Renato can you comment on the Asian Games

Finally track and field in Asian Games is over, with the last day on 12 December. It was difficult to prepare my athletes, for three different reasons : a) we were in Kenya, and this year the weather was very bad : rain every day, a lot of mud, difficulties in training for speed, everything very unusual in this period. I preferred to have two groups : one, small, in Nairobi, with Daham Bashir and other two athletes that I didn't put in the team, there for helping him, because of the track (in Nairobi there is the only sintetic track in Kenya), where I left my Assistant Coach, very good, that is Maximilian Iranqhe from Tanzania, following my program and reporting to me every situation 3 times a day ; and another, bigger, in Iten, with all the other guys, because in Nairobi is difficult to go for long run due to the pollution, and for specialisms superior of 3 km I prefer a place where long run can be done with good general conditions. In this second group I put Kwalia and Sultan Zaman (5000), Essa Rashed, Ahmed Hassan, Ali Dawood and Nicholas Kemboi (10000, I choose the first 2 for the Games), Jamal Bilal Salem and Thamer Kamal Ali (steeple), and Mubarak Shami, only for the most important workouts, because normally he stayed and trained in Eldama Ravine, where I want to put the Qatari Camp for Marathon runners.

The first difficulty was to change mentality of the athletes. They normally train in groups of Kenyans, but at the moment Kenyan runners are in a general period, running a lot of km but with low intensity. So, I had to put my athletes out from their normal groups of training, because for them this period was June, not November. However, I could not do some type of training. For example, I never could go for some technique for steeple, or for short intervals, because of the conditions of the track. I used many fartlek mixing the distances (for ex., 6:00 fast + 3 x 1:00 rec. 1:00, repeated 4 or 5 times), sometime on the mud, but expecially long and progressive very fast run, from 12 to 18 km. And, of course, twice a week short sprints uphill.

Regarding Bashir, that had a very bad previous part of the season, due to an injury, I had a different plan :

SEPTEMBER and HALF OCTOBER : Only long and fast run, long fartlek and short sprint uphill, for rebuilding his general endurance and maintaining at top level his muscular situation.

FROM HALF OF OCTOBER (after running 10k in Nairobi in 29'08" the same day of the Marathon) : development of speed endurance and of speed, with workouts like couples of 600m, 500m, 400m, 300m, 200m (first test slow, second fast, rec, 1:00 between tests and 4:00 between couples) in 1:33 / 1:23 - 1:16 / 1:06 - 60.5 / 51.7 - 44.8 / 36.7 - 28.2 / 23.2, or fast intervals of Aerobic power (2000 / 1600 / 1200 / 800 / 400), rec. 6:00, in 5:18 - 4:09.5 - 3:02 / 1:58 / 52.2). Here in Doha, we had an easy work on 6/12 (2 sets of 4 x 200 rec. 200m in 1:10 in 25.2 (average) + 1 x 300 in 37.4 (rec. 2:30 running) + 25.0 (average) + 37.7), two days before the heat (3:50 behind Mansour Belal) and 4 days before the final. The key of his victory in the final was a change of mentality. I explained him that, if he wanted to await the last 300m, nothing could do against Ramzi and Mansour in case of a short sprint. Bashir won, lats year, the important mile of Oslo in 3:47.94, but always was good in fast races with rabbits, never in tactical races withour pacers (see the race of World Champs in Helsinki). So, his problem was to be confident in himself, attacking with 500m to go, without awaiting some action from other runners. He was very able doing what we planned (last 500, 400, 300, 200 and 100m in 1:05.6, 51.3, 38.2, 25.2, 12.1), being overtaken by Ramzi and Mansour with 250m to go, buit remaining there, for overtaking Ramzi at the beginning of the final furlong, and Mansour 10 cm before ths finish line. If he's able to preserve the same mentality, can become a good winner of important competitions.

The only one without any problem was Shami, because Marathon is an event that can be in full season at the beginning of December. With him, I used like last competitions the WCh of 20 km, followed by 9 weeks of specific training for Marathon. Shami showed to increase his shape day by day, and was really ready for the race. If the shape of the other was 80%, for Shami was the best of his life for a Marathon. What Shami was able to do was exceptional : in very hot and humid conditions (at the start, 23 degrees and 78% humidity, at the end 33 degrees and 95% of humidity), after a very slow first HM (1:09:50), I told him to start running, and he went, after 20k, for the following 5 km : 14:55 (20-25), 15:10 (25-30), 15:12 (30-35), 14:52 (35-40) and 6:27 the last 2,195m, very easy (62:54 the second half). His last 10k were in 29:40, giving 3 min to the second and third in the last 7 km. Under technical point of view, this was the most important competition for my athletes, because showed me that the type of work that we are doing with Shami is ok for him. He will run in Paris, and I'm sure that can break 2:07.

