2009 Zurich Golden League - Weltklasse Zurich

Right you are, sir.Not to mention he went to college in Colorado... He has past experience with altitude. He left it because he thought it was causing injuries, but now he has a different outlook on that, too.

I think many of you are over estimating the effect the altitude tents had on his training. He has been with Alberto for only like 2 months and a lot of that time was spent at actual altitude.His 13:16 PR is old, when was the last time he had a serious track season while being healthy for this long? The drastic improvement comes from 2 years of marathon training, then changing his training to be track oriented and getting a different mental outlook on the sport and what he is capable of.

I just saw an interview of Dr. James Stray-Gundersen, the supposed leading expert in this topic in a soccer magazine about how the US national soccer team is affected by playing at Azteca stadium in Mexico City. He said without altitude simulators the best way to deal with a high altitude event is to either get there long enough in advance to aclimitize or delay your arrival to the day of and have plenty of O2 available before during and after the event.

World silver medalist Kikkan Randall has an academic paper at this link whic will educate you even more about how common this technology is getting. It would appear that it is even affordable for the east africans.http://cub.alaskapacific.edu/kikkanimal/sae.html

I do not think that LHTLT is cheating. I think it is a great idea. I remember as a midshipman at CU in the 70's when Frank Shorter give us a lecture on fast twitch slow twitch which was the latest technology back then. Back then, Frank led the charge in live high train high when he moved to Boulder and brought other serious runners with him. I first heard about LHTLT two years ago at a seminar by PhD who was also a coach of a college nordic ski team. As a grad student, she had consulted with the norwegian ski team when they were first trying it, and I am pretty sure her thesis was on this technology. There are even commercial systems available for sale.http://www.altitudetraining.com/

Chad has got it right. Training involves doing things to your body to help it overcompensate. ie load it with extreme acidosis so it recovers and over-compensates, deprive it of the proper partial pressure of oxygen, breakdown the muscles so that during rest the body will overcompensate and build stronger ones. We think of better ways to prepare the body to run faster.Where the line is gray is when you start talking about nutrients, minerals, vitamins, amino acids, epo, anabolic steroids, HGH. There is a line there somewhere, but it is sometimes a very murky line.

I watched it on NBC today after watching the two British guys cover the race. The British feel did a much better job of covering and getting excited about Ritz's run.What an awful job the US announcers did. There was no excitement at all. Who did color there? Liquori or Shorter?

ive watched this interview a good few times, and the race like 5! he's definitely my favourite runner, and i can't wait to see what he can bust out in the 10k and Marathon!I'll buy a Zoom Ritz! hahah

the difference between this form of blood doping and others, and what makes it legal, is that this is using technology and training techniques to trick the body into generating it's own 'extra' red blood cells and then to train your muscles to use them at low altitude. The key is that all the enhancements in "live high train low" come from within the body itself rather than an outside source of red blood cells; not even a transfusion of your own from previous blood draws.

I'm a little apprehensive about anyone breaking 2 hours for the marathon according to mcmillanrunning.com these are the relative P.R.'s. (This is for a 1.59.59 marathon) But hey who am I to say that it can't happenMile- 3.33.22 mile- 7.34.9 (3.47.4)5k- 12.18 (3.58 per mile)10k- 25.34 (4.06 per mile)13.1- 56.53 (4.21 per mile)26.2- 1.59.59 (4.35 per mile)

Great Race!

All I have to say that it was an honor to have met Dathan last year at the NYC half-marathon. I am very proud of his accomplishments overall. From his days in h.s. to being an elite runner for the US today. It's good to know that we have runners like Ritz that can tell up and coming distance runners in America that we can beat Kenyans and run fast too. Hard work, dedication, patience, commitment, desire, goals, and over coming injuries can make special things happen. Way to go Ritz...I along with other fellow runners salute you and wish you continuous success in all distances. Keep up the great work.

Came back from the dead..."back to back" great races!!!

a true testatment to salazar being one of the greatest coaches of all time.

his wikipedia page is already updated, that proves that wikipedia is better than any other encyclopedia, updated by the hour, who does this stuff?

i think you are mistaken here. its not that people think the african's are bad guys at all. when you meet any of the african athletes you see they are the nicest people around, very kind. the reason people make a big deal out of a "non-born african athlete" is because the east african countries have been so dominant over the years. its hard for many to imagine anyone, especially an american, being able to be a legitimate contender. so its not meant to be a negative towards east african runners, its more just being impressed that someone can compete with them. they are kinda like the dream team was in basketball, no one thought they could be touched, so when they were beat (not the original dream team) it was a huge surprise.

go Dathan!! that's intense :)

Yeah, sorry man, but Flanagan is indeed in the group. She is Jerry's first female pro. Jerry and Alberto have a group together that is not quite one, but not quite two. They are working in affiliation with each other.

