Hudson and Ritz Part Ways

Except Williams was best over 15km which is meaningless on the international stage.

He's from Michigan, right? Seems reasonable that he might like to be closer to his family, especially with his daughter.

So that would automatically be the trump card in deciding what to do regarding his running career? Hudson would've moved to Michigan if that's really what Ritz wanted, so it's not a move motivated by a desire to be closer to family.

yoooooo wrote:

Ritz' problem lies in the fact that his wife is not a professional athlete. Ryan Hall's wife, however, is. That's a problem.

'Splain.

Of course - it was more to the point that his wanting to move to Mich wouldn't be that surprising regardless of his coaching situation.

Everybody's talking about Ritz moving to Michigan but has anybody ever confirmed that's true, or are you all just repeating some off-hand piece of speculation as if it's on the record?

It is true. Dathan has wanted to get out of the "Eugene Drama" almost since day one. It is not a fun place to be as a Nike athlete. You have corporate america looking over your shoulder at all times. Dathan is a hard nosed midwestern boy that is out of place with the Eugene scene. The trip home will be good for his psyche.

Before you start bashing me, I LIVE IN EUGENE.

I'm not bashing or doubting -- I just didn't know if anybody had actually heard Ritz say anything about moving, or if this was all just speculation.

Dathan is being forced to move to Portland. He is not moving to Michigan.

Not according to his father.

Any chance he could move to Mammoth Lakes and train with Hall? Would it be good for them to train together or would they beat each other up too much?

Ritz would be wise to take a team coach. Right here.

Letsrun has so many experts, so by committee and consensus letsrun posters could design a program that will get him to 27:10 and sub 2:06. Webb would be smart to do the same, and we'll get him down to 3:45 for the mile and 12:50 for the 5000. This would be brilliant.

Mammoth is out, he believes that he can not train well at altitude because he does not recover fast enough and thus gets injured.

Portland makes sense since Jerry seems to use a very well balanced program with a moderate but not excessive amount of volume.

Michigan makes sense for his family life but who would coach him? His high school coach ala Webb? Warhurst? Hansons are out....he's not going to drop Nike for Brooks.

It will be interesting to see what happens....I hope it turns out well.

letsrunner yeah wrote:

Ritz would be wise to take a team coach. Right here.

Letsrun has so many experts, so by committee and consensus letsrun posters could design a program that will get him to 27:10 and sub 2:06. Webb would be smart to do the same, and we'll get him down to 3:45 for the mile and 12:50 for the 5000. This would be brilliant.

Smartest post I've ever seen posted at Let's Run. Ever!

There could be a daily poll on what Ritz' workouts should be that day, based on a detailed online training diary that Ritz would update hourly for all of us to analyze. Maybe even a web cam at his house, and one of the Flotrack guys would follow and film him 24-7.

The daily threads arguing over what Ritz' workouts should be that day would be sooooo interesting!

Genius. Pure genius.

Before a professional potentially ruins his career by allowing letsrun to guide him, I'd like to see how this works with an amateur. Someone with some actual talent, drive, consistency in their training, nutrition, recovery, etc.

That would be a GREAT exercise for the board. It could have it's own message board separate from the main one (or a link to the relevant threads like the high school threads). If it were successful for the athlete(s), then lrc could actually tout that it helps runners. That the training advice on here is useful.

Any volunteers?

SMJO wrote:

Ritz has old legs. He's not going to be great or stand up to Marathons.

How does he have old legs? He is only 26? How old Geb ? Tergat? Are you kidding he is very young. Marathoners don't mature until their mid 30s, maybe. Mid distance late twenties. Don't call him old.

hmmm isn't that thread with Ian Edwards essentially what your talking about? There is some decent stuff on there, and everyone seems to contribute advice and updates on training/racing

Ritz is the guy who donated his CP course record bonus of $10,000 to kidney research. That same race, a 28:08, he lingered near the finish to congratulate all the other finishers, even us scrubs seven or eight minutes back.

There's still potential there for improvement at nearly every distance, with a couple years of good health, a year and a half rest between marathons, considering that 8:11 2M pr.

I think it'd be good to pair him up with 2-3 other 2:10 types when going back to the marathon, however I would focus on shorter races for a while, run XC in the fall/winter, and segway that up towards another marathon, either in the spring or fall 2010. I would actually have him run his next one in the fall 2010 just to get away from it for a little while. maybe run a 10k or 2 this summer, a 5k too, a half marathon type program for the fall, so he goes into XC with some good strength but not too beat up from marathon training. After World Cross, id take a stab at a fast 5k and 10k during the summer, dial it down a little, and then go on a full marathon assault for the fall of 2010.

By then he would have gotten away from specific marathon training without sacrificing aerobic strength, but would have the chance at improving his overall leg speed at the shorter races and actually going after the faster Africans at races in which he excelled at most over his career, Cross and 10k.

Man, I'd pay to be able to coach him, J Rohat, and Simon together!