Renato Canova - Can you provide any insights to Kwemoi's training?

Thank you Renato for posting. Will Kwemoi be running the 5000 at Worlds this year? It seems that he would be the only one able to pose a threat to Farah over the final 400. Would be interesting to see another 3:28 runner in a 5000 final rather than Farah crush a bunch of 3:31+ guys in a sprint. Thank you.

The training between hard workouts can have two different goals : REGENERATION, if the workout was particularly hard and in the lactic direction, and AEROBIC SUPPORT, after a hard workouts which didn't produce very high levels of lactate.

I use workouts at different speeds, and different extension, and what we do in between depends on the type of hard training we did before.

Normally, the various speed I use are as follows :

a) MAX SPEED. Normally with sprint uphill of duration from 12" to 20", depending on the gradient. In this case, the recovery time is not important, but I ask for the MAXIMAL SPEED POSSIBLE.

This kind of sessions are in the afternoon of a day with easy long run in the morning (between 18 and 23 km), at a comfortable pace of 3'30" / 3'40" per km.

b) SPECIFIC 1500m SPEED. Are tests at a speed between 13" and 14" every 100m, long from 200m and 800m,for a total volume never inferior of 8-10 km on track.

After a session like this, I use the next day as REGENERATION (there is not a well identified speed : the athletes have to run easy, never less than 18 km, following their feeling. Sometimes the speed is about 4' per km, sometimes faster, never slower, because one athlete like Ronald, if runs slower than 6'20" - 6'30" per Mile, becomes more tired, because the time of contact on the ground, and the eccentric action due to the lack of reactivity, are more long than when he runs at a faster pace. So, running too slowly makes the muscles more tired, and, at the level of top runners, under the physiological point of view, there is no difference between running at 4' or at 5' per km, because also 4' is a speed of regeneration.

c) SPECIFIC 5000m SPEED. Are tests at a speed between 15" and 16" every 100m, long from 400m and 2000m, for a total volume of 10-12 km.

These workouts are the most important for enhancing the Lactic Threshold. If we go for a session with 10 x 1000m in 2'40", for instance, recovering 2' in between, and we control the level of lactate after each test, we can see that the level, in an athlete like Ronald, can grow from 3 mml after the first test till 12 mml at the end. In spite of the high level of lactate he reaches in the last test, this training is not LACTIC, because the final effect is to increase the LT (Lactic Threshold). This workout doesn't remain long time in the legs of the athlete, so the next day I don't use Regeneration speed, but a speed between 70% and 80% of the speed of the race (for example, if I have the goal to run in 13' = 2'36" per km = 15"6 every 100m, 70% of speed is 15"6 + [ 3 x 0"156 ] = 20"2, and 80% is 15"6 + [ 2 x 0"156 ] = 18"7.

This means to run at a speed of 3'21" - 3'07" per km, for distances of 10 - 15 km, continuously, the day after.

d) SPECIAL AEROBIC SUPPORT. Are all the workouts at a speed of 80% - 85% of the speed of the race (speaking about 5000m), in this case at a speed of 3'07" > 2'59" per km, considering REAL TRAINING, because carried out on distances included between 16 km (10 miles) and HM.

After a session like this, I have one day of easy run (normally 18-20 km in the morning and 10-14 in the afternoon), and a second day with progression and short sprint uphill.

As volume, the days in the middle of tough workouts are about 28 - 34 km. We can say the 75% of the total volume per week is at this range of speed.

In my plan, when there is not some competition and some long trip, never Ronald runs less than 200 km per week, with a maximal of 230 and a "casual" minimum of 180 (months of December, January, February, March and April).

I think that, at top level, the most important factor for making a very tough training effective (high volume and high intensity), is the possibility to recover.

The problem of working doesn't affect training, but affects recovery.

In my opinion, if somebody working 6 hours in a local store (we need to know the type of work, too : if has to stay seated behind one desk for writing or calculating, the body is not too much tired, but if has to stay on his feet for all this time becomes tired and this affects his training) wants to follow the same type of training of a professional runner, for whom running is the only job, the most important problem is that can't be able to maintain his top shape for long time, because it's more difficult to have the same "modulation" between training and recovery.

In other words : I think that also working 6 hours per day is possible to reach levels similar with the best professional athletes, as "casual peak" during the season, but isn't possible to last long time at high level of shape.

You can ask this question to the coach farting in the face of his athletes. In this, opposite of what you think, who has to take EPO is the coach, because on high hematocrit depends the quantity of gas he can insufflate to his athletes.

