Conner Mantz injury, seemingly no progress

eh, he probably did other stuff that didn't get uploaded to strava. there's still time to build fitness. I'm not too worried

Maybe some extra prayer will help.

I know it's hard to skip a payday, but if he's not back to fulltime running by now, he's probably better off skipping Boston. Might be wiser to slowly build back fitness, do some summer racing at various distances, then gear up for a fall marathon.

Possibly. But to his credit he seems incredibly transparent with posting on Strava. And if you're willing to post a 9 minute walk/jog, I don't think you'd hold back posting an actual run if you were able to perform one.

He should be planning to skip Boston anyway in my opinion, even if he is at full strength. Body needs a reset and some sharpening at shorter distances. Gear up for a fall marathon.

It feels like Mantz has been injured twice a year for the last 2-3 years, and yet amazingly it’s never kept him out of any priority races or from smashing ARs in the half and full. Hopefully this time isn’t too different, though like others are saying, he shouldn’t race Boston if ramping up for it is too risky.

Ed Eyestone has said his main job is to hold Mantz back. I wonder if some forced downtime actually benefits Mantz. He had a pretty intense 2025. By all accounts he would overtrain if he wasn’t moderated by his coach.

I recall him mentioning a hip issue leading up to Chicago. Probably aggravated it there.

If I had to guess I’d go with labral tear.

Saw him at NXN last month. I said hello, congratulated him and his wife on their marathons, and mentioned his limp. He told me that it was a stress fracture.

I get this perspective, but I think we have to be realistic about the financial incentives here. A possibly six-figure appearance fee vs. basically nothing. And nothing he won't be able to get after Boston (if he comes out of it well). If he makes a sacrifice it will be passing up appearance fees at buildup races to Boston. I think the calculus changes if we get closer late-January without being able to train.

He sounds underweight

It is beyond tragic that he injured himself pacing his wife to a 2:43. Needed him in Tally this week.

I hear what you're saying and can't help but wonder about this too. But I think in reality that was not the straw that broke the camel's back in this case. I can't imagine a 26 mile jog (because that's what a 2:43 marathon is to Mantz) would have been more damaging than some of the workouts he typically gets up to. So if it wasn't that it probably would have been something else and Mantz still ends up in the pool right now either way. At least that's what I'm telling myself to sleep at night

This pace is slower than most recovery days for Conner.

I agree, the money is a big factor that must be considered. Coming of his AR, this is probably the largest appearance fee he's ever had.

I just worry about the long term consequences of continuing to push his body hard when it's signaling it needs a break. He's getting close to the same age Ryan Hall was when his career started going downhill for the same reason.

Hoping he keeps the big picture in mind. The US Olympic Trials marathon will be here before we know it.

I’m sure Chicago is quite a windfall for him as well. Especially since he’s now the AR holder there.

I agree with the overall sentiment. I’ve always thought that marathon runners have about ten years to run their best five marathons. But not if they continue to run two or more per year in consecutive years . It’s not like these guys can do this for ten or fifteen years and never pay the price. The body only has so many hard marathons in it.

And two per year is a good way to shorten that career to like five or seven years. Which might be worth it. In any event, these guys should be planning some “down” years (from the marathon).

Sounds to me like a femoral neck stress fracture, either that or sacrum. Both aren’t the fastest healing, unfortunately for him. I wish him well on his return, but he should not rush it - fem neck in particular is a tricky one.

most of his easy run pace is 4:10 per km, 2:43 marathon is around 3:52 per km. That's actually noticeably faster than his normal recovery pace and being on the feet for that long is hard on the body no matter how fast. Jack Daniels suggested a long run cap of 150 mins, he stated the risk of injuries increases exponentially past that mark. Plus every thing just add ups, so it's possible that's indeed the last straw, but then again it might be bound to happen anyway when he's riding that thin line.

The risk one takes running high mileage.