Mr. Renato Canova: Could You Please Answer a Question About Effective Ways to Improve the Lactate Threshold?

Yes, he is gay.

I'm sure you could find more than a few ladies in the north east of england that could disclaim that!

Renato:

You wrote on an earlier page that you discourage someone with a slower PR--say 17 minutes for 5,000--running a lot of mileage. But how else can someone become fast except by increasing training?

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wkwk

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Are you Renato Canova?

Renato, you were mentioned in the national running magazine of America, Running Times, in the September 2005 issue.

You're a celebrity!

yes what

Canova and Cabral are both in the article

I am honoured to be mentioned. I thank all of you for your support. I will be in correspondance with you soon.

Antonio

Why do jerks insist on ruining every good thread?

this thread is awfully long.

Let's have some substantive discussion here again, rather than nameless morons continually remarking on how long the thread is or impersonating Renato and Antonio in grotesque manners.

For starters, here are a few questions I have for the posters:

1. Renato, why has Shaheen not competed in any 5,000m races since 2003? He is one of 2 to ever beat El Guerrouj at 5K, the other being Kipchoge, and only Bekele (12:37.25), Gebrselassie (12:39.36), Komen (12:39.74), Kipchoge (12:46.53) and Sihine (12:47.04) have ever run faster than this 12:48.81. And you also mentioned that he refused an appearance fee in the steeple because he wanted to have competition in the 5,000. And there is no event right now with more competition than the 5,000, with Chebii, Kipchoge, Choge, Songkok, El Guerrouj, Wendimu, Bekele, Bekele, Gebremariam, Sihine, and Berhanu. In the steeple, he already has the WR and the world title. Even though Koech came close in that race, and Kemboi has been close in the past, Shaheen is clearly the best and has nothing more to prove in the event. Why won't he try a new event with better competition, that is better recognized than the steeple, and that he has equal talent in running?

2. Antonio, perhaps you have done so before, but can you comment on the preparations of Rui Silva and what he changed last year in order to go from a top athlete to 3rd best in the world on the day, even running his last 400 faster than Lagat and El Guerrouj.

3. Lindsay Dunn, do you know about the training of other British runners? How was it that Brendan Foster managed to do repeat miles in 4:07 and run "only" 7:35 for 3,000 (still an amazing time, but his workouts seem to indicate better)? It seems like his training was way too hard with constant track work. The British school of training seems to share this in common. Tim Hutchings, for instance, trained under Frank Horwill who was notorious for beating the daylights out of his athletes with ridiculous volumes of high intensity work. Below, for example, is a schedule from one of his programs for 5,000m:

"Day 1

Aerobic - run half marathon distance fast

Day 2

Aerobic - 3 x 2 miles at 10km speed with 90 secs recovery

Day 3

Anaerobic - 8 x 400m at 1,500m speed with 60 secs rest

Day 4

Aerobic - 4 x 1 mile at 5km speed (target speed) with 60 secs rest

Day 5

Aerobic - 3 x 1,500m at 3km speed with 3 mins rest

Day 6

REST

Day 7

If no race: anaerobic - 8 x 200m at 800m speed with 60 secs rest

Day 8

Aerobic - run 10km very fast

Day 9

Aerobic - run half marathon fast

Day 10

Aerobic - 7 x 800m at 5km speed with 30 secs rest

Day 11

Aerobic - 4 x 1k at 3km speed with 2:30 rest

Day 12

Start the cycle again

"

I think this program is ridiculous with far too many intervals and hard days. He makes no difference for youngsters and he reasons improperly, assuming that ideal race training is constant volume at speed. Easy running seems anathema to him, much like Owen Anderson's crackpot theories, and I don't know any runner who would train like this.

I heard that Hutchings left him because the training was too tough, if not impossible. Looking at the above schedule, a fast half marathon followed by a 10K session followed by fast 400's, then repeat miles at 5K pace, then 1500m reps at 3K pace (!), all one after the other, Hutchings is right.

4. To the coaches; what is your thought on the Lydiard program and the program that the founder of the site, Weldon Johnson uses under John Kellogg.

His recent article is here, discussing progression running:

http://www.letsrun.com/2005/jkfitness.php

He has also written these other two on VO2 max training and high mileage:

http://www.letsrun.com/2004/jkoxygen.php

http://www.letsrun.com/2004/jkvolume.php

An additional question:

Antonio and Renato, how much involvement have you had with Brad Hudson, and what elements of training did you advise him on? (the only one I know of is Renato's hill sprints, but his idea of sandwhiching the training down seems unlike either of your programs). What do you think of this idea of beginning with high mileage and short sprints, then moving to threshold work and longer reps, finally meeting in the middle at race pace training?

Also, what do you think of the potential of Dathan Ritzenhein? It has been often debated on this board, some saying he can run as fast as 12:55 and break the American record, others criticizing him for running 8:23 in the 2 mile, 13:22 in the 5,000, 27:38 in the 10,000, and 7:43 in the 3,000, saying he will not run much faster.

1.

Shaheen has run 2 5k's in 2004

13:55.08 1 ECCC-A Moskva 29 May

13:14.65 SB (46) 10 DNG Stockholm 27 Jul

The first was an easy 5k, the second one he fell and was on track for about ten seconds before finishing the race, he's really much faster.

2003

13:48.97 1 ECCC-A Valencia 24 May

12:48.81 PB (1) 1 Gspike Ostrava 12 Jun

13:58.92 2 AsC Manila 23 Sep

Three 5k's that year, easy 5k, Ostrava 5k, then tactical champs 5k late in season.

Shaheen still has more to do in the 3000m steeplechase, he doesn't need to move up but he might run the 5k as well. He wants to go sub 7:50 I'm sure. I'd like to see him enter the Helsinki 5k, but also the 3k sc.

2. Rui Silva ran perfect on the day, the race was perfect for him and El G. He was 5th in 2003 champs before, but I'd like to know his training. There was a thread on his training, if u search.

---

Great stuff! I'm looking forward to Renato posting Shaheen's training after the season is done.

Renato, who do train currently for train besides Shaheen and the Ugandan women in 3k sc? Do you train Dajeme Najim Bashir in 1500 and Bilal in 3k sc? What other people do you train right now?

Renato, who do you pick for the world champions?

Can I ask also how do you address problems in your athletes? You mentioned a while ago that you would note certain problems encountered in training while preparing the World X-C championships and how you corrected these things. What do you do for athletes who lack basic speed or who are coming back from injury or who run too fast on easy days or who have not improved in a long time?

How do you address these issues?

Thanks for your reply.

ARF ARF ARF!

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!