Actually, Poopie, I think the American record for 10,000 is more like 27:13 or something. But yeah, Ritz could take that down with the shape he's currently in. In fact, he was looking for a 10k rather than 5k here; but this was the best race at the right time.Meb's record will live to fall another season, it looks like.

BEAST

Before anyone disses him for pursuing the marathon, i think its safe to say that his marathon training gave him a huge base to train off of. It also must have given him a mental boost, being able to push through 26.2 miles can make it mentally easier to run 12.5 or 25 laps around the track. I knew this was what was going to happen, and I can't wait to see what Ritz can do in the future. He may get a ton of expectations now because of this, but knowing how strong he is mentally as physically, I'm sure can pass those expectations, and even his own.

Man, I can see how Ritz wants to savor this, but at the same time, he also must really be thinking, "Gee, I wish I had a 10k in about two weeks." Or even a mile, for that matter. He could throw down a 3:57 or 3:56 at this point, I'd think. He's in such a great place right now, and looking forward to a fall half marathon. That would be great for him to grab Ryan's American record there and really shake things up.

I can't wait to see a sub-27:00 out of this guy now. o.o

Wow! That's all there is to say Wow! I want every young diatance runner to watch that race. It's a testimate to perseverance, faith, and dedication. He was in dead last for more then half the race and then closed to third as the only non African in the race. That just doesn't happen. With about 1k to go you could sense the crowd getting behind Ritz as he started charging. Bekele was coming back and so was the entire field. The announcers picked up on the crowd and you could just sense the people in the packed stadium were willing him around the track to catch Bekele. How awesome would that have been? The announcers were totally excited by Ritz even if they didn't realize he ran an AR, they realized it was a special performance. NBC guys would have been talking about crackers or something seeing as how they nothing about the US distance guys. Great run man!! Mark thanks for bringing us the interview. I could feel his excitement as well as yours behind the camera. You guys go out and have a few beers tonight. Yah!!!!By the way what was that relay at the beginning of the Universal feed? I've never seen anything like it.

congratulations D Ritz. Brilliant run!

Flanagan is definitely in their group. Hence the running in races wearing Oregon track club singlets.

Great Job Ritz!! Any video of this????

Ritz (American Record 5k), Teg (American Record 2Mi), Webb (American Record Mile), Rupp (American Indoor Record 5k), Flanagan (Every American Distance Track Record). They have such a group up there.

That's such an amazing feat! I really hope he can inspire the rest of our distance team, we could have a few more medal contenders!

Awesome!!! I just opened up my back door and let out a huge woop!

Wow, that's insane!

Wow, way to go Ritz! That was an absolutely incredible performance! Best of luck in your future endeavors...

4th white guy under 13. Go Ritz!

hero

Ryan, Thanks tons. My voice is shot from watching the on-demand. I saw your message after I had already written mine.USA! USA!Bummer that I'll have to lose my voice again on Sunday.

So sick! Tons of respect

favourite runner!!

Awesome race! once he hung on at about halfway it looked like a big one was coming then the last 1200 was fabulous(duh) The big 3 HS class of ritz webb hall have really lived up to their potential. Talent doesnt go away- i bet within the next 1-2 years there will be a similar style interview with webb.

That was simply amazing!..unbelievable close..If I didn't know the end result i would have thought he was going to catch bekele

dave the on-demand is already up. i left a comment below and there's a link to the top left so you're good to go!

Yowza!!

BTW, it's on NBC in high def on Sunday at 1 eastern. Hopefully universalsports.com will have the On-Demand up before then, but they're probably not gonna put it up until they make the money from airing it on broadcast.

Two Words....Man. Crush.

yes

Here's the archived meet video from Universal Sports. The 5k starts about 2 hours and 6 minutes into it.http://www.universalsports.com/mediaPlayer/media.dbml?SPSID=105559&SPID=13055&DB_OEM_ID=23000&id=644818&sid=13055

Congrats Ritz, watching that race today was awesome. I am pleased to be able to look back and say I watched that. Mark, thanks again for being in the right place at the right time. Flotrack does it right. Also thanks to you and Ryan for the amazing coverage that you gave us in Berlin. You guys continue to advance our sport all the time.

I could write a whole story about his race and how I feel about it, but you all know the story already. I am just so grateful for this website and the fact that I can listen to an in depth interview within 3 hours of the race finish. Congrats and thanks!

I never saw this coming! GO RITZ!!!!