Ritz

I've never been a huge Wetmore fan. There just isn't much excuse for letting someone with the mileage background of Ritzenhein get a stress fracture. It shows either a disregard of training principles, or just negligence.

RWTBuffs kind of depressed me, with Wetmore's tendency to let the guys run hard day in, day out, with no recovery. I thought he had learned from that, but this latest news just isn't good.

Maybe Ritz will return to his high school coach?

Ritz's injury (is it a stress fracture or IT band injury??) may have resulted from his summer (on his own).

With regards to most of his top runners, their injury record is actually pretty darn good. The Torres brothers have been mostly clean, Slattery has been good.

A running injury is going to happen, no matter the coach. As long as they do not become persistent (Goucher is the exception, not the norm).

I concur with the previous statement. Have none of you ever suffered from injury before?

Inquisitively yours,

Monty

...Actually, Ritz said his injury was first detected during the 1st week in August, making Wetmore a 'nonblame' so to speak. Granted, Wetmore may have some influence on their summer training, but it was likely Ritz' hardcore training attitude that contributed to it.

You guys are ridiculous, I have NEVER met a college runner who actually pushed his/her self to be the best they could be who didn't have at least one fairly serious injury. It happens. Get over it. Wetmore's record should speak for itself. They have half as much money as the top programs in the country and they are consitently at the top. Just look at walk-ons like Sean Smith for example. He can turn anyone into a beast!

Actually, his first major injury after six years of running is pretty good. I'll bet he doesn't get more than one or two more before the next Olympics.

Agreed.

One of Wetmore's quotes is "thinness is underrated." While I agree that injuries do happen and that Ritz is partially responsible for monitoring himself and cutting back when there is pain, I must say that I hope he hasn't done anything extreme to keep the thinness going which might make him more likey to have bone injuries. I'm guessing not and that it is just an unfortunate circumstance.

Its obvious that Ritz has an eating disorder. Look at how gaunt he is. He must be anorexic.

Jamie2001 wrote:

Its obvious that Ritz has an eating disorder. Look at how gaunt he is. He must be anorexic.

You're joking, right? I assume you are either being sarcastic or you are trolling. Just because someone has the ideal body for distance running does not mean they have an eating disorder. Do you think every good Kenyan out there has an eating disorder too?

This board is seriously insane!!! Ritz goes and runs 100 miles a week for the past 3 years racing incredibly well and gets a stress fracture. Now... all of a sudden... his coach is an idiot, Ritz has an eating disorder, Wetmore ruined American distance running... Man haven't any of you ever had an injury. Even I've had a stress frax and I'm a scrub. My god, how attitudes change when a small bump in th eroad emerges.

Who could down more "all-you-can-eat" shrimp at Red Lobster? Ritz or Webb?

I hope some of this is tongue in cheek..I have never heard or suspected Ritz of doing anything other than running long and hard that would keep his weight down. That being said, I think Riz probably runs his mileage at a fairly agressive pace..as someone mentioned earlier its not a surprise that he ever got injured maybe more so it didn't happen earlier than this..anyway a shame..and Wetmore probably not to blame as I think he has actually had to hold Ritz back from what he might do at ths point..keeping him to singles etc.Slattery did have a real problem wth his foot before and after Pre Nats last year that put a crimp in his training..only a heroic last 1000M by him running in gave the Buffs the title last year.

This injury is squarly on Wetmore's shoulders. Stress fractures don't just happen. It takes severe overtraining. But Ritz is just another casuality in Wetmore's "singles" program. How is it that he is the only coach in the world whose athletes don't get a significant portion of their miles from two a days. Other than the Torres' who else has done well in his program and not always been hurt. Culpepper is running alot better since he left. Goucher is always hurt. Slattery was always hurt during cross, and he has a different coach track, and look how well he does. Yes, any time you train at a high level, injuries happen. It just happens a lot more in Wetmore's program.

[quote]INTHEKNOW wrote:

This injury is squarly on Wetmore's shoulders. Stress fractures don't just happen. It takes severe overtraining.

I knew several people who developed stress fractures in high school, on about 40 miles/week.

[quote]INTHEKNOW wrote:

Culpepper is running alot better since he left.

In running with the buffaloes, wasn't the quote something like "Wetmore brought Culpepper back from the dead."

For all those who think Wetmore grinds everyone into the ground, please do (a little research) and present some statistical evidence. Try this. Take the last 5 years from 10 teams that are good year in-year out. See how many serious injuries they have had (maybe look at number of redshirts).

That is in High School where most kids don't know about the most important part of running...shoes. We all had those kids on our team in H.S. who ran in high tops, or had the same pair of training shoes for two years, or whose training shoes are the same shoes he walks around in all day. They don't have these problems at C.U.

Its ridiculous to blame every high school stress fracture on poor footwear. Since you offer no other explaination I am assuming that you attribute all high school stress fractures on poor shoes.

Oh, by the way, Josh Spiker has another stress fracture. You better start a thread about how bad his coach is. I'm sure you could do a much better job than he or Wetmore, so we eagerly await your coaching career in which none of your runners get injured because they don't put in the mileage that Wisco and CU do. We will also be there to see them bomb and get destroyed by every other team because you have them running 30-40 'quality' miles a week.

We had a team in our conference that did low mileage and nobody seemed to get hurt too much. My team did high mileage and we had some unfortunate injuries. Funny thing is, we scored in the 20's at cross conference and they ran in the 30's for times.

your moniker implies that you have some inside information on this. If so, please share with us...although I doubt you do.

About 15 months ago I wrote to RWD that "...After reading Chris Lear's "Running with the Buffaloes," I would lay 50-50 odds that Ritzenhein will be injured by the time he is a sophomore at the University of Colorado. Lear's account of the CU men's 1998 cross-country season cites athlete after athlete who become injured, mostly due to overtraining."

And now look what has happened!

I don't claim any special prescience, only the ability to look at the fact that one-third of Wetmore's runners were hurt in the 3 month period documented in Chris Lear's RWTB. Most of the injuries were overuse-related.

Of course I received lots of email saying things like:

"Mark Wetmore is an outstanding coach and I would dare to say his program has no higher percentage of injuries than any other nationally competitive collegiate program in the U.S." Gee, maybe it is problem if all of the nationally competitive collegiate programs can't field a third of their team?

Or

"I don't know what your problem Is with the CU running program, and I really don't care. I'm all for staying healthy, but If you think 33% of a team being Injured during the same time frame Is unheard of... you are quite

wrong... It happens frequently." Uh, yes, I believe it does happen frequently, and so this makes it right?

Or

"Have you ever met the coach you criticize? Have you ever met, talked to or perhaps questioned the injured athletes that you single out? What do you think should have been done? " blah, blah, blah. No I have not met Wetmore. Would it make fewer of his runners injured if I did?