GALEN RUPP'S season was insane on so many levels!

Galen is a boss.

so is Ritz.

good training partners in my book

2010 will set the stage for Rupp's career. Galen did so many wonderful things will a student/athlete and now he will focus solely on running. Can he step it up and go the next level? Anything short of lowering his personal best to sub 27:15 in 2010 will be viewed as a failure.

One would think Galen's goal for 2010 would be to run a track 10000m faster than 27:15; however, to say that if he doesn't would be a failure isn't accurate. There are a number of factors one most consider in regarding a successful season and time isn't the single most important.

I wouldn't call it "insane". But basically Rupp's primary goals this year was to develop closing speed and win college races. By those measures the season was a great success. People looking at his times are missing the whole point.

I think people are taking Salazar's "disappointment" of Rupp in Berlin out of context. If Salazar had his way I don't think Rupp would have even run in college this past year. He knew it would hurt Rupp's performance in the Worlds all along. Salazar's disappointment was more his expression that he knows Rupp can do better but not necessarily that he expected him to do better. Perhaps Salazar didn't like the way Rupp chose to run the race. Its still curious to me how Rupp chose to try and run a blistering pace with the leaders at one point. Ritz, the American master at grinding out a fast but sustained pace, wasn't even trying to keep up. But thats just tactics. I think physically Rupp is right where Salazar wants him to be.

Now that Rupp has established good closing speed, I expect he will spend a lot of months training with Ritz and building up his strength and endurance while still maintaining that speed. I think we'll see a big breakthrough on Rupp's PB next year if not an AR.

Galen Rupp, much like Tiger Woods in his younger years, spent the last year "learning how to win," a very important element in the character of a champion.

Rupp will be the AR holder for 5000m and 10,000m in the near future.

crackinlikepistachios wrote:

good training partners in my book

Good? Long distance's (excluding Webb here) two greatest, modern high school prodigies (German would be #3) training together. Unprecedented in American running history.

Ryan,

I agree. I think Rupp learned a lot about racing this year. I'm sure Alberto was hoping Rupp would be ahead of Ritz at the WC, however, he still ran 27:37 dinged up.

Next year, barring injury, I think he will break Meb's 10k record and get close to 13m at 5k. If he catches one like ritz this year, he could even go under.

What I like is Alberto went through having a bunch of studs training together in the early 80s under Dellinger. He saw the damage it can take on everyone if not retrained by the coach and will make that adjustment. Not a knock on Bill, but some workouts got way out of hand and I think it shortened Alberto's career and he will make sure that doesn't happen to his group.

mnbvccs wrote:

crackinlikepistachios wrote:

good training partners in my book

Good? Long distance's (excluding Webb here) two greatest, modern high school prodigies (German would be #3) training together. Unprecedented in American running history.

cool thing is...theyre training with webb too

Galen means "crazy" in swedish.

I cannot think of even one level on which Rupp's season was insane. It was impressive for a college senior. It shows great promise. However, any statements beyond this are hyperbole.

I run a few open races each year and several road races but wouldn't even consider running five or six 10000m races in a single year. It's a reason why elites don't run that many 10000m races in a year but Galen did darn good. I also think the sheer number of races he ran along with the 10000m races and how well he performed did make for an insane season.

They both Rock .. and will continue to Roll ...

Like the proverbial Stone ....

Rolling over east africans like a combine chews

up hay.

May they kick african butt!!!

surely not afraid of toeing the line in races. More races

than any other I guess.

You still think Bolt is dirty?

I wouldn't expect much from Rupp next season for no other reason than the fact that he ran 22 races this year. All of that racing (especially the doubling and tripling he did at the NCAA championships) takes it's toll on the body. You might say his season was insane, I would argue that it was a little wreckless.

joedirt wrote:

I would argue that it was a little wreckless.

Note that a lot of them were hardly even races for him.

tremendous collegiate season, very respectable world championship performance, and great speed and racing development this year. But ultimately, 22 races with five 10k's on the track, plus the extension in the summer to a year of races (from last xc), had to have contributed to the injury that held him back at world's. Did Salazar approve of all that racing? I don't know but given that Rupp started out not running in college, you would think that Salazar never thought he should run in college at all, except that the marketing ops were powerful. I think that Rupp will bounce back from this summer very well and run some impressive times next year. Ritz might beat him to the American records again.

Note that a lot of them were hardly even races for him.[/quote]

Sure, he didn't have to go to the well on a lot of them, but it was more than a workout. I would say that's at least part of the reason he didn't run as well at Worlds as he did at NCAAs and USAs.

When was it in Tiger's career that he did not win and so neede to learn how to do so?