Q for Renato Canova, Aerobic House - Gradual or Quick Mileage increase?

Renato,

Thank you for answering my question. As always we all appreciate your input as it is very useful. I definitely agree with you on the progress plan. When you have spoken about some of your athletes doing alot of general aerobic training for many years, for example Kwalia who would usually run 32km a day in 4x8km runs 5 days per week I had the impression that they just started to do it from a very young age as it was part of their lifestyle. It didn't seem like they progressed to this higher base mileage as they needed/had to do it to get to school etc. I am also interested in J.R.'s question, would you be able to provide us with some examples of yearly mileage progression/transition to specific training. How did you progress the training of say someone like James Kwalia, who ran 32km on many days during the week for years and has now got a bronze medal over 5km at the world championships?

Thank you

Jesus f***n christ, will you morons stop kissing his ass already?

I have nothing against someone who is speaking another language. But I must say, I am a full professor at University of Michigan. And I can tell you this guy Renato has an IQ of about 90. I recently learned French, so I wrote my sentences like the 160 IQ that I am. Im not trying to toot my own horn. Im just saying that a 90 IQ writes that way in any language.

Please stop kissing this fraud. EPO is the reason this guy is successful. 90 IQ is not impressive. Stop it fellas.

Hey Rochester,

I can think of several second graders with more decency than you. The way you hide behind the anonymity of this message board is repulsive. I don't know whether you are a troll or an actual professor. Regardless, your words show that you have no class. Some of us really do value Mr. Canova's words, and we would appreciate it if he continued to feel welcome on this board.

P.S. Those who can't do, teach

Shameonyou wrote:

P.S. Those who can't do, teach

P.P.S.

Yeah... what he said.

And another thing:

"Those who can't teach, teach PE." - Woody Allen

Renato,

What would you advise for 30-year old males, perhaps returning from injury? I think alot of us are lost on that first week of training in the INTRODUCTORY PERIOD, where we must keep the stimulus the moderated with CONTINUOUS MEDIUM PACE RUNS, SLOW CONTINUOUS RUN, AND MEDIUM PROGRESSIVE RUNS.

How much is too much and if clear of injury how soon would you introduce doubles for the 6-8 week period?

Thank you.

By the way, Italy is a FAVORITE FOR THE WORLD CUP - best wishes!

Rochester Mike wrote:

I have nothing against someone who is speaking another language. But I must say, I am a full professor at University of Michigan.

And I have won the Nobel prize 16 times (it´s easy to lie on an anonymous messageboard).

Your question DTM is a good one. My reply must be short. I have only 30 minutes that will I use this internet. Your information that Kwalia runs 32k sometimes is correct. But my example to explain these things, there is a reason. Why must we always look at the 12th floor of every building when the 1st and 2nd floor of this building is similar in importance. What I mean is that Kwalia start to exercise and run when he is 3 years old. Remember, his only means for transportation is his legs. Example I give is this. Kwalia is 7 years old and goes to school in next village. In morning he walks and runs 8 kilometers to school. During school he kicks ball and runs maybe another 2 kilometers of running. Kwalia, he comes home from school and walks and runs for this time another 8 kilometers. In his village at home, Kwalia plays sport and runs with his friends for another 6 kilometers during play time before time gets dark. My friend, do you see his aerobic capacity and endurance improving from this? Of course its true.

Now, lets take American child and European child. Same age. American child moves to school in car. American child maybe runs 2k at school with some sort of sport activity. After this, he gets ride home from car again. After school this boy or girl will be on computer or doing some video game activity. His total acitivity for aerobic activity is total of 2k. You see my point. This child has 2 kilometers of activity. Kwalia in normal day will run or walk for 20 kilometers or more. When Kwalia gets to be 16 years old his aerobic capacity is filled to floor number 6. American boy or European boy of same age has aerobic capacity at 2nd floor or maybe 3rd floor. This is big advantage in just normal life acitivity. I must be going but I hope my lesson is one that you can understand.

For reaching their best result, all the athletes must exalt their best qualities, not wasting too much time trying to fill in the gaps. I saw great champions having exceptional qualities in some direction, showing great gaps in other direction. If you have a gap at the beginning, NEVER that quality can become a strong quality, only less weak.

For that reason, one training with 10 x 300m for Billy Konchellah (or the top 800m runners coming from 400m) is not only useless, but damageous. On the other side, if one runner is an "aerobic type", and is not so fast, NEVER can run at 110% of his speed (I suppose Cram never able to run 300m in 35"...), and has to develop his "specific speed endurance", using the system of very short recovey.

You must remember that the essence of training is to STIMULATE all the systems of an athlete, and the stimula, for all the activity of endurance (so, 800m too), are in 2 different direction : EXTENSION and INTENSITY.

This means that, for an athlete able running 2 x 300m in 33" with 10' recovery, running 4 x 300min 35" with 6' recovery is a stimula of EXTENSION, while for an athlete able running 20 x 300 in 45" rec. 30", going for 10 x 300 in 39" / 40" rec. 45" is a stimula of INTENSITY.