Thank you very much

Coach Canova,

Thank you for the terrific insights. You mentioned that Ronald's weekly mileage is between 180-210 km/week. How many years has he run that amount? Is that typical for one of your 1500 runners?

And do you view him as a 1500 runner or a 5,000 runner right now? He has incredible range (3:28 for 1500, 27:33 for 10,000).

Renato Canova wrote:

After a session like this, I use the next day as REGENERATION (there is not a well identified speed : the athletes have to run easy, never less than 18 km, following their feeling. Sometimes the speed is about 4' per km, sometimes faster, never slower, because one athlete like Ronald, if runs slower than 6'20" - 6'30" per Mile, becomes more tired, because the time of contact on the ground, and the eccentric action due to the lack of reactivity, are more long than when he runs at a faster pace. So, running too slowly makes the muscles more tired, and, at the level of top runners, under the physiological point of view, there is no difference between running at 4' or at 5' per km, because also 4' is a speed of regeneration.

Do you have athletes jog recovery between intervals? If so, is this at an easier pace than 4' per km?

I've seen Kenyan athletes jog very slowly before, I'm surprised to hear you say that an athlete like Ronald wouldn't run slower than 4' per km. Could you explain a bit more?

RENATO thank you for your insights. I was very much impressed with the way Kwemoi dispatched of some of the best 5000 runners in the world in Chelimo, Kejelcha and Ndiku in Doha. Does Kwemoi plan on running the 5,000 in London? And what are your plans for Kewmoi in the future and whether or not you think his future is in the 1500 or 5000?

Renato Canova wrote:

Before using this technique, I need to know which are the effects, directly from the "actors" of this technique.

For example, do you use to fart in the face of your teammates ? I think that some of them can really appreciate, some other maybe not, but you have still to work (like the coach of the professional group) for using different gas, depending on the event.

Can be the product of beans more useful for lactic workouts, or for long distances ? How you can see, we need to have more deep scientific studies on the effects of farting, specifically the difference in the gas composition between the fart of a gentleman and the fart of an arsehole.

Post of the year

How to get the article wrote:

On the previous page, click the words "google docs."

Strange. Does not work for me either.

800ftw. wrote:

COACH J.S wrote:

I am more of a "low mileage" coach.......I believe that only 6 workouts per week is enough to reach the worldclass top with EXACT individual paces if the runner got the talent needed,of course. So working 8 hours per day at a "light" job would not be a problem to get enough recovery between workouts.Yes,I know....many of "The high mileage club" thinks I`m crazy,LoL .....But I am on my way to prove to the running world that my knowings in theory and practice is for real and working..... :)

Renato actually coaches world class athletes.

+1

Renato, do prescribe strength work, such as heavy Olympic lifts, lifts for e durance (high repitions), body weight, or plyometric/dynamics/mobility, to your athletes? If so, how do you incorporate it in with the high volume/high intensity work that are doing.

If you do incorporate stength work, I'd like to know how you incorporate it, or why you don't feel the need to incorporate it.

Much appreciated,

-student of the sport.

Coach JS is a Swedish coach that coaches a bunch of Kenyan/South African athletes over the internet.

Using weights or not depends on 3 main factors :

a) The morphology of the athlete

b) The event of the athlete

c) The environment

At first, we need to consider the resources of the place of training.

In Kenya, every road is up and down, so the development of "strength endurance" is automatic, and we need only to pay attention when running downhill, since it can be dangerous for the knees of the athletes.

For increasing the muscle strength, I use hills at high speed : every week, during all periods (including the competition period), we have one session of short sprints uphill (80 m) at max speed, for maintaining the ability to recruit the most part of fast fibers. This is a type of training with physiological goal, and we use with athletes of every event, from 800m till marathon.

During the fundamental period, we have also another session (maybe every 10 days) of fast uphill tests, increasing the length : we start with 200m, and, after two months, we arrive till 500m. Also in this case, I always ask the athletes to run at their max speed of the moment. Recovery is very long (when we go for 500m, 5'/6'), and the number of repetitions not very high (from 5 till 7). This is a specific training for "strength endurance", that is connected not only with the increase of muscle strength, but with enzymatic variations, that MUST HAPPEN every time we speak of ENDURANCE.

This is something that frequently coaches with a biomechanical formation don't fully understand. Every technical action, that at the beginning can have a technical goal, and every training for increasing the muscle strength at maximum level, if prolonged, have a different goal, becoming training fro STRENGTH ENDURANCE, and in this case the max muscle strength doesn't have any specific importance : what is important is the PERCENTAGE of the max strength athletes are able to use, for the duration of their performance.

