Wilson Kipketer 5*1k

Maybe this was like Coe's 6x 800m in 1.52 (90sec recovery) - downhill.

I think it's just too much volume to be plausible. 3 repetitions maybe in an absolute all-out workout? I'm going to guess he misspoke OR maybe he did this workout and in the last one he was encouraged to run near race effort after starting with 2:25-2:30 reps running smoothly.

And based on vdot. If we reverse it.

A guy that does 5 x 1 km at 2:18 pace, how fast should he be able to run the 800 m? 1:38-1:39 min?

I do find it impossible. Was the interview conducted in Swedish/Danish or purely in English? Maybe there was a communication error?

Thanks for that input, much appreciated.

At the risk of getting a bit away from the original thread topic -- apologies to everyone -- I'll keep it brief.

Question:

For the session 3x8x150 at 21 (for a 1:45 runner), I am assuming that is basically a higher-volume long-sprinter-type "Extensive Tempo" session, done at approx 75% speed. For 400m athletes, my understanding is it would be max 2400m volume (with 75% max speed being a faster pace). Correct?

So, then for 800m athletes, would 3600m (as in the above 3x8x150) be the suggested max volume? Or would the max volume for this session be 4800m (double the volume for double the event distance)?

[For anybody saying "huh?" to the % speed, it goes like this: 12 x 200m @ 70% r2, for an athlete who can run for example 22.5, that would be 22.5 / 0.75 = 32 sec would be 70% speed. Applying that to the above, we can say a 1:45 guy can probably run 16.low for a 150m race. Rounding off, 16 / 0.75 = 21. For mere mortals in HS and college, if they can run 12 flat / 23-24, then call it 18 / .75 = 24 sec for this session]

Impossible. 2:28, maybe.

Agree. does not sound right. If he could do this he would surely be able to do close to Ngeny's and Coe's times at 2.12.

Moorcroft (13:00.41 for 5000m) did similar workouts, 1000m repeats with longish rest. He did them in like 2:27-2:28, so hard to imagine anyone doing them in 2:18, even as badass as Kipketer was.

EPO is one hell of a drug.

Disagree. There is little evidence his endurance lasted much beyond 800m. His 1000m pb was a tick inside 2:15 and he ran 3:42 for 1500 iirc.

Had his endurance lasted up to 1000m, it would seem unthinkable that he wouldn't have had several attempts at it. He didn't, as he knew he couldn't break it, and sensibly stuck to just the 800m.

Most of the fastest 1000m runners of all time were more geared to 1500m than 800m.

Ngeny, Coe, Cram, Makhloufi, Suleiman, Morceli,........ all were as much renowned for their exploits over 1500m as over 800m.