Culpepper left Wetmore because he graduated.
Culpepper left Wetmore because he graduated.
Perhaps I'm mistaken, but I'm fairly sure that Ritz beat everyone but Hall in the Olympic Marathon Trials and that he made the Olympic team. Does this not count????? Is this the path of destruction? He has an IT band problem? Almost every runner I've ever met who trains hard has had this problem? He hoped he could run through it. Often times one can. It comes and goes rather mysteriously. So he hardly seems fair to chide him for wanting to win a US Championship race in an event he cherishes. And as for Ritz's alleged immaturity, have you ever met him? Discussed anything with him at length? Know how he comports himself in his everyday life?
PerFenHanceR wrote:
Ritz needs to consult with Alan Culpepper - although that would not be allowed by the hud.
Culpepper has received a lot of criticism about his lack of racing. Basically, Culp was not able to race a lot, so he simply pointed for the big races and typically ran well WHEN IT COUNTED. Then - recovery, and back to training. This takes a lot of maturity - you must have confidence in your training and your coach - running races as a "test" - merely demonstrates that there is no confidence in the program. If his current adviser had any substantial background in preparing athletes for racing, then he could know that his athletes are ready, but we know this is not the case. Someone like Vigil or even Salazar (blech) have the knowledge and confidence to know when their athletes are ready.
Ritz would likely run fast under any program, but ... he is never going to reach his full potential going down this path.
I would say that Ritz and Cabada are likely in the same category - very difficult to coach - for somewhat different reasons, but somewhat similar. Basically, they both think that they know what is best for them. We all know about Cabada - but Ritz is really the same, but not outwardly.
Ritz left Wetmore - arguably one of the best college coaches ever, because he knew best ... and went to a "buddy" coach in Boulder.
Both Cabada and Ritz are very immature, but have different ways of expressing their immaturity. They shun real authority and knowledge and instead follow their own separate paths of destruction.
this is depressing!
Maybe they should look at what Kenny Moore did back in the day. Hard day then 2 real easy days (3 miles) then hard again. Allow the body to recover and still get some good work in, forget the weekly mileage totals.
Did anyone see that flocast interview with Jorge Torres? I was surprised he didn't say anything about technology helping American distance running when Ritz has been saved by the anti gravity treadmill and Rupp, Gouchers are able to sleep at 13,000ft and train at sea level. It's too bad he signed that contract with reebox.
When you train to compete at the top level, it's a matter of injury management, not injury prevention. Figuring out early which is an ache and which is a potential season-killer is next to impossible. And being unfit is a season-killer too, so you have a pretty unfavorable risk-reward tradeoff either way.
One of the reasons guys like Ritzenhein and Keflezighi get bashed by the all-knowing LetsRun.com crowd when they get hurt is because they're identifiable to a US-centric audience here, which, by customarily thinking of "the Kenyans" as a crowd, misses how many of the very big talents from Kenya get hurt and miss meets.
As for Ritzenhein being "immature," hogwash -- or perhaps he actually is immature, in which case his real future lies in acting, not T&F, b/c he does a spot-on characterization of a prudent adult.
to all of you defenders - have you ever met hudson?
Earl wrote:
The big mistake was going over to Scotland for that cross race in January. He had to be beaten up after the marathon trials and should have taken more down time then. He could have opened at cross nationals and easily made the team and most likely still won. It's a shame to see ritz missing world cross every year.
It was 2 f***ing months after the trials! What sort of baby do you think he is?
It was 2 months. So let's look at who else from the trials had raced by that time.
Hall-NO
Sell-No
Khalid-NO
Lehmkuhle-YES in Houston-- he is now hurt.
Browne-Yes ran horrible in Houston--couldn't make the starting line at Cross Trials
Jenkins--YES ran 69 minutes in Houston
Meb--No
That is your top 8.
Other Significant Guys at Trials
Culpepper-NO
Abdi--N0
Gonzales--NO
Hussein--NO
Sawe--NO
I've known Brad for years.
Last year, Ritz ran the NYC marathon and than ran in the very same race in Edinburgh without getting hurt. Moreover, it's not as if he came down with some injury directly related to too much stress. IT band problems really are peculiar things, and I don't think they're related in any obvious way to too much work. In fact, any problems I've ever had have been in periods when I've been cutting down on training.
Pharmacy Phil wrote:
It was 2 months. So let's look at who else from the trials had raced by that time.
