This article on Kenyan 800 meter training blows my mind

That tuesday workout is made up or inaccurate. If he could do that with 5-10 meters of easy jogging, the world record mile would be wayyyyyyyy faster. I'm calling bullshit.

Part of what makes elite runners so good is that they can train harder than everyone else and recover day to dya.

Must mean 50-100 meters. Thats a lot more realistic. Still quite difficult though.

I call BULLSHIT.

"5 to 10 meters of easy jogging,"

Puhleeze, you cannot slow down and jog at 27 200 pace in 5 to ten meters, and then accelerate and run again.

Totally BS.

S. Cruz used to do 6x200 at sub 24, with 15 second jog between.

THAT is doable.

5 to ten meters to decelerate, jog, accelerate???

Total bullsh*t.

With Rudisha's gams? Even more BS.

You do know that it is a time honored tradition for coaches to exaggerate in interviews what their athletes do...in order to hurt the competition, not help them.

Chris Wasnetsky wrote:

Dude.. relax, it's most likely a typo like the guy above said. 50-100 meters, not 5-10.

I don't know, the article says "five to 10".

They probably mean after slowing down and are also just guessing the distance so I would say its not 100m & its not 10m somewhere inbetween & approx 30 secs in total

Maybe 5-10 minutes easy jogging

Mr E-man wrote:

Your mom blows my mind.

Wait, that's not my mind.

In what way does a 73 year old woman blow your mind?

Don't forget to quote the part about easy years leading up to world class:

Not for youngsters

PP: Your training during the two months before the competitive season is really rigorous, with tough track workouts scheduled for Monday through Friday. Do you recommend this kind of schedule for young 800- metre runners?

KIPROTICH: Oh no, not at all. The high school and college kids should be patient and wait for their time to come. If they try to train the way I do now, they will definitely get injured. When high school runners come to me and ask what to do, I tell them 'Just do two difficult workouts per week. Do not attempt to train hard every day.' I recommend moderate workouts -30 minutes of relatively easy fartlek running, 300-metre intervals in 45 seconds or so, hill workouts with 10 repetitions, etc. Young 800-metre runners should avoid the temptation to try to progress too fast.

That really doesn't look right unless he could run the 800 in 1:35.

That Thursday 4X400 workout by itself is a stretch but doing that the day after the high lactate workout on Wednesday? And sure after that - 4X500 no problem.

He should have been able to totally blast Johnny Gray and William Tanui in the home stretch.

you guys are bozos. how many of you have been around ultra elite 800m runners or even elite runners for that matter? i once saw falcon and bile run 4 x 400m with 2 min rest under 50 for every one. abdi ran the last in 47.7.

Well Abdi Bile ran for the same school and coach as me but just a year before my time.

I don't hink he did that.

I did train some with Julius Achon who ran 1:44.5 and was a 1500m runner and he never did anything close to that.

I saw Achon do 20X400 w/60s rest from 59-56.

I saw him run a 5:10 2000 followed by a 1:51 800 in practice.

His 4X400's were run in 52/53. Maybe one at 50.9 with 2 min rest.

I was a 1:49 runner and would do 55's. I would hit 53-55 with 5 min rest, not 2 min rest.

But this is not the day after and the day before other lactic acid workouts.

There were back to back hard days. A 4X400 or 5X300 may be preceded or followed by a 5X1000 or 3X1600.

Each single workout for Kiprotich seems on the edge of possibility.

5 high quality days in a row is a bit puzzling.

honestly, this isnt that much different than the training i did under gags while at GU. Times were slightly slower, but the workouts were about the same.

Who says workouts always translates to your race time?. I used to do workouts in kenya that if you translate would put me among the elite 5000m and 1500m. It is not always so. You really got to go to Kenya and just watch how people train. People do things that you cannot believe unless you are there to watch. The reason why Kenyans are good is bc they train like only a few other in the world do. Be a sceptic. People are putting in their training and you are sitting behind a computer disputing their hardwork.

I was a 1'48 runner and I often did the 8 x 200m workout to see where my fitness was. I was able to maintain 25-27 pace with 20seconds recovery. Perhaps his jog was really slow, but 10secs of recovery doesn't seem far fetched for a 1'43 guy

I saw him this week in a mall outside Portland Oregon. He works in a Hickory Farms. He was slicing up samples of smoked cheddar cheese and handing it out to hungry shoppers. I wonder where all that work really got him?

Toro, I know you've posted previously on work done with Achon and others, and was wondering if you could shed any light on the following in John Cook's system at the time:

Mileage levels through the year, base vs pre-comp?

Length of long runs if they were there, and frequency of doubles?

Pace of general/daily aerobic runs, easy conversational or harder at tempo type effort?

Volume for VO2 max type work in the fall and winter, did it tend to be more 6X800 at 2:00 and 5X1000 at 2:35 i.e. 3k effort or longer stuff like 8X1000 and 10X800 at 5k pace with tempo efforts as a main workout?

Sprint work if it was there, be it hill sprints Kenyan/Canova style or 150's or real sprinter style 40-60m reps and flying 30's etc?

Thanks

I am a finn who has practise with Kiprotich.Most Kenyan middle distance runners do lot of longruns in december-February (Like Asbel Kiprop who can run 12k fast),so did Nixon.What i have seen in track,its true that recovery can be very short! But 20-40m is near truth! and not 25s like Nixon says!(slower) Someone like Augustine Choge (who is able to run fast 800m-5000m)can easily do 10x1000m/2.30 with 1-2min recovery,easily! but thats other story.I never practise with Nixon in track,what we did was 12 miles in hillyroute (i mean really HILLY).Kenyans practise very much the same from December to february (no matter if you race in 800m or 10000m),things change in march-april.In May they are ready for races.

transmara wrote:

Who says workouts always translates to your race time?. I used to do workouts in kenya that if you translate would put me among the elite 5000m and 1500m. It is not always so. You really got to go to Kenya and just watch how people train. People do things that you cannot believe unless you are there to watch. The reason why Kenyans are good is bc they train like only a few other in the world do. Be a sceptic. People are putting in their training and you are sitting behind a computer disputing their hardwork.

POD. I agree completely. That last line really summed it up.