An Incredible Amby Burfoot Interview With Alberto Salazar

I love how he's looking (and has been looking) at Rupp's running as such a longterm process. 26:20s are absolutely doable if he stays healthy.

with the times salazar is predicting, that is making galen seem inline with someone like paul tergat, 12:40s 5k, 26:20s 10k, marathon = 2:0?

But what if this approach is wrong? I notice that Africans just talk about "getting in good shape" rather than constantly trying to get better and better. Notice that Mottram fell away, so too did Tegenkamp, so too Solinsky and Ritzenhiem it seems. Interesting.

Maybe Alberto shouldn't be striving for 12:45 for Rupp (NOT LEAST BECAUSE THAT SEEMS BEYOND HIS TALENT LEVELS) but maybe consolidating what they have and being extra cautious with injuries (why not maintain mileage and intensity rather than increase increase increase)?

Question......given their time again would Mottram, Tegenkamp, Ritz, Solinsky do something different if given their time again? Mottram and Solinsky talked of Gold medals.......maybe their striving to get from 12:55 to 12:45 was their undoing?

26'20+ may be a way off, but i reckon that 12'45 is more realistic

last year, i reckon he already was in 12'50 shape ( with 26'40 - 26'45 ), so the drop to 12'45 may not be the insurmountable propostion it first seems

to be honest, if he does get into 26'20s, he probably will go faster than 12'45 - something like 12'43 is possible with him

as someone mentioned, the career aim is similar to tergat times, but rupp has better speed than tergat, so likely better 5k potential

if i had to project an ultimate career peak for rupp, i'd start with :

52.9 / 1'50.3 -> 3'34.5 , 7'25.8 , 12'43.8 , 26'23.8

last year he was maybe :

52.3 / 1'49.7 -> 3'34.4 , 7'27.9 , 12'49.9 , 26'43.6

a lot of endurance work will just subtley change his 400/800 ability & the extrapolation to 5k/10k is huge...

Diferreingviewpoint wrote:

But what if this approach is wrong? I notice that Africans just talk about "getting in good shape" rather than constantly trying to get better and better. Notice that Mottram fell away, so too did Tegenkamp, so too Solinsky and Ritzenhiem it seems. Interesting.

Maybe Alberto shouldn't be striving for 12:45 for Rupp (NOT LEAST BECAUSE THAT SEEMS BEYOND HIS TALENT LEVELS) but maybe consolidating what they have and being extra cautious with injuries (why not maintain mileage and intensity rather than increase increase increase)?

Question......given their time again would Mottram, Tegenkamp, Ritz, Solinsky do something different if given their time again? Mottram and Solinsky talked of Gold medals.......maybe their striving to get from 12:55 to 12:45 was their undoing?

That would be a good point if Galen has stopped progressing and the issue was whether to keep pushing to a higher level that was seemingly not approaching. But Alberto's point is that Galen has continued progressing each and every year.

If he is no better in 12 months time, you may have a valid point. I'm not sure you do until then. Your estimation of his "talent levels" are, for now, mere guesses - and guesses made with far less information than Galen and Alberto have.

Diferreingviewpoint wrote:

Maybe Alberto shouldn't be striving for 12:45 for Rupp (NOT LEAST BECAUSE THAT SEEMS BEYOND HIS TALENT LEVELS) but maybe consolidating what they have and being extra cautious with injuries (why not maintain mileage and intensity rather than increase increase increase)?

I bolded the part that made the least sense to me. Who knows what his talent level is? We haven't seen any major plateaus in his fitness. It's easy to say "you're only so good, you can't run X time," and while it makes sense not to shoot for sub 12 or something absurd like that, what's wrong with aiming high? What is realistic is debatable...

Sorry Charlie, anyone who put's an "m" in Ritz's last name invalidates themselves immediately from any serious discussion of top athletes.

Diferreingviewpoint wrote:

But what if this approach is wrong? I notice that Africans just talk about "getting in good shape" rather than constantly trying to get better and better. Notice that Mottram fell away, so too did Tegenkamp, so too Solinsky and Ritzenhiem it seems. Interesting.

Diferreingviewpoint wrote:

But what if this approach is wrong? I notice that Africans just talk about "getting in good shape" rather than constantly trying to get better and better. Notice that Mottram fell away, so too did Tegenkamp, so too Solinsky and Ritzenhiem it seems. Interesting.

Maybe Alberto shouldn't be striving for 12:45 for Rupp (NOT LEAST BECAUSE THAT SEEMS BEYOND HIS TALENT LEVELS) but maybe consolidating what they have and being extra cautious with injuries (why not maintain mileage and intensity rather than increase increase increase)?

Question......given their time again would Mottram, Tegenkamp, Ritz, Solinsky do something different if given their time again? Mottram and Solinsky talked of Gold medals.......maybe their striving to get from 12:55 to 12:45 was their undoing?

The point of being a professional runner is to try and win races and medals. Maintaining your current status quo will not get that accomplished when there are already 10 guys faster than you.

I'm sure the guys you listed would try some different if given the chance but I'm sure they would not try to get faster. You might as well retire if you are not trying to better yourself.

It's amazing how much time, effort, and resources they're having to put into getting Galen to 12:45, and yet there's XX number of Africans literally rolling out of bed and running it.

Galen = Drago wrote:

It's amazing how much time, effort, and resources they're having to put into getting Galen to 12:45, and yet there's XX number of Africans literally rolling out of bed and running it.

If by "XX" you mean "3 in history, with the last 12:45 or faster run in 2005," you're spot on.

