Please Explain how to Increase the anaerobic engine described by Mr. Canova

q&a wrote:

Need some help here.

What type of workouts for 5k/10k runners?

This is what I was reading:

When I begin to train a Kenyan athlete, if he's talented, he's already able to run 400m in 53/54 sec prior to age 16. Many Kenyan marathoners, guys running 2:07 - 2:10, cannot even break 55. So, maximum speed doesn't determine long distance race speed. Take a non-Kenyan example. In the past, Italian Alberto Cova was considered unbeatable in the final lap, winning European Champs in '82 and '83, the Olympic Games in '84 and the European Cup in '85 (5000 and 10000) with his terrific final kick. In Helsinki '83, he finished with a 53.2 second last lap. His coach Giorgio Rondelli and I were curious to see his real speed, so, two weeks after World Champs, he ran the 400m for fun during a local meet. HE RAN 52.8, almost the same time as his last lap !

To give a few examples, I'm sure that neither Stephen Cherono, Nicholas Kemboi, Haile Gebrselassie, nor Kenenisa Bekele can run under 50.0 for 400m. The final sprint in the 5000m and 10000m is determined by aerobic ability, not maximum speed. If you can run 3000m in 8:30 (therefore, a candy ass) and you run a 3000m in 10:00 with Maurice Greene (the great American sprinter and former world record holder), and then go all out for the final lap, YOU WILL WIN, NOT MAURICE GREENE. So, the real problem in your only running 8:30 3k is not your maximum sprinting speed, since you can outkick the then greatest sprinter; the problem is YOUR ANAEROBIC THRESHOLD LEVEL. The best African runners have a AnT of about 23km per hour, so they can run under 2:45 per km in Steady-State (27:30 10k). That means that, when they run 10k in 28:00, THEY DON'T USE THEIR ANAEROBIC ENGINE, so when they decide to sprint THEIR SPRINTING ABILITY IS THE SAME AS BEFORE RUNNING. That is, in a race below their Anaerobic Threshold of 27:30/10k, they have not expended any of their sprinting power and can close the race just as fast as if they were racing 400m fresh.

A different problem is to develop their strength and muscular power. So, we work very much in that direction, using special Circuits uphill (lasting from 1:30 to 6 min), and especially we work a lot on short hill sprints, lasting from 10 to 20 secs (depending on the gradient), to develop SPECIFIC STRENGTH and to RECRUIT THE GREAT MAJORITY OF FAST TWITCH? MUSCLE FIBERS, which long runners normally are not able to do.

So, I can say that 30% of training mileage is to regenerate (very slow, to lower the lactate threshold), 30% is to build base (long runs at moderate-medium pace), 20-25% is around Race Pace, with the goal of improving endurance (so it is not important to run faster, but to run longer: if you do 20 x 400m with 1 min recovery at first, you develop during your training by later doing 20 x 500m, then 20 x 600m or 20 x 400m with only 30 secs of recovery, at the same speed, rather than by increasing your speed), 5-10% is to develop speed (God knows what I mean here! Maybe: faster than race pace or 10 percent faster than race pace?), and 5% is for strength endurance.

RUNNING MIDDLE DISTANCE IS A MATTER OF SPECIFIC ENDURANCE, NOT SPEED, but we must understand what endurance means. Very long and slow runs are not endurance runs; they are general resistance, good for a beginner, not for a top runner. In every event, the final goal is to RUN LONGER AND FASTER, not only longer and slow, or short and faster.