have to disagree wrote:
rojo, i have to respectfully disagree and say that it's entirely inaccurate for you to claim that rupp has "had massive improvements that few people in the world have" and then to use that as some kind of sign that he is doping. if anything, his progression is among the most gradual and consistent I can think of. he came into the elite scene already having shown immense talent. and his successes as a pro only seem "surprising" because so few others are able to live up to the initial hype/talent.
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You want me to make the argument that Rupp is clean? I can easily make it. It all comes from comparing him to my brother who I KNOW was clean about as well as anyone can know it adn who went from a college scrub tlk 28:07 and 4th in the USA.
1) I always said that Alberto Salazar reminded me of John Kellogg with a billion dollars behind him.
2) Rupp looks very young and I think young people like my Rupp/my brother keep improving later in life.
3) My brother ran 28 flat and wasn't the most talented guy in our grade in a HS of 75 people. Rupp is talented. I coached a guy on Rupp's soccer team at Cornell. This kid ran 9:20 as a junior in HS and said Rupp was WAY better. So can I see a white guy running a minute faster than my brother? Absolutely.
4) Rupp doesn't get hurt. What did Weldon in was injuries. He had a stress fracture for like 2 years and had no idea as we didn't have health insurance for an MRI, etc. Rupp has all the docs he needs plus underwater treadtmills and ant-gravityl..
5) Rupp is SUPER focused . That boring personality plays into him doing the work needed day in and day out.
I remember reading in like 2008 an article - that I can't find but I imagine it was in RW- where Rupp said he realized he needed to raise his mileage and start doing long tempos. He wasn't doing like 120 miles a week and he said his favorite workouts were like mile repeats but he hated tempos.
I vividly remember reading that and thinking to myself, "MY god, if Rupp is running 27:36 (which is what he ran in Bejing and which to me struck me as incredible as if it had been like Stanford conditions he'd have the AR - but no one paid attention as he was WELL beaten) and not running high mileage and not even doing the BASICS of distance training (long tempos), then he could be a monster."
(But I also thought it was bizarre that a so-called genius like Salazar wouldn't have him doing tempos but maybe it was a super long term plan).
If you want to know what strikes me as most odd abou this progression, it's the mile. While he ran 4:01 in HS in 2004, he coudln't break 4:00 until 2009. 4 years after that he was running 3:50.
Now my bro improved a ton late in life but my bro also didn't run year round until senior year of HS.