El Guerrouj Info?????

This day in Ifrane would be el-Guerrouj's last before he returned to Rabat for several weeks. After a morning jog, his evening workout began near dusk, under a gunmetal sky and a fingernail moon in the cedar forests. At this mile-high altitude, he would run 20 times 350 meters in 53 or 54 seconds, up a grade of 12 to 15 degrees to build strength and endurance. Amyn paced him through the first 300 meters, then stopped as el-Guerrouj kept running up the hill, carried by the elegant explosiveness in his legs, which begin with narrow ankles and build to a grapefruit bulge in his calves and a long wedge of muscle in his thighs.

Among the runners at the table was Patrick Ndayisenga, the national record-holder in the marathon from the central African nation of Burundi, who had come to Ifrane to train with the Moroccans. He said he had been amazed to see el-Guerrouj, a miler, training like a marathoner, running 13 to 15 miles in an hour and a half. El-Guerrouj also trains like a sprinter, running sometimes with a weighted jacket, dragging a tire, and he does bounding drills to increase the propulsion in his ankles. The mile has come to resemble the brutal pace of the 800 meters and el-Guerrouj better than anyone has perfected the grueling training for speed and endurance.

Sitting still had made him stiff and tired, but el-Guerrouj insisted on his evening track workout. He would run 10 times 1,000 meters, or two and a half laps, in 2:32 or 2:33, with two minutes' rest between. Benzriguinat, the military cross-country champion, would pace him through the first 600 meters, and el-Guerrouj's brother Fethi and Amyn, his other training partner, would follow at their own comfortable speeds. It was dark now, and pale illumination came from street lamps around the track. In the backstretch, el-Guerrouj was hardly visible, except for the flash of his spikes. He is taller than his listed height of 5 feet 9 1/2 inches, 6 feet at least, and there is the grace and power of incessant stalking in his long strides.

Four, five, six times, he repeated 1,000 meters, and the others could not keep up, doubled over, agony in their breathing. Another pacemaker was brought in, but none of the other runners could finish all 10 repeats. They were reduced to cheering for the world champion, yelling at him in French and Arabic, "Come on, Hicham, go, go," and he sailed through his 10th repeat in 2:29 with a satisfied sweat on his neck. Benzriguinat kissed him on the head.

"He is a very serious professional runner," said Salah Hissou, the 1999 world champion at 5,000 meters and an occasional training partner of el-Guerrouj's. "He doesn't want to be a normal athlete. He wants to be a great athlete. He could do 20 competitions a year, but he only does 7 to 10, so they will always be high level."

His 11-mile (18km) morning runs through the cedars of the Curcuil Royale Forest were unsurprising, apart from monkeys and the occasional wild boar, but few imagined sessions of 20x300m in 45 seconds, concluded in twilight drizzle, or even more gruelling repetition runs at 6600 feet on the Hebrie plateau.

Some more generally about Moroccan training with some info on El Guerrouj:

• Frequent visits to altitude are essential. One

trip per year is not enough, although better than

nothing. “An accumulation of trips are needed,”

said Kada.

The Moroccan squad may visit altitude 4-6

times a year, with venues including Ilfrane in

Morocco, Font Romeu in France and St Moritz

in Switzerland. Each visit is for 3-5 weeks. The

athletes will live at 2500m altitude, but come

down to 1500m to train.

When they are sea level they train at Rabat.

• An athlete will adapt to altitude the more visits

they take. When El Guerrouj broke the world

mile record in the summer in Rome it was on his

fifth day back at sea level.

• El Guerrouj sleeps for eight hours a night ...

and a further three during the day. As one coach

wryly pointed out, with such an amount of sleep

and rest, drugs are not needed.

In many circumstances doping is used to speed

recovery from heavy training, but here athletes

such as El Guerrouj are encouraging their

bodies to recover naturally by imposing an

unnatural amount of sleep upon themselves.

• Athletes train twice a day. They may

occasionally - indeed rarely - train three times,

and if so then the third session will be an easy

run – usually done during a rehabilitation phase.

• Athletes use two types of fartlek: (a)

‘Classical’ – the distance covered and paces

used being completely up to the individual and

how they feel on that particular day; and (b)

‘Modern’ fartlek, where a regimented session is

organised by the coach.

• El Guerrouj aims to perfect a fluid style, at

pace. Kada argued that El Guerrouj’s stride

length will rarely fall during a fast mile/ 1500m.

He will only slow when his stride frequency

slows.

• Strength exercises concentrate on all body

parts. Bounding is also used and while talking

about this Kada mentioned the names of Coe

and Said Aouita.

Strength training is split into three parts: with

weights, natural methods such as bounding and

hill training.

• Hill training is used to “improve the

movement of arms and legs, stride and speed”.

Sessions include 10-15x250-500m.

• Strength exercises in the gym incorporate all

parts of the body. Typical exercises include: half

squat (6x20 reps with 25kg bar or 4x16 reps

with 30kg bar); full squats (4x16 reps with 20kg

bar); lunges 4x20 reps with 25kg bar); step-ups

(1x20 reps on each leg with 30kg bar); abdominals

(300-400 reps); back (300-400 reps).

On multi-gym machines: hamstrings (4x16

reps); quadriceps (4x16 reps); abductors (4x16

reps); adductors (4x16 reps).

• The athletes do not run excessive mileages. A

miler such as El Guerrouj runs about

120km/week (about 75 miles) during the preparation

phase; while a 5000/10,000m runner such

as Hissou runs 140km/week.

• The sheer quality of the training became

apparent with the admission that what they

termed ‘jogging’ was actually running at a pace

of three minutes per kilometre.

• Typical track sessions include: 20-25x400

(1min rec) or 4x500 (75sec rec)/2x1000 (3min

rec) /1x2000 (5min rec)/5x400 (1min rec).

• Before the recent World Championships, the

following session was completed by Hissou: 3 x

(1km (45sec rec); 400 (3min rec)) – with the

kilometres run in 2:30 and the 400s in 52-53.

• Tactical rehearsals are carried out within

training sessions, simulating race situations.

Weaker members of the squad are used as hares

to pace group leaders such as El Guerrouj and

Hissou.

• Swimming is used for recovering or ‘alternative

massage’.

• The national squad has a battery of seven

doctors to pay full attention to the athletes.

• School cross country races are a breeding

ground for talented young distance runners.

This is where Kada and his Moroccan scouts

spot potential champions.

• Kada’s athletes do all their training on soft

ground. When asked if El Guerrouj trained on

the roads he looked completely horrified and

then pointed to his shins.

He then told a story about how he was in the

United States and had seen athletes training on

the roads, “With great areas of forest right next

to them!” he said. El Guerrouj, he added, didn’t

even do hill sprints on road. Everything was on

grass or ‘dirt’.

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