Renato Canova, Who exactly is Imane Merga and how did you develop him to get his win at World XC?

Renato Canova is BALLIN without even tryin'!!!

I don't understand because, when I write something, there are d in people changing the thread in something regarding my person.

The situation is very clear :

a) I'm a professional coach,lecturer of IAAF, having personal experience with some of the best athletes, and, since I like athletics, I want to share what I know with people interested in this argument.

b) I don't have any advantage writing in this Website. Letsrun doesn't pay me, and I'm here fror giving all the informations I can give to everybody.

c) I don't like gossip. I speak about methodology, and, when I give you a training schedule of some top athlete, this is for supporting PRACTICALLY what I say in theorical way.

d) I'm not interested in APPEARING the coach of somebody, when I'm not. Sometime, other people ascribe to me to coach athletes that are not really with me. In this case, always I explained I'm the coach,also if sometime I know very well what they do in training, because I work with the real coach of the athlete. But, when I say something about coaching, this is true, and cannot be somebody living in another continent to say it's not. Incidentally, when somebody says that Ethiopian and Kenyan athletes are under the coaching of National coaches for all the season, this is a clear sign that he doesn't know what he's speaking about. National coaches in these two Countries DON'T KNOW WHO ARE THE ATHLETES AND WHAT THEY DO IN TRAINING, they go in charge during last 4 meeks only, many of them with the ARROGANCE to decide their training without speaking with the normal usual coaches. So, there are only two possibility : if who speaks like this is from another Continent, speaks about something doesn't know, so he's STUPID ; instead, if is from Ethiopia or Kenya, and knows very well the reality, he's a CHEATER for some personal reason.

f) As I speak about methodology, every people in the Website can chose IF READING or NOT what I write ; IF AGREEING or NOT what I say ; IF DISCUSSING or NOT what I explain.

I don't want, and I'm not, the keeper of the truth. Also, I continue to learn from everybody (also small kids), and for that reason I can teach. For speaking, the first step is to be able to listen.

At the end, the matter is not if Renato Canova is white or black, young or old, tall or small, if writes with a good English grammar or with bad English language (in this case, we can continue the thread using the fluent Italian of the most part of readers...), if earns money coaching or not, if African Federations like him or not, and so and so.

The matter is : WE SPEAK ABOUT METHODOLOGY, and we are ready to discuss about it with ALL people having interest, as Kaddafi already said.

If you want, you can intervene. If you don't want, shut up.

Sorry, in the point d) ALWAYS I EXPLAINED I'M NOT THE COACH, etc. Not remained in my fingers, as I received a phone call from one of the athletes...

Coach Canova- There are people on this board who appreciate what you have to say, enjoy your posts, and like to hear you chime in like this. Thank you for being so open with us.

-Craig MacPherson

Renato - ci sono tante persone qua, che non hanno le posibilita de parlare de atletica leggera de manera inteligente.

Vorrei sapere una cosa, comunque. Era atleta lei, o semplicemente fanatico de lo sport? Qual e el pasato de lei nello sport?

Io ho avuto una buena esperienza cuando imparavo el Italiano a Firenze. Ho conosciuto Allessandro Lambruschini, perche io viveva a Pescia, Pistoia, dove viveva anche lui! Cera, anche, il marciatore, Roberto Quiriconi. Ere nel ano 1985-1986.

Grazie mille.

Ghost in Saudi,

www.kfupm.edu.sa

, apply today.

Mr. Canova -

Many people on this website respect and appreciate you very much. Please do not let the ones who are ignorant prevent you from continuing to share your wisdom and experience with us. We all learn from you, whether we agree or not.

I can confirm that coaches, who are well respected in the USA, do read your posts, and they continue to appreciate the knowledge you share.

I for one believe you are honorable and tell us the truth about what you know and who you coach. Only jealous people are saying bad things about you. They are the minority - the very few - and they lose credibility.

Anyway, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. Please continue to do so! You are a beaming light in the the dark forest.

Take care,

Tom

Tinman wrote:

Mr. Canova -

Many people on this website respect and appreciate you very much. Please do not let the ones who are ignorant prevent you from continuing to share your wisdom and experience with us. We all learn from you, whether we agree or not.

I can confirm that coaches, who are well respected in the USA, do read your posts, and they continue to appreciate the knowledge you share.