Since normally athletes of long distances are not very strong under the side of muscle strength, when we work in extensive way using a limited amount of strength (but in any case higher than what they use running at the speed of their event), looking at increasing the level of SPECIFIC STRENGTH ENDURANCE, if after 3 months of this training we go to test the maximal strength of the athlete, we can appreciate the improvement in their MAX STRENGTH. So, at the level of strength athletes of long distance have, working at an intensity of 50-60% of the max strength for long time produces improvement in the maximal strength, while working for improving the max strength doesn't provoke any improvement in the strength ENDURANCE, since the athlete, increasing his strength, normally reduces the ability to use a high percentage of this for long time.

There is a clear connection between STRENGHT and ENDURANCE, but their function depends on the period.

For example, during both Fundamental and Special period I use MODIFIED CIRCUITS including running and hills (for example, 3 x 600m at 10000m pace with 1' recovery, followed by 6 x 60m sprint uphill, repeating the circuit 5 times, that means at the end 15 x 600m and 30 x 60m sprint).

During the first period (November - December), I give attention to the QUALITY of the sprint, because the test on track are the AEROBIC SUPPORT for the main goal, that is the INCREASE OF STRENGTH provoked by the intensity of the sprints.

During the next period (January - February), if I have to prepare Cross Country (this year, for example, I used this system with Irene Cheptai, the world champion of cross country in Kampala), the strength endurance becomes the SUPPORT FOR THE AEROBIC QUALITY, since the goal is to run very much faster the 600m on track, maintaining the same level of speed uphill.

The alternance in training between different intensities is one of the key for building a different specific level in the performance.

For example, looking at marathon, we have 4 months of training using a system based on alternating km at speed of 102% and 90% of Marathon pace for 20-24 km. For example, if we want to prepare an athlete for running the marathon at 3' per km, 2% is 3"6, and 10% is 18". This means the final workout can be 24 km alternating one in (3' - 3"6) 2'56"4 with one in (3' + 18") 3'18".

How can we develop this type of training ?

We start, for example, with 24 km alternating 3'03" and 3'25". During the first month, we maintain the same speed for the slow km, and increase the speed for the fast (3' - 3'25"). During the second month, we maintain the same speed for the fast, and increase the speed of the slow (3' - 3'20"). During the third month, we maintain the slow and increase the fast (2'56" - 3'20"), and during the last period we reach the final goal (2'56" - 3'18").

Final answer : I never use recovery jogging with the athletes. We use on track high volume (some time 20 km with marathon runners, and never less than 12 km for athletes of 5000m) at medium - high intensity, and the way of recovery is not important, since we have other types of training (for example a classic 1 hour fartlek including 20 times 1' fast (at 10000m pace) alternated with 1' at 80% of the speed of the 1' fast + 20 times 30" very fast alternated with 30" moderate) where the recovery is at fast pace (the best athletes run more than 19 km in one hour in this type of fartlek) where the speed of recovery is one of the main goals.

Mille grazie!

Thank you so much Renato!

I am thankful and appreciate every info about training and elite athletes from you. Please keep posting.

Since a couple of years I follow all of your postings here and now I just wanted to thank you.

Hi Renato:

Do you still like ramps?

Could you talk more about weights?

Thanks!

Overall this is a really valuable website; rojo puts up with all sorts of sophomoric nonsense in the name of free speech, and this is a great asset to all of us average runners.

One of the real gems is Canova being willing to contribute; *thank you*, Canova! That is so kind of you.

Go away, Idiot. We are talking to Renato Canova about his athlete and training. No one cares what you think or do..

COACH J.S wrote:

I am more of a "low mileage" coach.......I believe that only 6 workouts per week is enough to reach the worldclass top with EXACT individual paces if the runner got the talent needed,of course. So working 8 hours per day at a "light" job would not be a problem to get enough recovery between workouts.Yes,I know....many of "The high mileage club" thinks I`m crazy,LoL .....But I am on my way to prove to the running world that my knowings in theory and practice is for real and working..... :)

Renato Canova wrote:

Before using this technique, I need to know which are the effects, directly from the "actors" of this technique.

For example, do you use to fart in the face of your teammates ? I think that some of them can really appreciate, some other maybe not, but you have still to work (like the coach of the professional group) for using different gas, depending on the event.

Can be the product of beans more useful for lactic workouts, or for long distances ? How you can see, we need to have more deep scientific studies on the effects of farting, specifically the difference in the gas composition between the fart of a gentleman and the fart of an arsehole.

According to M. Ferrari you must hold the gas from a certain type of bean in your mouth to get the full effect of the nitrates!

Appreciate the humor and the huge knowledge dump in this thread. Thanks, Renato.