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I want to remember that Kenyans have a very high mileage BEFORE BEGINNING THEIR OFFICIAL ACTIVITY. They run (no more so much today, because there are more schools and also in Kenya some car for bringing guys to school...) from when are 4-5 years old a lot of miles, that build their aerobic resistance. For example, speaking about Kwalia, he went to a school (from 6 to 16 years) 8 km far from his house, coming back in the late morning for eating at home. SO, EVERY DAY WERE ABOUT 32 KM !
Therefore, his clear that they don't need more long basic training, but specific workouts. However, they use very long run at slow pace for regenerating their energies and "washing" their muscles from lactate, running in very elastic way, like american sprinters.
An example : when I trained Kenneth Kimwetich (1'43"03 on 800m and 2'13"56 on 1000m, able running in about 46" and probably 3'45" but not faster 1500m), the day after specific workouts (I use 3-4 times a SPECIAL BLOCK during the main season, for preparing specific high intensity endurance : f.e., 6 x 1000m in 2'33" / 2'36" with 4 min recovery in the morning, 500 (1'03") / 400 (49") / 300 (35") / 200 (22"5)with 6-7 min recovery in the afternoon) he used to go running in the forrest disappearing for about 3 hours. When I asked him where he were going, he answering "To run 3 hours", at a pace of 6' per km, that for us is very difficult to use because we become bored.
So, I explained him (and also to the other athletes, like David Lelei (3'31" in 1500m) and Christopher Koskei himself (winner of steeple in Seville and older brother of Cherono) that, following our methodology, could be better to run only 1 hr for regenerating. But, when they went with my suggestions, the day after were not able to run well ; instead, after their 3 hours, they were able to do every type of lactic work. So, I decided that they could use what preferred for recovering hard training.
You must think that running in a wonderful ambience like a forrest is something extremely pleasant, and of sure has nothing to do with running among cars on a road like in Italy, for example. In the forrest, everybody ENJOY RUNNING.
So, it's not a discrepancy to hear Konchellah saying that HE WANTS TO GO FOR LONG RUN (regeneration), BUT DOESN'T LIKE LONG FAST RUN !
Another thing that you must know is that the groups of training are mixed. For ex., in Iten the old group in 1999 was with Kimwetich (1'43"), Lelei (3'31"), Koskei (8'05" in steeple), Moses Kigen (3'32"), Moiben (2:10 in Marathon), Jackson Koech (62' HM) and some other young. During the first period of preparation, they ran together long run (only difference, the duration, from 15 km for Kimwetich to 30 km for Moiben) and fartlek (classic 1 min fast / 1 min slow, where slow is really jogging). This fact is one of the reasons because their preparation never was very good, and only thru the races they were able to reach a high level of shape.
On of the reasons of current improvements of our athletes is that now Bungei, Mutua, Yiampoy, Shaheen, Kwalia, Kemboi, Nyamu, John Korir, Paul Kosgei, Robert Rono and all the young guys winners of medals in Youth Championships (Esho and Kiplangat, Choge, Ronald Kipchumba and Justus Kiprono) learnt to use more individual and targetted training during winter season, so are able to improve their qualities during a period in the past dedicated to rest or jogging without any specific goal.

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trained with Haile in Addis wrote:
Fellas,

Maybe i can add a little to this discussion as I did a month training at altitude in Addis a short time prior to his marathon debut in London.

I ran with Haile and the Ethiopian group (inc. NYC winner Tesfaye Jifar and Tesfaye Tola, Olympic Bronze medallist) on several occasions and chatted with Haile several times as well. I only did recovery runs with Haile and the group because they were too quick for me to keep up on workouts.

My observation would be that the 'laufen mit Haile...' OVERestimates Haile's total workload in terms of quality for sure and probably overestimates quantity too. I doubt he runs more than 130miles per week.

When i was there Haile ran 3 hard sessions per week - one track of the 1200 type described, a long tempo of about 20k run hard, and a long run of maybe 35k run hard.

Most of Haile's other running is very slow...but it is at 8000ft plus and on hilly terrain so those conditions are probably more significant stimulus than pace.

Haile ran 13x per week but i doubt it would be a specific or quantifiable as outlined in 'laufen mit Haile...' not least because few of the routes they run were or even are measurable. They run up and down mountain sides on very rough terrain much of the time so pace varies hugely thorughout any one run.

Typically Haile's main session is run in the morning, be that the workout for the day or the longest run of the day if it's a recovery day. The guys get up and run dead early, say 6am, because their farming background means that is the kind of hour they always wake. The AM run on an easy day was between 1hr - 1hr30 and the length over an hour seemed more to depend on if the guys had found a nice route and were enjoying their chat rather than aimed at hitting a pre-planned distance.

This relaxed approach was reflected in most of the Ethiopian training: They ran really hard during hard workouts and very easily on recovery runs. (For example we did one afternoon run of 31mins on the flat that was not even 4miles and that's not a typo because the pace was about 10mins per mile that day, almost walking.)

20mins before that 4mile easy run Haile and Jifar were eating fries in the cafe while laughing and joking. It was striking how, in contrast to European and American runners who are generally preoccupied and anal about exact splits, pace and distance, the Ethiopians just ran hard or easy and often.

At this point Haile reckoned he could run close to the World Half Marathon record - he had won the World Half in Bristol in 60.03 a few months before i was in Addis - and when i was there Haile said to me he was looking at race options to do so (although none turned out to be available).

And, by the way, I don't think Haile's on drugs. Haile's mechanics and ability and training venue and lifestyle are all waaaaaaayyyyy better than mine and i've run 28mins-odd for a track 10000m , so i don't find it hard to believe that Haile can run a good 2mins faster for 10k than i can without him needing drugs to do so.

Finally, i just remembered, as we finished one run there was one of the young Ethiopian guys standing on the other side of the road about to go training. Haile said to me, 'you see him, he's good'. He was pointing at the at-that-point unheralded Kenenisa Bekele...

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notwithstanding wrote:
It was frustrating to me that I could do the following workouts:

8X800 @ 2:16
5X1mile @ 4:50-4:55 on a flat grass course
10 miles in 55 minutes (long tempo run)

But could never break 27 minutes on an 8K CC course!!

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Hog Fan wrote:
Not true. True easy/regeneration runs allow you to raise your body's pH (a good thing) closer to a state of equilibrium more than just sitting on your butt does. Plus, it provides an aerobic stimulus. That is why you don't just do hard workouts and then take 1-2 days off before repeating.

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ho hum guy wrote:

http://www.coacheseducation.com/xc/jack_farrell_july_00.htm

The above article is pretty convincing that hard/easy isn't the only way to go. I have to say, though, that I believe this approach may lead to unbelievable short-term gains if applied very carefully, and exactly as prescribed. I believe it is risky, however, and if the paces are too fast some days, the chance for breakdown looms ever closer. You don't recover enough for the next day. Then the next day comes and you try to run too fast again, and a season-long downslide begins.
My own bias is to mix speeds up, never killing yourself, but always feeling comfortably tired.

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