The Single Reason Ryan Hall Had a (Very) Bad Race Today: Emaciation

What? Anorexia? He was one of the biggest guys out there and not anywhere near as skinny as Meb and bc he has a poor race he is anorexic?

skeptical.... wrote:

any pic i saw from the race today doesn't look much different than this:

http://running.competitor.com/files/2009/09/hall_ryanfv-houstonh07.jpg

unless you have records of his weight throughout training in months leading to good races vs. bad races to go off of, who really knows if he is heavier or lighter & how it might affect performance. "how a guy looks" to you is not data to base a claim like this on.

First thought from that pic was that he appears to have lost some muscle mass since that magical run in Houston.

We have hear, over the past few weeks, that Ryan Hall has had some epic training, and that he was in the best marathon shape of his life. There isn't any discrepancy between these reports and Ryan's performance today.

Ryan Hall said he is at his high school weight. Watching him in a couple interviews, his face looked skullish. In the marathon, he looked skeletal. Unfortunately, I think Ryan's training has been VERY good. So good, he has become a little emaciated. I would be willing to bet that if he could have raced even a couple weeks ago, he would have had a breakout performance. But he went just a little too far, and it caught up with him.

I don't really look at today as a good or a bad race performance for Ryan. He had the rare chance of training hard enough, and avoiding injury well enough, that his breaking point wasn't a stress fracture or Achilles tendinitis, it was metabolic. Hopefully, he can maintain his training, while getting his body the fuel it needs.

Ridiculous answer.

I know you are trollin', but I'll bite anyway:

C'mon bro, don't give up the gag RIGHT AWAY! Save that joke for the end.... But moving on...

a) Hall has always eaten grains.

b) if you listen closely, he says that in the PAST, (when he was running his best), he was eating tons of wheat (pasta, bread, etc). NOW..in the last few years (when he has been running crappy), he's dropped the wheat for things like sweet potatoes, exactly what Cult_Fit would suggest.

c) Hall is obviously extremely lean in the video. If anyone thinks he has too much fat on him, you're nuts OR....if you insist, blame it on his new wheat-free diet.

d) your pic of alan webb shows neither his stomach nor his arms

"your" an idiot, and "your" welcome.

MIC ITW wrote:

skeptical.... wrote:

any pic i saw from the race today doesn't look much different than this:

http://running.competitor.com/files/2009/09/hall_ryanfv-houstonh07.jpg

unless you have records of his weight throughout training in months leading to good races vs. bad races to go off of, who really knows if he is heavier or lighter & how it might affect performance. "how a guy looks" to you is not data to base a claim like this on.

First thought from that pic was that he appears to have lost some muscle mass since that magical run in Houston.

I saw Ryan Hall run that race in Houston. I also saw him at the 2008 trials, 2012 trials and at the 2011 half champs. I even saw him hanging out at the 2014 US half champs. I did not see him in person in Boston. But, I actually thought that Hall was very lean when he ran the AR in the half. Since then, I thought that he had filled out quite a bit, especially his shoulders/chest. In the race photos and video from Boston, Ryan did look leaner than he has been in a while. Too much dieting can certainly be an issue in the marathon. But I think Ryan tanked because he hasn't raced a marathon since January of 2012. The marathon is not like riding a bike. The odds of a good result after a two year break from racing are not very good.

adroit181 wrote:

I disagree. The single reason he underperformed was that he cut out "junk" mileage. I don't know why we Americans keep thinking we will just get handed success without putting in the work. We SUCKED in the 90s because everyone thought low mileage was the way to go. Now Ryan Hall is infecting a whole new generation with this crippling mindset. Read a description of Paul Tergat preparing for the 2000 Olympic 10k and you'll realize that those who espouse that they need to cut down on mileage to improve quality are just taking it easy. I'm not willing to train long or hard enough to win a major marathon. But I will admit that. Those who won't put in the work and won't admit that they're taking it easy are being disingenuous.

no in fact it makes since he cut back his mileage he wasn't getting any aerobically stronger form his method and he had no speed at all so he wanted to develop it

I agree that he probably ate too much like a bird though

I just wonder if it is possible that Hall has become overly fixated on his diet. Restrictive eating disorders come in all shapes and sizes, and he has a history of an underactive thyroid. In a lot of those videos he seems to be measuring food, eating pasta without any sort of dressing or sauce and just putting a lot of thought and effort into what goes in his body. Not that you shouldn't be concerned about diet as an elite athlete, but someone that is running that volume should just be trying to make healthy choices and shouldn't be limiting calories or obsessing too much about it. Just my take on things.

[quote]jamin wrote:

X_Fit_Guy_The_Real_1 has been right all along about training and performance. If you become skinny-fat from eating too many grains and not running at a high enough intensity, that will hurt your performance on race day. You can see in this video that, leading up to the Boston Marathon, Ryan Hall had become skinny-fat and was eating grains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGlH_paK9Y

. Go to 5:14 and you see him slurping down spaghetti.

http://www.letsrun.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Hall-Keflezighi-Abdirahman-Boston141-300x200.jpg?5d0983

Hall looks almost obese.

