school (like most east coast schools). I believe Solinsky will do well to teach them the virtues of high mileage and proper work ethic, which has pretty much been lacking throughout the northeast for some time now.

Totally wrong. For the past 10 years while Gibby was there W & M has been notoriously high mileage + high intensity, up to 130 for the top runners averaging 6 min a mile.

Utter rubbish, and transparent trolling of CS's injuries.... You real lack proper training knowledge

Not sure what east coast schools you are referring to but W&M is a high mileage school.

Let's be clear, that's a relative term, I'm talking Badger mileage high mileage, not east coast mileage high mileage. In my experience east coast mileage tends to be the opposite of badger mileage, where you count everything at 6 minute miles even though you are probably running 7:30 pace. It's just a different mindset really, and W and M will do well to learn what hard work truly looks like with one of the best in the business.

Ritz will be coaching at Grand Valley State University, not a junior college. But Grand Valley is not far from where he and his wife grew up, and it was important for him "to go home." Solinsky is not doing that. He is, however, going to a superb liberal arts college.

Bleu wrote:

It is a bad place for running but it's not like he could be a volunteer assistant at WI. Burned that bridge a long time ago.

I guess he could have done a Ritz and volunteered at a a Jr college. What does his wife do? She must have a job in the area because they can't live off his salary.

Ritz will be a "volunteer" coach allowing him to buy time to launch a comeback. After the last Olympics the wife probably said "you might as well sit injured at home than in Portland."

Solinsky will be a paid assistant coach. He will have responsibility.

Does anyone think Solinsky and Teg were both dirty and had second thoughts about cheating because they were worried they would get caught orbthey felt guilty? That is the only reason to explain such a massive deterioration in performance from both. Yes Solinsky had a bad injury but that does not turn a sub 27 minute guy into a guy who struggles to break 30.People have recovered from worse injuries and got back to a decent level. It amazes me that people slate Rupp for drugs but accept Solinskys performances unquestioningly. Look at the leaps in performance he made. A guy built like a line backer runs sub 27 first time out and runs 1255 and is clean yet Rupp is dirty and has still not run 1255. Yeah right total double standard. Keep deleting my posts Let's Run but keep allowing people to post anything they want about Rupp.

Bleu wrote:

Come on where are you? Spell checking the brothers? "without!"

It's "blue".

Yoar wellcom.

He's gonna have a lot of Nike stuff to ditch!

I wonder about Solinsky's mental outlook.

It occurs to me that certain elite athlete's are totally motivated and consumed toward achieving that one peak performance. The downside is the point when they realize that they are never going to improve on their bests. Its easy to see that a depression can sink in. They continue to compete for a time out of habit and its what they know. But they are just going through the motions. They are doing the training, but the training is poor and lacking intensity.

It wouldn't surprise me if that is what Solinsky has been dealing with. It would help explain his recent performances.

I should add that this would be totally normal and healthy. If Solinksy really was driven towards achieving that one great performance, than he has had a great running career. Not competing in an Olympics or more WCs would be disappointing but it wouldn't have been his primary goal anyway. 12:55 and 26:59 says it all. Now he is apparently moving on with his life. That too would reflect a strong mental outlook that runners like Salazar or Alan Webb lacked when they past their peak. Those guys spent years adrift, still trying to chase greatness, afraid to face reality and a future outside of running.

Anyway. That is just a theory I'm throwing out there. I could be totally wrong. Maybe he is not retiring at all as some suggest. But I take moving away from Portland as a major change.

DOP wrote:

Does anyone think Solinsky and Teg were both dirty and had second thoughts about cheating because they were worried they would get caught orbthey felt guilty? That is the only reason to explain such a massive deterioration in performance from both. Yes Solinsky had a bad injury but that does not turn a sub 27 minute guy into a guy who struggles to break 30.People have recovered from worse injuries and got back to a decent level. It amazes me that people slate Rupp for drugs but accept Solinskys performances unquestioningly. Look at the leaps in performance he made. A guy built like a line backer runs sub 27 first time out and runs 1255 and is clean yet Rupp is dirty and has still not run 1255. Yeah right total double standard. Keep deleting my posts Let's Run but keep allowing people to post anything they want about Rupp.

I don't buy that. You could make the argument that they were dirty, but you don't dope all out and then "have second thoughts" and quit.

CS to WM wrote:

Let's be clear, that's a relative term, I'm talking Badger mileage high mileage, not east coast mileage high mileage. In my experience east coast mileage tends to be the opposite of badger mileage, where you count everything at 6 minute miles even though you are probably running 7:30 pace. It's just a different mindset really, and W and M will do well to learn what hard work truly looks like with one of the best in the business.

You are completely ignorant to this topic. In fact, W&M had several of there top runners on a public site where they would log their mileage a few years ago when Gibby was there. It was 110+ consistently at fast paces.

In fact, even going back more than 10 years, Chasing tradition (I doubt you even remember that site) visited WM and logged some of their training. I remember reading a about one of their Sunday long runs where they had a big group (including Ed Moran - although he wasn't as high mileage as the rest) do a 22 mile Sunday long run at sub 6 minute pace.

W&M was probably one of the highest mileage running schools in the nation.

Thanks for the informative article. Makes me feel kind of sad--like the air is being slowly let out of the balloon...must be really challenging for him to have to let go of a dream that seemed so within his grasp--but I must applaud his willingness to move on--or at least move practically in a different direction....i.e. making a living.

If you are used to Portland or Wisconsin then Williamsburg will be a nice change. I hope he does well there.

So a talented guy, who didn't listen to his coach and trained so hard that he wrecked his career will make a great coach?

They could stop doping after they reached a level as high as they possibly could and injury / age made then realise they would never attain those heights again. What would be the point in carrying on doping and running 1315 that won't really get you anywhere. Might as well stop doping and turn to the roads where the drop of in the level of performance after stopping doping won't be noticed as much in a different event and they might still be able to make a bit of cash on the US road scene. Also bio passport has been introduced or Testers may have caught up with whatever they were taking so they had to stop.