Takeaways from new 2:07 man Matt Richtman on the Citius Podcast

Now that's respectable access

He does at least assert that his public Strava is inclusive of all his training; there's no hidden workouts like some are speculating.

Good takeaways, I listened to it and thought the same.

I think just looking at Strava we might miss that the dude is running in bone-crushingly cold (and slow) conditions. It sounds like he ran in sub-20 degree and snowy weather a lot, which might mean more of his running is a harsher test than it appears. Throw in that it sounds like he hikes, XC skis, and bikes...the guy's doing a lot of things to be fit.

Another thing is the rojo axiom that racing is the best workout. The guy put together two outstanding half marathons on January 19th and March 2nd. He also did some pacing on the Big Sky indoor track. It might seem like he's low on volume of workouts and such but he did those extremely high quality efforts.

Other interesting aspect is when he got 26th at NCAA XC Nats, he famously was in 204th one kilometer in: https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=12377927

Just commented this on a different thread but I also saw he mentions the poor conditions on his Strava quite frequently. A lot of people are going to say that "his training works for him" and that he shouldn't change it but I simply refuse to believe that this kid can't be made better by moving out of a place that is sub zero and buried in snow for half the year and incorporating more high end aerobic work. If he did he might be a 2:05 guy.

Well as far as racing is the best workout, this is easier to incorporate if you are primarily a marathoner. So Benji Durden did this, and he might have been similar in talent to Richtman. Durden would often, if I recall correctly, race a 5K or 10K, even every week, as he found it easier to motivate himself to do that than a speed workout by himself. And sometimes it could be a 10 miler or half marathon, or whatever, and then Durden usually did decent mileage, but nothing extraordinary. He also often ran in a sweat suit in the heat of Georgia, which might have rendered his 10 mile run at 7 minute pace a bit more challenging than Strava would have indicated, had it been around then, maybe another potential similarity with Matt running in the cold.

Very interesting. The fact that much of his running is relatively slow doesn't strike me as that odd (even without factoring in the bad weather). And the volume he's running is perhaps on the low side but also doesn't strike me as crazy. But I'm still shocked he can race that fast given how infrequently he seems to do workouts and how few long workouts he seems to do. Very different than how I think anyone else close to that level trains.

Maybe…and I know that this will anger some folks…he’s good because he's chill? No 24/7 anxiety or becoming neurotic about running. Perhaps he avoids places like LRC and doesn’t get distracted and prone to second thoughts after reading all of the expert opinions? Maybe he saves the suffering for when it matters on race day?

I love the fact that he is doing this in such a blue collar way! 2:07 on self-belief. That’s fun to root for over the D1 blue chippers that waltzed into a shoe sponsor laboratory with cool toys, potions, and field trips to fancy mountain locations going much slower despite the scientific expertise at their beck and call.

I'm really struggling with this one.

But just, work with me. If a 25 year old Japanese runner got 2:07:57 in their 2nd marathon, like, would it be that big a deal? Is it that Richtman is uniquely talented? That US Marathoning is uniquely behind? You could say it's a crisis of expectations but every year we have hundreds of elite Americans running and so few break 2:08. I don't know, it's just hard for me to wrap my head around. Why so few Americans are successful, and why of all the guys in the country who are training, if we're being realistic, very similarly to him (self-paced, freeform, fewer workouts), he is the one who does this.

Great story, Asics needs to sign the guy and get him to Chicago

The winter thing is real. My runs in the beginning of spring when I can finally shed my heavy winter gear and run in nice conditions are significantly faster than my winter base building paces. It’s a Superman feeling that is similar to when I used to live at altitude and then go for a run at sea level.

The biggest misconception letsrun doesn’t understand is fast people usually don’t have fast easy paces. Richtman, nearly all Kenyans and Japanese and many Olympic athletes are not doing sub 6 min easy runs, they’re in the 6:40-8:00 range. For whatever reason letsrun REFUSES to accept this. Fast people are fast BECAUSE they run their easy days EASY not at some arbitrary pace

For those of us who are surprised by his training, I don't think it's the pace of his easy runs we're surprised by. Plenty of fast runners run their easy days on the slow side (although certainly not all). The thing we're surprised by is by how infrequently he does workouts, and that his workouts don't seem to be all that fast or long. It's awesome that it's working for him and I hope he continues to have success, I just think it's interesting to see how different his training is from other good marathoners.

Did he really not run the two days prior to the race?

The interview was very good and MR was easy to like.

I agree with and found the point about some guys going straight into the marathon in their 20's instead of waiting till the 30's to be something to consider.

The other point about making the correlation that your 10k time automatically says what your marathon time will be. His point about the further you go the better you feel might may not work for 10k to marathon model for some.

He says on the podcast everything is on Strava except for a few days leading up to LA, so those are probably the days.

There is always context. A marathoner coming out of college xc and track may not need that many workouts that first year or two. It is similar to the guys that do high mileage for years then drop down to low miles for a year or two and think the secret is low mileage.

Yeah this.

But no hidden mileage or speed work / workouts in the training buildup. Peaked at 113, and kind of winged it on when he'd do the workouts he did.

I know money talks & he can get what he’s worth by racing Chicago in the fall. But why not rep the US in Tokyo at Worlds? Admittedly, I don’t know the qualification process for Worlds, or if Matt has to run a qualifier somewhere. We just select a team based on time, no?

So is it safe to say he's our second best marathoner at the moment?