James Kwalia was in very good shape for a tactical race. He lost the most part of the season because was stolen of his passport on 23rd of April, went to Qatar for a new one at the beginning of May, and had to await till the beginning of July, when Qatar was already hotter than 50 degrees, without training. When he could start again, in short time was able to run 3:37 (1500) and 7:38 (3000), but only 13:29 in 5k. So, we had to work for endurance (long run, long intervals, lon fartlek)during all october, when he seemed me ready for some more quality. I put him 3 times with Bashir, for increasing his speed.

In the race of today, he ran the last 600m in 1:21.8, making the real break in the first 200m of the last lap, with these splits for the last 600m : 28.4 + 25.2 + 28.2, that was not possible for Jahwer (Mucheru).

So, we could replace Shaheen without too many problems in 5000, while the situation of steeple was very different, because Jamal Bilal Salem nothing could do against Tareq Taher, really in better shape like speed and technique.

I'm disappointed that we lost 10000m, because Rashed made a small mistake during last lap (56.2), awaiting non only the action of Mahoob (Silas Kirui), but also of Adam Ismail (Hosea Kipkosgei, brother of Rita Jeptoo). So, when he had 2 athletes ahead him, he could not go, and was stopped (120m from the finish line) by a Japanese, lapped, in first lane, when he was fighting with Adam Ismail himself. His very good kick in the last 50m was not enough for recovering the 5 meters of gap that he had at the beginning of the final straight. If he had the idea to attack at the bell, like Bekele, he could win running last lap under 55.0. But he's very young, this is sport, and some mistake can happen.

Great post Renato, thanks very much for the insight. Some excellent results. How will the preparation for the World XC change as a result of the Asian Games? Will you have to have a shorter introduction or fundamental period, or alter the usual work you would do? Thanks for the info, would love to see future updates.

thats what the gays do

RenatoCanova-

What exactly do you mean by 'aerobic power'? I noticed your 'aerobic power' workouts never went any higher than about 2000m or 6 minute intervals. Is this because you still want the runner training at distances relatively close to the one he is training for(for example 2000m is close to 1500m as opposed to 3k or 5k repeats), or is it because aerobic power means something else in terms of the bodies ability to output as little lactate with maximal VO2 being utilized or something along those lines??? Anyway, it's always interesting reading what you have to say.

Also, when you mentioned that you needed to maintain Rachid Ramzi's "muscular situation", what exactly did you mean by that? Do you mean maintain a muscular body and strength, or something else to do with his muscles?

Thanks again.

If this makes my first question any clearer, by 'aerobic power', why would you train at 2000-1600-1200-600-400m intervals as opposed to 5000-4600-4200-3800-3200m or 3000-2600-2200-1800-1200m intervals? What does 'aerobic power' mean?

Aerobic power is the aerobic base of intensity, useful for every particular event. In my opinion, it's wrong to speak of "SPEED" as something of objective, the same to speak of "AEROBIC POWER". It's obvious that speed for a specialist of 800m or for a Marathon runner are two different thing. For me, every speed 10% faster then the speed of the event is FULL SPEED. For example, for an 800m runner (1:44), having a speed of 13.0 every 100m, 10% of the time is 1.3, so speed 10% faster is 13.0 - 1.3 = 11.7. We don't need faster speed in training, under bioenergetic point of view. May be that we use, sometime, faster speed (for example, repetitions of 60m at full speed), but this is for mechanical reasons, and is not the most important part of training. THE PHILOSOPHY IS TO EXTEND THE ABILITY TO LAST AT THE SPEED OF THE RACE, so we have to train using, mainly, speeds between 95% and 105% of the speed of the race, of course with different distances. In this case, we can use these types of training :

a) SPEED (biomechanical goals) : from 60m to 150m, full speed (very few repetitions)

b) HIGH SPEED ENDURANCE : distances from 100 to 400m, speed at 105% (in the case of 1:44, it means for example 4 sets of 5 x 100m in 12.2, rec. 1:30 between tests, 5:00 between sets, or 2 sets of 5 x 200m in 24.4, rec. 2:00 among tests and 5:00 among sets, or 2 sets of 3 x 300m in 36.5, rec. 2:00 / 5:00, or 2 couples of 400m in 49.0, rec. 3:00 among test, 6:00 among sets)

c) SPECIFIC SPEED ENDURANCE : distances from 300 to 600m at the speed of the race (for example, 3 sets of 3 x 300m in 39.0, rec. 1:00 among test, 4:00 between sets, or 5 x 400m in 52.0 rec. 3:00, or 4 x 500 in 1:05 rec. 4:00, or 3 x 600 in 1:18 rec. 6:00)

d) LOW SPEED ENDURANCE : distances from 600 and 800m, at a speed of 95% (in this case, 13.85 every 100m), for example 600 / 800 / 800 / 600m rec. 6:00, in 1:23 and 1:51

e) SPECIFIC AEROBIC POWER : distances from 800 to 1000, total volume 3 - 4 times the distance of the race double of the distance of the race, at 90% of speed (in this case, 13.0 + 1.3 = 14.3), for example 4 x 1000 in 2:23 rec. 6:00

f) BASIC AEROBIC POWER : distances from 1000 to 2000m at 80% of the speed of the race (in this case, 13.0 + 2.6 = 15.6) for a global volume of 5-7 times the distance of the race (for example, 1600 / 1400 / 1200 / 1000, rec. 4:00, in 4:10, 3:38, 3:06, 2:35)

g) GENERAL AEROBIC POWER : distances from 2000m to 6000m, at a speed of 70/75% (about 16.5 verey 100m, 66.0 per lap). For example, 2 x 3000 in 8:15 rec. 5:00, or 5000m in 13:45.

