Runners World Takes It To Ritz: "All the money in the world can't buy a faster marathon"

...if he tapered he would have run 3-5% faster...this is why salazar was so excited...since he ran much slower then you have to ask why?...overtrained most likely a problem he has admitted under Brad Hudson

also you have to remember that the marathon is a different beast metabolic wise. ritz can whip himself into shape to run a fast 5km or 10km but the marathon requires you to maximize your endurance and skeletal muscle energy stores.

this can't be done very well in short time period. there is not enough time to maximize endurance nor metabolic fuel stores.

i wonder why he didn't decide to run houston..super fast and flat? He would have had another 2 months to train.

at least ritz expressed disappointment, even embarassment at having run poorly after all the hype. hall would be pointing to the space-ghost and deluding himself into satisfaction

Its true. They need to stop training like rich little brats.Get rid of the "technology" and get strong and tough.

If you want to really "fix" Ritz's form do it the way the Africans learned Have him do some barefoot running. Too much coddling going on. They have it too easy. That's why the Africans punish us.

dunno wrote:

not sure but i think he did ok on his 6th.

That's kind of my point, perhaps we ought to let Ritz learn his business before ripping on him - while it is true that many runners take to the marathon immediately (Steve Jones comes to mind), it is equally true that many take some time to really get it (Geb took 5 goes before he ran his WR, Tergat 3). Just my thoughts.

rolo wrote:

When did Runners World become a credible source?

When did letsrun become a credible source?

J.R. wrote:

When's the last time Ritz ran a marathon.

Two years ago????

I ran 7 marathons my fastest year.

He's not running enough marathons to be a true marathon runner.

I see no reason to avoid running at least one marathon every two months.

If he can't run then don't run, but if he can run he should run.

yeah.....like gebramarime

think about it:

In that famous movie of Abebe Bekele he was running a 215 marathon.....50 years ago "sans sneakers"

Rodgers started running to quit smoking

that was 35 years ago

ran faster then ritz

hand letterd [poorly] GBTC on a Tee shirt

stopped in the middle of the road to tie his shoe

can Ritz even tie his shoes ?

Time for a reality check.

I did not say Olympic Marathon was a model of success for Dathan. His time and place in the Olympics were nothing to be ashamed of. Did he want to do better, of course, wouldn't you? What happened with those top 3 runners in Beijing was superlative to blunt. I never said he had no expectations or pressure either.

What I did say was that after the O.T. in New York and the 2:06 in London, Ryan Hall had WAY MORE PRESSURE on himself than Dathan. That is an absolute indisputable fact, not an opinion. Ryan Hall was mentioned way more than Dathan as the Olympics approacheh and how soon we(you), forget. Again, it was his performances at the Trials and London that lead many to believe he had a real chance to medal. Dathan was not talked about in the same manner. If that does not make sense to you, well.....good luck.

Al Sal should buy the new hyperbolic dynamic sack strencher for Ritz.

Hook it up to Webb and Rupp whiles he's at it.

Consistent year around training?

You mean like the winner did? Oh wait, no he was busy just dominating road races like Peachtree, Beach2Beacon and Falmouth. He didn't train specifically for the marathon. It worked for the new Geb.

The reason Ritz lost is because he didn't run his own race. Assuming what AlSal said about his training, Ritz was capable of running even splits on his own without the help of pacers, etc... That's what he should have done. Instead, everyone tucked in with Haile, out of both fear and respect of what they assumed Haile was capable of doing.

The winner's second half was what, 1:02 high? A little over one minute slower than Ritz's recent Half Marathon race.

As some of the more recent posters have opined ... Ritz needed to run his own race and not get sucked into the Ethiopian strategy of turning the marathon into a 30K warmup for a 12K race.

I'm glad that the runners world writer knows exactly what to do the rectify the problem, and has written it in the article. It's great to see a fresh insight into distance running.

IMO Ritz had a bad day. I'd like to see him train and qualify for World Cross and see what he can do there. Although winning it wouldn't be enough to satisfy the masses here.

I still don't see how Ritz had a bad race, it was an okay race. Every single one of the runners ahead of him is better than him. The time was slow, but everyone's time is slow. Ahead of him were:

Gebremariam

Mutai

Moses Kigen Kipkosgei (something of a breakout race for him)

Goumri

Kwambai

Meb

Marilson Gomes dos Santos

Of these seven, Kipkosgei ran way over his head, but Gebremariam is a WXC champion, Mutai has run a 2:06 and finished second at London, Goumri has a 2:05 PB, Kwambai has a 2:04 PB, Meb and Marilson are former NYC champions. The times were slow, but the racing was brutal and unevenly paced. It's not enough to say that Ritz should have beaten these great runners because they ran pedestrian times. It's all about who can hang with the surges.

I give you props for an excellent point. I think the problem is that Salazar feeds his athletes and the public a load of shit and many believe it.

We were expecting Ritz to be battling in the front to the finish because Alberto told us so. And the ignorant press picks up on every word as if he knows what he is talking about.

This same thing happened with Kara in the WC in Berlin. We expected a medal because this was the horse shit that Alberto was feeding us. In reality she was beaten by 9 runners that had better marathon credentials. She stood at the finish line in tears and said "I have beaten all of these runners, I don't know what happened". She had never raced against most of them in the marathon.

Wakeup wrote:

Its just like rocky four. Ritz is the russian and Geb is rocky. But seriously, I dont think Ritz has his full heart set on the marathon. He doesnt get in that consistent year round training specifically for the marathon that is needed to really perform.

Oh please, Ritz wouldn't even be Apollo.

okey dokey then wrote:Look at Greg's pr's compared to Dathan's. It's not even close.

You're right. Meyer 2:08:59 Ritz 2:10:10. Meyer = unpampered. Ritz = pampered.

Everybody is reading way to much between the lines and making way to many arm-chair assumptions.

Not all elite distance athletes will be great marathoners not matter the build -up , course , coaching or dollars given. Im not sure why its a absolute that someone like Dathan will be a world class marathoner.

His injury cycle and physiology indicate that maybe the distance is not his cup of tea.

Money influences his decisions and all involved want to make him a big time marathoner but reality can be cruel. Hopefully he does not get signed up and has to run a spring marathon , maybe he can get back on the ground ,compete at some other distances and not worry about what we all want him to be.

30+ years ago, toward the end of Shorter's career I heard (through one of his training mates) of a 20 miler at altitude...he's ready. But he didn't run even close to 5 min pace, nor did he ever again in a marathon.

Likewise, Salazar later in his career always hyped up his conditioning saying he was in world record shape but it never materialized.

So this pre race hype is nothing new in America. Salazar and RW are tops at that anyway. I'll have to read the article, maybe by night the writer is a LR troll.

Seems like Ritz ran a decent race on a slowish day in NYC. I agree with 2:09s on a faster course. He's probably capable of 2:07 - 2:08 at London, Berlin, or Chicago on a day that everything would go perfect. Agree though, that he's probalby best at XC, and 5K and 10K. Nothing wrong with that.

I like Salazar and he certainly has done great with Rupp and may have Webb on the right track, but I think he's nuts the way he's been messing around with Ritz's form. Give up on that, dump the gadgets, get Ritz healthy and get him to race more. That's what the doctor ordered. I agree with AK-52 though, Ritz seems to be more of a 5K/10K/half-marathon guy. His results would sure suggest as much. But then if not for all the injuries he'd probably have a 2:07 or 2:08 PR by now. And he has some useful years yet to run. 2012 and even 2016.