Ritz under the knife

Was about to post the exact same thread. Shit. Fingers crossed for a quick recovery.

Ritz is always talking about switching to Triathlons after his running career...think he should just go ahead and do it. His fragile body cant handle all the mileage. and as much as he xtrains im sure hes ready for the swim/cycle

Carlos Lopes was out for a long time with injuries. Came back to win World XC and Olympic Marathon Gold.

Seems extreme to me --it broken so just remove it?!? Can anyone explain what the sheath's purpose is? Wasn't Ritz healthy under Hudson? Didn't he PR off of Hudson acquired based fitness?

I hope Magness can straighten out the training over at the Nike Project because they are all folding. Rupp maybe the last hope.

Phiseo wrote:

I hope Magness can straighten out the training over at the Nike Project because they are all folding.

If you want to learn how to go from 4:01 to 4:10 Magness is your man.

What ever happened to good old fashioned anti-gravity treadmills?

I figured between the pool running, alter-G and soft trails in Oregon, he should be able to stay healthy.

Phiseo wrote:

Seems extreme to me --it broken so just remove it?!? Can anyone explain what the sheath's purpose is? Wasn't Ritz healthy under Hudson?

No.

The whole post sounded like he was talking about a car, not his body. Weird.

lol. Agreed. Those were the good old days when American distance running was more innocent.

I think all this surgery stuff is a huge mistake. Most injuries can be healed within a few weeks at most, and more often less than that. Sadly, though, Salazar has trusted mainstream medicine with his athletes, and they have sacrificed long-term strength for quick repair. Surgery is not the way to go. It's too bad it came down to this.

Perhaps this has been discussed to death already, but I thought it was weird that he was blaming the injury on one workout? Is a flat indoor track that much worse for your achilles than a flat outdoor track? Or was it that he was running all his repeats in the same direction?

Seems odd.

Letsrunner wrote:

What ever happened to good old fashioned anti-gravity treadmills?

I figured between the pool running, alter-G and soft trails in Oregon, he should be able to stay healthy.

As I believe Amby Burfoot once wrote, as runners we are all an experience and an experiment of One.

It is all individual.

Sheafs do not repair themselves. Ask Mary Slaney.

He'll be all right, talent and drive almost always win out.

Ritz has been going downhill since his Junior year of HS.

biggestloser wrote:

Ritz has been going downhill since his Junior year of HS.

Yeah, that 12:56 sure was a bummer.

***

Anyways, I am not sure about the Achilles sheath, but it may have been an old injury he re-aggravated with the indoor session. Can't imagine one indoor workout wrecked a perfectly healthy Achilles. Remember, there are a lot of guys from the 70s who had to hang 'em up because of chronic Achilles issues, and Salazar knows many of them.

With regard to the neuroma (probably Morton's neuroma, if I had to guess), it is actually one of the few running injuries for which surgery is pretty much your only long-term option if early conservative care doesn't work out. Sometimes a nerve bundle gets thickened, and you have to lop it off. Unfortunately, there is a chance the surgery (which is literally just lopping off the thickened nerve) can itself cause more nerve irritation. Wikipedia says about 20% chance of recurrence.

But to be honest, Ritz is 28 now. He knows, and Salazar knows, that if there's a time to get everything in order, it's now. Realistically, he will probably be past his physical peak at 5k/10k by 2016, so it is probably worth the gamble to take the surgery option NOW instead of "take 6 weeks off and we'll see." Especially if he's had a neuroma he knows he needs to take care of--who knows what kind of burden that could impose long-term, if not dealt with?

Obviously, this is a shame, and another reason to question all these great runners hopping onto the Salazar bandwagon. But we need to remember that 1) Salazar DID lead him to his 12:56--even if you credit Hudson with the base to enable it, Salazar made it happen-- and 2) Ritz has not been the paragon of health and wellness in his years as a professional.

If your neuroma is advanced enough that it is uncomfortable while walking, you need to get the surgery or else you're wasting your time.

In my opinion anyone who gets orthotics doesn't know that they might be risking their running career by causing other injuries and it rarely fixes the neuroma problem. Surgery is the way to go... it takes about 6 weeks to recover and you can run again. The return is relatively swift but your foot will hurt like a motherf**ker the first week after surgery

I've had 3 Achilles tendon surgeries, so I know this subject well. Since it's not a tendon rupture, he can probably run again in about 6 or 7 weeks.

Regarding his training, I have no idea why Mr. Salazar has him on the track. One of the things that seems to have improved my running this season is the complete elimination of all training on the track.

The sheath (paratenon) is a one layer membrane that surrounds the tendon. It provides the tendon its main blood supply. Between the paratenon and tendon is a thin layer of fluid that allows gliding of the Achilles tendon during ankle movement

MAYEROFF wrote:

I've had 3 Achilles tendon surgeries, so I know this subject well. One of the things that seems to have improved my running this season is the complete elimination of all training on the track.

Anybody ever notice how this guy makes every post into something about himself? Creepy.