if YOU were coaching Ritz, what would his marathon time be?

time for bye-bye wrote:

Are you posting this from the treatment center or just killing time until they come and get you?

Why so hostile?

Honestly, what problem do you have with my post? It is perfectly clear that Ritz has underperformed in the marathon relative to his 5/10/half ability. It's important to ask how good one of our best marathoners (POTENTIALLY, anyway) could be.

If you've coached yourself or someone else with 1:10 half marathon ability to a 2:25 marathon, you could coach Ritz to sub-2:05, PERIOD. That's just math.

Reeking of Cannabis wrote:

You have to admire -- no, revere -- a troll who announces that he's trolling virtually every time out, sticks to essentially the same topic or close relatives of it, never loses his cool, and STILL gets numerous agitated responses every time. Failing that, he generates some clever or plain hilarious responses. Does he really smoke jibbah? If he does I'll gladly from him an ounce if he promises to smoke up before visiting the board.

Highest honour EVER. Send that ounce!

His PR would be the same as it is now, then I would tell him that he is not a marathoner and to move on.

if I were his coach is tell him to go run for Dr vigil! best coach on the planet!

At this stage of the game Ritz will not PR in the marathon event , he has run his best , no matter the coach , no matter the course. The sport of elite marathon racing by the numbers is a younger mans game. Yes you have the one off older athletes but thats the exception.

Lets talk about getting some of our younger elites to try the distance before they burn themselves out trying to make another track team year after year and decide to try the distance in their late 20's.

2.04.33

Dead weight wrote:

At this stage of the game Ritz will not PR in the marathon event , he has run his best , no matter the coach , no matter the course. The sport of elite marathon racing by the numbers is a younger mans game. Yes you have the one off older athletes but thats the exception.

Lets talk about getting some of our younger elites to try the distance before they burn themselves out trying to make another track team year after year and decide to try the distance in their late 20's.

Not true.

Many, many guys who had already run great marathons in their 20s (which Ritz didn't) have gone on to further PR in their 30s. Ritz has plenty of time in the marathon, while he'll never sniff his HUSDON 2009 PR in the 5000 again (not under Salazar).

Dead weight wrote:

At this stage of the game Ritz will not PR in the marathon event , he has run his best , no matter the coach , no matter the course. The sport of elite marathon racing by the numbers is a younger mans game. Yes you have the one off older athletes but thats the exception.

Lets talk about getting some of our younger elites to try the distance before they burn themselves out trying to make another track team year after year and decide to try the distance in their late 20's.

Ages of the top ten all-times:

1) 31

2) 28

3) 29

4) 29

5) 35

6) 28

7) 30

8) 22

9) 30

10) 26

Correct^

And keep in mind that most of those are guys who didn't spend their 20s doing nearly the amount of ancillary work Ritz has to prolong a career.

Lots of time for a HUDSON-COACHED Ritz to get to where he could be.

I think that if Letsrun had a "Coach Ritz" thread and Ritz followed it every week, he would probably be a 2:04 man by 2015.

coach d wrote:

None.

I'd have him in the 3K/5K events that he's good at.

Marathons are for old fart losers with 26.2 stickers.

I don't think Ritz is a 5k guy. He simply does not have the closing speed necessary to EVER win a championship at that distance; not even a national championship.

I also don't see him winning a major marathon, simply because I think he lacks the durability to get that fit. But the potential is there at least.

2:01:30

1:45

I'd have him do 15 second 100m to start and then slowly extend the distance at that pace until he reached the marathon distance.

No, most don't have that closing speed, that's why only one wins...duh!!!!!!

Look how many guys have run sub 13 and never won a championship. You have my pity.

You are completely reinforcing his point!

2:05

Are you trolling or delusional?

Hah I was just thinking about this today.

Ritz is not a marathoner. His focus on the marathon has taken away all his medal opportunities he may have had in the 5000m which I believe is his best event.

I think when he was young he saw Kenny B and others running 12:30s and 12:40s and figured he didn't have the speed for it, but now its clear that mid to high 12:46-12:53 is a clear medal threat. Considering he ran a 12:56.27 on one of his only attempts I am blown away that he didn't give the event more of a shot. If he could have run 12:50 he would be almost a sure thing for a medal at a WC or Olympics.

Interesting twist on data. Not reflective is the wealth of young runners running the marathon.

Lets take the average age of top 100 times run in the year 2013.

I don't know what time he would run if I coached him but you can bet your bottom that he would be DFL.

You can use UrbanDictionary to define DFL if you aren't sure.