midwest dominates wrote:
Jason,
I would be very interested in your opinion when it comes to Alberto coaching the marathon. You seem to be very knowledgable when it comes to marathon training.
I have been disappointed in the fact that none of Alberto's athletes ever improve upon their debut marathon under his training. Do you think that this is just bad luck or is he missing something?
I have met Mr. Salazar and I have a great deal of admiration for him as a coach, person and athlete. When I was young and had never run a race in my life, his amazing victories at NYC really made me fascinated about the marathon.
Based solely on what I have read about the training of Mr. Salazar's athletes, having read and observed the training of runners around the world, and having done a few things right (and many things wrong) with my very limited amount of talent, I can offer the following statements;
(1) To train for the marathon you need to do basically 2 things:
(a) Run enough miles and long runs to put the strength in your legs to get to the finish line without slowing down and...
(b) Run enough miles at your goal pace (and slightly faster) to improve your system to be able to handle the pace. This is supported by the wonderful posts that Mr. Renato Canova has posted on this site.
(2) From what I've read about underwater treadmills, cryosaunas, negative-gravity treadmills, biomechanical analysis, interval workouts right after a race, etc., it is possible that Mr. Salazar has made things too complex. Look what happened to Mizuki Noguchi when they tried to change her mechanics before the Beijing Olympics!!! Mr. Ritzenhein is a runner with unbelievable talent, and just throwing a simple program at him with moderate (100 mpw) mileage, moderate long runs, regular marathon pace runs, then some intervals in the last 3-4 weeks to sharpen, might be the ticket to his 2:06.
What I do know about Japanese marathon training programs is that their programs are very simple...and BRUTAL. They are constantly injured. The Japanese corporate team that lives in the town where I am in Japan right now has more than half of its runners dealing with some kind of injury right now....but keep in mind that this same team has sent a runner to each of the last 3 Olympics, in the marathon.
(3) Mr. Ritzenhein seems to get injured about as much as I do, which is to say, A LOT! Muscles, bones, ligaments and tendons can be very unpredictable structures, and we runners stress the bejesus out of them, constantly taxing the supply of water, macro-nutrients and micro-nutrients. Assuming that Mr. Ritzenheim is getting enough water, carbohydrate, fat and protein, perhaps he should take a closer look at the vitamins, minerals and anti-oxidants that he is putting into his system. When we train as hard as we do, we deplete these micro-nutrients very quickly and create massive oxidative stress that can be squelched somewhat with the right anti-oxidants.
So in sum, yes I think that Mr. Ritzenhein should pursue a simplified training system, good diet, and some very thorough blood tests to take a look at not only his iron and blood cell count, but also copper, zinc, magnesium, manganese, anti-oxidants, vitamins, etc.