Galen = Drago wrote:

It's amazing how much time, effort, and resources they're having to put into getting Galen to 12:45, and yet there's XX number of Africans literally rolling out of bed and running it.

By XX you mean 3? I don't think Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie and Daniel Komen just rolled out of bed and ran 12:45.

My favorite quote regarding Jerry's group and his group.

"We might be sharing the Nike campus, but that doesn’t mean we’re going on picnics together."

Diferreingviewpoint wrote:

But what if this approach is wrong? I notice that Africans just talk about "getting in good shape" rather than constantly trying to get better and better. Notice that Mottram fell away, so too did Tegenkamp, so too Solinsky and Ritzenhiem it seems. Interesting.

What if the Africans's approach is wrong? What if just talking about getting in good shape is hit or miss compared to having a clear plan of getting in better and better shape that's been working for years? I notice that the atheletes you mentioned falling away haven't had the benefit of this long-term plan, and that few of the east Africans remain at the top for long.

Salazar says:

He’s had good marathon coaches—both Brad Hudson and me. He’s figured out the fueling. He’s got this incredible aerobic engine. But something’s still wrong. I ran my first marathon in 2:09:41 on just five weeks of preparation. Dathan’s run 12:56 for 5K; with his engine, he should be a better marathoner than I ever was. But he’s stuck at 2:10.

Something doesn’t add up.

So, he's a "good marathon coach", but something doesn't add up.

THIS is the reason that Galen is not moving to the marathon.

And the solution for him is, DON'T RUN ANY MARATHONS!

Absolute genius.

/sarcasm

Trying to butter the Salad Bar in hopes of getting access to the stable? Bag on his b'ys and now you're all hot to trot. That's terrible.

A few comments on people's comments on this thread.

Diferreingviewpoint,

What are you talking about? Their undoing? Solinsky was the 1st white man under 27:00 and Mottram won a world championship medal.

By definition, there can only be one winner to a race. I think there careers have been pretty amazing.

Striving to get better in a logical fashion is the only way. I've always said the thing that's weird about running is it's really just a matter of when you stop improving. If you keep improving, you'll eventually set the world record.

Rupp has a plan to improve and he's always on his game as everything is always in order - asthma, allergies, thyroid, etc. He's not going to miss a season because of anemia, malaria, allergies, whatever.

ventolin^3,

You do realize that no one in the world has broken 12:50 in almost 5 years?

And yet Rupp, whose best event isnt even the 5k, is going to run 12:45?

No way. Not unless we go back to the days when EPO was undetectable.

Rupp's PR is 13:06. He ran 13:07 in 2010 and 13:18 in 2009. He's come down 12 seconds in 2 years and you think he can easily go 21 more seconds?

Not a chance. The odds are way greater that he never breaks 13:00 than that he even runs under 12:55.

Earlier, I talked about how it all comes down to when do you stop improving?

Well Rupp has been gradually progressing for about a decade now. But the fact of the matter is it's now going to be harder to improve as the low hanging fruit is gone. This is a guy who as of a few years ago wasn't even over 100 mpw on a regular basis and wasn't even doing sustained tempo runs.

I always say, once you get up to 120 mpw, are running long progressions and what not and are doing high/low, it's not easy to come up with easy ways to significantly improve.

Moreover,the one thing that Rupp hasn't dealt with at all really is injury. Will he go an entire career with zero major setbacks?

He's a few years of improvement away from being on top of the world but he's also one injury away from being mediocre at the world level.

Big Guy

If you actually look at the splits of virtually 100% of the ~ 12'53 races we've seen in past 1/2 dozen years, they all have same pattern of a pathetic 4th k when it gets tactical & no one wants to take the pace ( in fact it's usually Eliud who takes lead & kills the pace )

That km is usually about 2'38/2'39 instead of a "wanted" 2'33 & they don't actually speed up significantly to maybe 600 out

They are usually throwing away maybe 1/2 dozen secs in these races & still finish 12'53

He is actually a 5k guy moving up

Timewise, I still think 5k is presently his best event ( maybe this year or next 10k will be best, but last year, I think he couda gone 12'50, which may have been better than 26'40+ )

He has better speed than most africans ( a 1'49i years ago was damn impressive ) & that would likely indicate that he woud run a faster 5k than most of the 26'40+ africans

You are smart enough to know his 13'06pb is a joke

Salazar ( correctly ) isn't even thinking of breaking 13 as some sort of monumental target - he's already thinking 12'45 - this can only mean that he already assumes Rupp is already a big sub-13 guy ( possibly a 12'50 - 12'55 guy from last year ) & they are planning to take him to his "ultimate" time within next coupla years

You don't mention 12'45 for a "13'06" guy unless that 13'06 is not even a baseline consideration

just to add, that ole rule of thumb for equally strong 5k/10k runners is :

10k = 2*5k + 1'00

( think kennster who went 12'37/26'17 ( albeit separate years )

geb went 12'39/26'22 )

26'48 ->12'54

however, if you have excellent speed ( 1'49i in past ), you coud expect to be quicker than that, so a proposed near 12'50 for him last year is certainly feasible

Good interview. I actually read it on the front page before checking this thread. I like the no nonsense approach of the Q&A. I'm looking forward to reading Salazar's "14 Minutes" book which I reordered a while back. Looks like a read good read! I've always liked Amby Burfoot's interviews. He certainly makes them interesting and not dull.

rojo wrote:

Part II of Amby's interview with Alberto came out today:

http://news.runnersworld.com/2012/04/08/brief-chat-alberto-salazar-part-2-of-2/