We cannot think of these 2 words (EXTENSION and INTENSITY) in objective way, but in SUBJECTIVE way. In other words, for every runner, when he runs faster than before he faces a stimulus of intensity, when runs longer (or increases the volume at a pace that normally is able to use) he faces a stimulus of extension.

Another word for propaedeutic can be PREPARATORY. I'm not so good in English, and found this word on the dictionary...

Renato, for 5000m and 10000m workouts do you prefer jog rest or standing rest?

Real question, harsh phrasing. Do ANY American coaches even talk like this, let alone think like this?

OXYRUNR

Both the situation depend on the kind of workout. If you have a workout of AEROBIC POWER (for example, 10 x 1000m at 2-3% faster than the pace of PB, in case of 27'30" (2'45" / km is 66" per lap or 16"5 every 100m, so 3% faster is about 16" / 64" / 2'40"), it's better to have recovery jogging, for example 200m in 1'30", and one of the systems for increasing the SPECIFIC AEROBIC ENDURANCE is to reduce the recovery time running, every session, a little bit faster the recovery, till arriving at 200m in 1'. But, if you have a workout of SPECIAL SPEED ENDURANCE (for example, 10 x 600m at a pace faster than 10% of PB, in the case of the athlete above, the speed 10% faster than 16"5 is about 14"85 / 59"4 / 1'29"1), I prefer a recover jogging very slowly, that is the same thing of walking. Instead, for higher speed (for example, 10 x 400 in 56" / 57"), always I prefer short recovery, standing.

The normal rule is : faster is the test, more long and standing is recovery. On the contrary, for marathon runners recovery during their specific workouts is running at moderate pace (4 x 5000m in 15' rec. 1000m in 3'20" for example)

Thank You Renato. When working towards a goal race for 5000m and 10000m again, would you rather increase the length of the intervals or improve the pace of the recovery jog? Or is it a combination of both?

Renato,

First, we all really appreciate your posting here. The insights into the training of the best athletes in the world is extremely helpful.

Second, you say that after a workout at max intensity, you have to "refill your tanks" with some medium intensity training. You've written before that, during the "specific period," you separate hard workouts with a day or two of regeneration running (what Americans would call easy days). Is this "medium intensity training" a lighter workout done a few days after the maximum effort, or is it an easy or steady training run done the day following the maximum effort?

Some American coaches will, for example, have their athletes do a "specific" workout on Monday (say, 5x1600m at 5000m pace with 5min recovery), then an easier effort like 10x1000m at AnT with little recovery on Wednesday, and a race on Friday or Saturday. Is this the type of "medium intensity training" you are talking about?

Hi Renato,

Yes your answer has been helpful. The accumulation of km in the legs that the africans have is better than most young athletes from the western world. There have been some people like Lindgren and Ryun from the western world who have put in alot more km than the average person from these countries and have acheived great results from it. Do you think we need to see more young athletes in the western world giving it a go and putting in higher mileage? Would you be able to give an example of how you progressed one of your east african athletes from doing alot of general training when they were young moving to more specific training which eventually got them for example a mdeal at the world champs? I remember you posted once about Shaheen, you mentioned one year his mileage was 150km average then the next year 130km indicating his need for more specific training as he went further into his career.

Thank you for taking the time to answer our questions.

Renato, what other workouts do you like for the fast Konchellah type? I read on another thread your story about Fiasconaro only doing 3 workouts, 3 x 600, 3 x 300, and 6 x 150, even though you wanted him to do some longer stuff. Could you give some examples of training for the fast type 800 runner at various times of the season? Thanks!

Renato:

Great posts. Thank you so much.

What are your thoughts on the age-group marvel Ed Whitlock, and his capability of training 3 hours per day in his usual routine when healthy, at over 70 years of age?

How do you view this in the context of your observation of the Kenyan youth who peform 20KM of activity versus the Western child you might perform 2KM?

Merry Christmas to you.

Renato

What are your thoughts on the age-group marvel Ed Whitlock, and his capability of training 3 hours per day in his usual routine when healthy, at over 70 years of age?

How do you view this in the context of your observation of the Kenyan youth who peform 20KM of activity versus the Western child you might perform 2KM?

I don't know how much importance one should give to my youthful upbringing to account for any success today. While my training was woefully inadequate then by today's standards, my overall life style was much more active than typical youth today. No family car no school buses etc. My bicycle was my means of transport everywhere. A typical day 20 miles, sometimes up to 120 miles with 3 speed gears not 10 or more. The purpose of the rides was just transport, not a workout.

I agree with Renato that it takes years to build up, it took me a long time to get to 3 hours a day.

Ed Whitlock

I was a little hillbilly runnin' terror while growing up in the 60's. It sure as hell didn't hurt me and now I'm kissing the big 50. I got whooped by Ed Whitlock a few years back at the Cabot Trail Relay. It was an honor. Hope to see EW @ the CTR2010! And Renalto is so right, tall buildings are built on strong and well built foundations!