On the contrary, if we speak about Marathon, Aerobic Power is something FASTER than the Marathon Pace. In this case, we can use shorter distances (for example, 4 times 5000m) at a speed till 5% faster than the race. If you run a marathon in 2:10 (3:05 per km), your AEROBIC POWER can be developed at a speed of 2:55 / 2:57. In this case, 4 times 5000m in 14:40 are HIGH AEROBIC POWER.

And, about speed, running at 2:45 per km is FULL SPEED. So, when we speak of speed for a Marathon runner, we mean 10 x 1000m in 2:45, or 5 x 2000 in 5:30, or 3 x 3000 in 8:15, not 20 x 100m in 14.0, really useless.

At the end, when an athlete runs a distance of 20% of the full distance of the race, faster than the pace of the race, THIS IS SPEED ENDURANCE, having a metabolic influence on his bioenergetic system. When he runs an inferior percentage of the full distance, THIS IS SPEED, having an influence on his biomechanical system.

Thank you. That was very enlightening.

Renato,

can you describe aerobic power intervals

for a 1500m runner as well?

and if I understand you right, 1500m runners doesn’t need

faster speed then 800m pace in training, right?

no need for 400m speed?

THANKS

Renato are you familiar with Jan Olbrechts ideas?

Do you think aerobic power decreases aerobic capacity?

Thanks for posting!

Hi Renato,

I am going to Doha next week. Could you give me some advice for training trails and tracks that are available?

Is there a group to train with there? I will stay there for 3 weeks.

Do anyone have the mail adress for Renato Canova?

renato's post is the reason i still read letsrun. great post- thanks!

Renato Canova wrote:

e) SPECIFIC AEROBIC POWER : for example 4 x 1000 in 2:23 rec. 6:00

A few days ago there was another thread on here about 800m training and one dude (JRinaldi?) said he had witnessed Wilson Kipketer running "I did witness... a 3 x 1000 (2.25, 2.25, 2.26) with 12 rec."

That's less reps, and with a lot more recovery than Renato advises... and we're talking about WilsonK, who knows a thing or two about 800m training.

Renato: Do you coach any Masters (age 40+) or Senior/Veteran (age 50+) age group runners?

Thanks for the post! I wonder what Saif Saaeed Shaheen will do. I heard that he and Kenenisa Bekele might race in Edinburgh XC.

Michael, sorry for destroying your dream to see Kenenisa and Shaheen together in Edinburgh again, but at the moment Stephen is out of training for an injury. I go back to Europe next Friday, 15, and on 20 I go to pick him in Zurich, for going to Freiburg for the last control with a famous German Dr. If everything will be ok, Shaheen can start his training, very soft, at the beginning of January. This means that he cannot compete before March. So, if you read from some organizer that Shaheen goes to compete, you know that it's not possible, and the information is false.

Regarding the workouts of specific Aerobic Power for 800m runners, I want to remember that there are two different typologies of runners : fast runners (for example, Juantorena, Konchellah, Susanj, Fiasconaro, Everett, Borzakovskiy) coming from 400m, and resistant runners (Coe, Cram, Yiampoy) able to run very fast 1500m. Of course, a workouts of 4 x 1000m in 2:23 is something for a RESISTANT RUNNER. Shaheen did in August, before Zurich, a training like this : 4 couples of 1000m (2:00 rec.) + 300m (recovery 4:30 among couples) in : 2:25.6 / 40.8 - 2:24.8 / 41.3 - 2:24.2 / 42.0 - 2:23.2 / 40.3. According to my opinion, before Zurich Shaheen could run 3:29 in 1500 and, if could try a race of 800, about 1:45 on that distance.

I don't think absolutely that working for Aerobic Power can reduce the Aerobic Capacity. Instead, it's true that your Aerobic Power decreses if you work too much in the lactic area. And also, I'm not complete owner of English Language, but which is the difference between Aerobic Power and Aerobic Capacity ? May be that I use other words for telling the same thing.

Hi Renato!

Great information!

Can you explain how Bungei and Yiampoy trains with the other Italian coach?

It would be very interesting!

This is good stuff. Bump.

Renato,

I realize this is off topic, but we're having a discussion on a separate message board that would really benefit from your input. The focus of the discussion is youth training.

In your experience, is it a good idea to start training distance runners at an early age, and if so, what kind of training volume and intensity gets introduced for young athletes.

I'm specifically thinking about potential distance runners who are maybe 12-14 years old. And if you don't generally recommend formal training for athletes that young, at what age does formal training usually begin, and what general form does the progression take (i.e. very rough outline of volume and/or intensity versus age for the teenage years).

Thanks very much in advance.