Galen Rupp set the new American record in the indoor 5,000 meters with a 13:01.26 Thursday night in the professional portion of the Boston University Multi-Team Meet, letsrun.com reported. The previous record was 13:07 set by South Sudanese-born turn American citizen, Lopez Lomong, last year.

Looking (perhaps) slightly more chiseled than usual in the upper arms (Alberto Salazar is big on pushups and pull ups), but still leaner than third place finisher and noted muscle man (by running standards), Cam Levins, Rupp ran the race as it was planned, negative splitting every mile (4:14, 4:10 for the first two), including an incredibly even last mile in 4:04 (roughly two 2:02 800s), according to Flo Track. He ran most of the last mile on his own, relegating runner up Sam Chelanga (13:04.35) to chase mode. (Rupp also beat Chelanga in the 2008 NCAA Cross Country championships.)

By this race alone, Salazaar looks to have Rupp in even better shape this year than his historical 2011-12 seasons (26:48 10k in 2011, Olympic silver medal in the 10k in 2012) and following a somewhat disappointing 2013 campaign, from a distance standpoint. (Last year, he set the American record in the 3,000 meters, 7:30.16, and set a personal best in the mile, 3:50.92, according to usatf.org.)

In theory, a runner probably not yet even his prime like Rupp, 27, should continue to improve, but, of course, that's not always the case in light of injuries and burnout. Somehow, Salazaar has discovered the magic formula in both preserving the health and improving the times of his runners, most notably Rupp and double Olympic gold medalist, Mo Farah. He hasn't quite had the same luck yet with the uber talented Dathan Ritzenheim, even though he and Farah came to him at roughly the same age. Ritz, however, has had many more injuries throughout his career.

Could Rupp one day surpass Farah? He is three years younger. Likely, he'll have do it the Kenenisa Bekele way rather than the Farah way, which means he'll have to be capable of running somewhere in the 12:40s for the 5k and 26:30s for the 10k rather than being in slightly worse shape but having a monster kick like Farah. At the same time, Farah may be capable of hitting such marks, even if he seems most content on simply winning.

To put yesterday's performance in better perspective, Rupp's time was the fastest indoor 5k ever run in January, the 8th fastest indoor 5k ever, and the second fastest 5k he's ever run, indoor or outdoor, according to Flo Track.

For the full results, click here.