Looky Here wrote:

he has a history of an underactive thyroid

Thyroid problems are a side effect of excessive long distance running (google chronic cardio).

Repeat after me:

RUNNING 130 MPW IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

RUNNING 130 MPW IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

RUNNING 130 MPW IS BAD FOR YOUR HEALTH

Morons

Plain and simple, Ryan Hall had a bad race!

Why he had a bad race, no one, probably including Ryan can say for sure, but if you are looking for one way to caption it...he had a bad day at the office.

If he had run 2:12 or 2:13, we can speculate about a lot of things. Running 2:17 when 1 weeks prior, you felt like you where in the shape of your life is not the result of any one thing. Unless he pulled a hamstring or got food poisoning last week, there is nothing but a "bad race" that would cause you to under perform that much. If he felt like he was ready to roll last week, means he was probably running faster than 2:17 in his long training runs; there is absolutely nothing in the week before the marathon that would make that much of a difference.

To prove my point, if Ryan runs again in the next couple of week, her will probably have a very good performance because that marathon likely did not take much out of him. Unfortunately, Ryan is known for having incredibly bad performances, this time it came on a big stage.

Meb's pre-race diet

In the morning his wife makes him himbasha. It’s traditional bread, and he will eat that with some all-natural honey on it, and they also have a tea that they make. Sometimes he’ll dip the bread in the tea. He’s an endurance athlete, so he needs carbohydrates and the himbasha is a very good source of that.

He’ll run after breakfast and then when he gets back he’ll have his recovery beverage Generation UCAN. We searched for one for a long time for a recovery beverage and Generation UCAN is ideal for an athlete. It’s a carb beverage with protein in it.

For lunch he’ll have a balanced meal of carbs, proteins, and fats. His wife will sometimes make him a turkey sandwich or egg sandwich with salad and piece of fruit. Nothing out of the ordinary. He’ll have continuous nibbling throughout the day – fruits, yogurt sometimes until he gets to dinner.

Dinner is the same type of plate of lunch with more fruits and vegetables. Meb is very good at understanding his body. He knows when he’s hungry and needs to eat more, and knows when he doesn’t need to eat any more. People should only take energy in at the rate it’s being expended. Meb intuitively knows how much he needs.

Before he goes to bed he’ll have a warm glass of milk and sometimes some more himbasha. Only sometimes on nights before a long run he’ll treat himself with a piece of cheesecake that will give him added carbohydrates and energy.

As the race approaches how does the training and eating schedule change?

The schedule of when he does his stuff doesn’t really change, but the volume definitely changes. The training goes down and so does the food intake. He starts taking in extra carbohydrates the week of the race.

Problem with your thinking is junk mile pace is not work. Second thing you are overlooking is Meb has also cut back on junk miles.

X_Fit_Guy_The_Real_1 has been right all along about training and performance. If you become skinny-fat from eating too many grains and not running at a high enough intensity, that will hurt your performance on race day. You can see in this video that, leading up to the Boston Marathon, Ryan Hall had become skinny-fat and was eating grains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZGlH_paK9Y

. Go to 5:14 and you see him slurping down spaghetti.

He's not the only runner who has suffered. Another notable example is Alan Webb. Here's Alan Webb back when he was fast:

http://i2.cdn.turner.com/si/2012/olympics/2012/writers/tim_layden/06/22/alan-webb-dathan-ritzenhein-2012-olympic-track-and-field-trials/alan-webb.jpg

. Compare that to the picture I took of him this January:

http://i.imgur.com/NVgu8SZ.jpg

. His arms looked weak and his stomach looked pudgy.

(quote/)

yeah he should have eaten the paleo diet making sure to have red meat and crossfit every day because you can have unlimited amounts of protein without it becoming stored as fat only carbs get stored as fat not protein PS CROSSFIT BRO-NATION

haha zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzziiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggggggggg

oh hello jamin AKA X_Fit_Guy_The_Real_1 great job referring to yourself in 3d person how about you go back to your triple cheeseburger with no buns with a side of a 21 ounce steak with an omelette on top and let the big boys talk. also, good luck with your rehab sessions attempting to break up all of your scar tissue from crossfit in the future

Needs a real coach he trusts.

Yeah, I've noticed those skinny Kenyan's struggling as well

6'0" 142lbs according to this old letsrun HS interview.

http://www.letsrun.com/highschool/hall.html

Most online sources, but not Ryan directly, now say he's 5'10" 130lbs

If he is actually 6'0" 142lbs, that should be enough mass to support 2:07:40 or thereabouts. Running 10:00 slower than what your muscle mass can support is not an emaciation problem, that's a training problem. That's assuming he's 6'0" 142lbs, which is questionable, of course.