Hicham El Guerrouj Training Log

good article

viking warrior wrote:

10x400 @53-54 with 30 second rests

says one of these sources:

Aouita, Said.(Morocco) Personal conversations (1994)

Daouda, Aziz. (Morocco).Lectures at National Coaching School, Caceres, Spain. October 31st, November 1,2, 1997.

Wild, Jon., (UK). Letter via e-mail (April 29, 1999)

I don't believe a word of it.

10x400@53-54 with 30 rest is impossible. The classic 1500 prediction workout is 100x400 with 60 rest. 55 second laps is 1500 WR pace. If El G really was able to do that workout the WR should have been much faster.

well.. wrote:

10x400@53-54 with 30 rest is impossible. The classic 1500 prediction workout is 100x400 with 60 rest. 55 second laps is 1500 WR pace. If El G really was able to do that workout the WR should have been much faster.

He's the 1500 world record holder and Olympic champ. It looks like he's also a workout Olympian too.

We've all done workouts that indicated a much higher level than we were at.

Does he have his EPO and testosterone injections in the schedule too? Curious on the frequency and dosage.

viking warrior wrote:

His weight room sessions cover absolutely every muscle group and are done with super high reps.

Thanks for that. But (and I only took a quick look) are you sure that El G did any "weight room" work for his upper body?

Every day was a workout. Running 4:40 pace on easy runs is simply unsustainable w/o help. However maybe runners are training incorrectly by not running hard every day?

well.. wrote:

10x400@53-54 with 30 rest is impossible. The classic 1500 prediction workout is 100x400 with 60 rest. 55 second laps is 1500 WR pace. If El G really was able to do that workout the WR should have been much faster.

totally agree.

Same way that Stephen Cherono was once reported to have done 4x1600 in 3.58,3.58,3.59 and 3.56 in a morning session backing up with 3x(4x300) in 34-35 with 30 seconds rest in the evening. Total bollocks

I definitely couldn't do 10x400 at my mile pace (65-66) with 30 second rests. that's absurd. then again, El G was known as the hardest worker in track at the time and was a "strength miler" not a "speed miler". his 7:23 3k is proof of that. i think he could have broken 7:20 had he attempted it more than once.

ConfusedHSer wrote:

Every day was a workout. Running 4:40 pace on easy runs is simply unsustainable w/o help. However maybe runners are training incorrectly by not running hard every day?

he doesn't do ALL his running at that pace. his base training phase in the fall is slower and with slightly more volume. this is his racing season training. plus 4:40 does not feel that fast to him. if you're a typical high school 4:30 miler, that'd be like doing all your runs at 6:00 pace- which is still quite fast but not impossible

I think Bekele's workouts were more impressive and much more BELIEVABLE than Hicham's.

http://web.archive.org/web/20050416023749/http://web.ics.purdue.edu/~bpence/Bekele/Bekele_Training.html

typical high school 430 kid wrote:

ConfusedHSer wrote:

Every day was a workout. Running 4:40 pace on easy runs is simply unsustainable w/o help. However maybe runners are training incorrectly by not running hard every day?

he doesn't do ALL his running at that pace. his base training phase in the fall is slower and with slightly more volume. this is his racing season training. plus 4:40 does not feel that fast to him. if you're a typical high school 4:30 miler, that'd be like doing all your runs at 6:00 pace- which is still quite fast but not impossible

Wrong. El Guerrouj ran the equivalent of a 3:42 mile, meaning he ran ran less than a minute slower than his mile pace every day. That's like a 4:30 high school miler running under 5:30 pace every day. Impossible.

ConfusedHSer wrote:

Wrong. El Guerrouj ran the equivalent of a 3:42 mile, meaning he ran ran less than a minute slower than his mile pace every day. That's like a 4:30 high school miler running under 5:30 pace every day. Impossible.

It'd be more like a 4:30 high school miler running closer to 5:45 pace everyday. Definitely not impossible if your runs are less than an hour long. Several of us have trained like this.

I really like the Bekele workout 6x800 at 1:57 with a 64 first 400 and a 53 second 400. Is this something that Salazar would have Rupp and Farah do? It would make sense since he's so focused on their closing speed.

But how can Bekele's workouts be more impressive AND more believable. The fact that El G's workouts were so impressive is what makes them unbelievable. If that training log of his is even close to accurate then the guy was an absolute animal (as if we didn't already know that).

Aren't they claiming this was at altitude as well????

An Ethiopian newspaper reported on a workout run by the Ethiopian National Team (specifically Bekele and

Sihine) during June of 2004. The athletes ran 7000m (in Addis Ababa at altitude) at an average pace of around

2:40/kilometer. They split 13:22 for 5000m on their way to a 7000m time between 18:40 and 18:45.

Yeah... no

The Rocket. wrote:

An Ethiopian newspaper reported on a workout run by the Ethiopian National Team (specifically Bekele and

Sihine) during June of 2004. The athletes ran 7000m (in Addis Ababa at altitude) at an average pace of around

2:40/kilometer. They split 13:22 for 5000m on their way to a 7000m time between 18:40 and 18:45.

Yeah... no

What's so unbelievable about that? That pace is 30 seconds slower than his 10k PR and he only ran 7000m not 10k. Exactly how much do you think altitude affects times?

The Rocket. wrote:

An Ethiopian newspaper reported on a workout run by the Ethiopian National Team (specifically Bekele and

Sihine) during June of 2004. The athletes ran 7000m (in Addis Ababa at altitude) at an average pace of around

2:40/kilometer. They split 13:22 for 5000m on their way to a 7000m time between 18:40 and 18:45.

Yeah... no

Sub 19 7k at altitude is absolutely reasonable for 12:37/26:17 shape guy(s).

There is a reason they hold world records. Unbelievable hard when it comes to a race against the clock.

You dont seem to understand the attitude of this guys from east africa or europe. They dont think about paces or the unfinished kilometers or dying. All they do is PUSH and believe that the others are going to die. And when someone is dying they PUSH again and when the clock says 5k through in 13:22, guess what they think about?!

'Well, mr jack daniels calculator says this pace is too fast for my current calculated VDOT especially considering the altitude and hot weather. And yesterday I had a hard day aswell so i should slow down.'??

NO,

THEY PUSH AGAIN

delete the 'or europe' part.