Hall-NO
Sell-No
Khalid-NO
Lehmkuhle-YES in Houston-- he is now hurt.
Browne-Yes ran horrible in Houston--couldn't make the starting line at Cross Trials
Jenkins--YES ran 69 minutes in Houston
Meb--No
That is your top 8.
Other Significant Guys at Trials
Culpepper-NO
Abdi--N0
Gonzales--NO
Hussein--NO
Sawe--NO
[quote]Montesquieu wrote:
Last year, Ritz ran the NYC marathon and than ran in the very same race in Edinburgh without getting hurt. Moreover, it's not as if he came down with some injury directly related to too much stress. IT band problems really are peculiar things, and I don't think they're related in any obvious way to too much work. In fact, any problems I've ever had have been in periods when I've been cutting down on training.[quote]
And then he ran US XC after that. Without getting hurt. Yet one year is not like another. He clearly knew about the ITB issue going into US XC yet still ran it as he did. That's definitely imprudent, considering his history and what he says he's building towards with his goals and potential for this year.
Ritz had the longest track season of any of the marathoners at the trials. From May all the way through worlds and then went right into marathon training and then ran a tough marathon in November. Not to mention having a newborn child in the house for the first time which any parent will tell you is not easy and a bit stressful.
He should have taken two or three weeks totally off after the trials marathon and then slowly worked back into it running just light mileage. After January 1 he could have stepped it up and been ready for usa cross in February and then worlds in March refreshed and healthy.
Look at Teg and Webb who both ran long track seasons and obviously didn't run the marathon trials. Webb still hasn't opened his 2008 season and Teg ran a very light indoor schedule opening in February. These guys build rest and regeneration (both mentally and physically) into their schedules. Ritz and Hud need to do the same.
The frustrating thing abiut Ritz and Hud is that they have been repeating the same cycle for several years. They ramp things up so quickly that Ritz gets fit way too early and is ready to race. He runs good races at very unimportant times of year, then gets injured, comes back, runs a good but not great track season and then repeats the cycle. From what I've read they take a week off after the season, run an easy week and the next week they are running hill sprints and tempos at 4:40. Where do you go from there? Training is a progression. Is he going to work his tempos down to 4:20 pace? Ritz is so competitive he ends up racing the clock in his work outs...he's running too damn hard too damn often and his body has proven that he can't handle it. They have to change something.
Seems like a good chance that the foot injury (if it's really that) was a compensation injury due to the ITB problem.
My post was deleted. It was probably because I attached David Monti's Newsletter. In a nutshell, it said that Ritz is out of the 8k because of a foot injury and not his IT Band.
It simply makes the decision to run Ritz and his sore IT Band a dumber decision.
is it official?
i'm not sure they take a week off and come back running tempos at 4:40. a bunch of his logs are at marathonperformance.com. he sometimes finishes the last 5 miles of his long runs at 4:50 or so. threshold work is usually 10x1k or 6xmile, threshold pace down to 10k pace, stuff like that.
i think they try to leverage accross seasons. for example ritz did long tempo work for the marathon, lets leverage that for cross and jump right into the threshold stuff.
Interesting post. Not being a marathoner, I don't really have an opinion on the matter. But if this is accurate, it doesn't look smart on its face for a guy with his history to be pushing the limits of recovery time.
Pharmacy Phil wrote:
It was 2 months. So let's look at who else from the trials had raced by that time.
Hall-NO
Sell-No
Khalid-NO
Lehmkuhle-YES in Houston-- he is now hurt.
Browne-Yes ran horrible in Houston--couldn't make the starting line at Cross Trials
Jenkins--YES ran 69 minutes in Houston
Meb--No
That is your top 8.
Other Significant Guys at Trials
Culpepper-NO
Abdi--N0
Gonzales--NO
Hussein--NO
Sawe--NO
I know that Eagon was entered but is out of the 8k champs too. Apparently he got hurt at the Big Ten Indoor meet from having to double.
My point is that what they consider moderate is really too hard and his body can't handle it. I think it's the intensity of the work that gets him hurt not the volume.
The other thing is they start way too early with the hard stuff repeating the same situation year after year getting ready for these meaningless January races. Ritz is right back where he was last year at this time...injured. The guy gets fit so fast they really don't need to ramp up the intensity so early in the training cycle. Last year he came off his injury and ran his best track race of the year in May. They need to learn from their mistakes and do something different.