I for one believe you are honorable and tell us the truth about what you know and who you coach. Only jealous people are saying bad things about you. They are the minority - the very few - and they lose credibility.

Anyway, thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. Please continue to do so! You are a beaming light in the the dark forest.

Take care,

Tom

I concur.

Why don't we all do this;

For all those who don't appreciate what the good old Doc does, just keep away. If you don't believe in what he tells us, and if you've made up your mind that Dr. Renato Canova is whatever you think he is, just don't bother responding to his posts.

You don't have to read his posts. Just refrain from anything that he touches and that way, it'll save us a lot of time trying to dig through the good stuff he posts from the arguments that you guys cause in Canova's posts.

We keep repeating the same thing; that he has some hidden/ulterior motives, that he exploits athletes, that he is a fraudster, that he is ..........

We've heard all that.

Okay, fine!

What if you guys just ignore his threads from this point onwards.

There are definitely people (like me) who always look forward for what Dr. Canova has to say and that is why he comes to post here.

If we all did this, it'd save us a lot of time, anger, arguments e.t.c.

AM I COMING THROUGH?

Finally, thank you Dr. Canova. There are very many of us who just love reading your stuff. Please don't be distracted by cynics. THey will always be there.

NativeSon wrote:

nonsense

That is out of line to suggest being some medical doctor - which is not.

Renato, Do you think that Imane Merga was prepared to win World XC going into it? What was your opinion on his chances of winning?

Renato,

You mention briefly that for an amatuer you wouldn't give them as much hard training with more modulation in between. Can you give some specific examples?

I have a family (2 young children) and a full-time job and try to train the same way I would without other commitments. I know you would need more information about current training, but how much modulation and extra recovery would you give someone in my situation? How would you specifically set up harder workouts/long runs? If there are extra days needed in between for recovery I'm assuming it would be difficult to follow a 7 day schedule... How would the workouts be spaced out and what would the order of them be (for someone focusing on 10k-half marathon and marathon throughout the year). For example, if a harder interval workout was scheduled (4-6 x 1600 on track at 10k effort) would you schedule a long run as the next workout 2-3 days later? or...a longer workout of 6 x mile at half marathon pace with mile recovery at 90% half marathon pace would you schedule some shorter intervals 2-3 days later or a slower long run? I hope this makes sense. I guess an easier question would be what workouts would you include in a 2-3 week period for someone focusing on 5k-1/2 marathon? marathon?

Thank you so much advance. I appreciate everything you post on this site.

bump......bump

BJORN wrote:Example: Dieter Baumann: 400m 49sek pb + 13 sec is 62ap x 12,5 =12.55/5000m. (His pb is 12.54)

there is not a snowball in hell's chance he had 49s speed when he ran 12'55

from :

12'55 with

50.0 ->3'31.1 , 7'26.8

49.5 ->3'30.2 , 7'26.1

49.0 ->3'29.3 , 7'25.3

Imane never liked running cross country. Last year, he was out of the team, not able to finish in top ten during Ethiopian Trials.

But, after the last season, he grew as self confidence. His victory in Diamond League made him more sure about himself, and more important for Ethiopian athletics, coinciding with the absence of Kenenisa, Sihine and Gebremariam.

And, how already I explained, we knew this year World Cross was on a very dry course, very good grass, very good weather. This made this cross similar to a track race, where Imane is really strong.

So, from the beginning of December the goal was to have a peak of shape for the end of March.

Imane worked for increasing his endurance, with many fast continuous runs between 12 km and 18 km, till the end of December, when he had a pair of road races for testing the reached aerobic level (also if the temperature was very low, and in those conditions the reaction is not the same for every athlete).

From January, he started to put in his training long intervals (as fartlek or on track, depending on the weather), of course maintaning the fast continuos run, including also 8 km faster.

The final part is in the program I wrote.

Of course he hoped to win : this was the goal from the beginning of his winter training, also if never an athlete can be sure about the final result.

Renato, when you say fast continuous runs of 12-18k what exactly do you mean? How fast would that be for say a 1:05 half marathon runner?

Today Imane Merga ran the last Italian international cross. He won again, beating Caleb Ndiku (the young Youth champion of 1500m in 2009, and World Junior Champion in 1500m last year), Paul Tanui, John Kipkoech and John Koech.

This is the result :

1) Imane Merga (Eth) 32:11

2) Caleb Ndiku (Ken) 32:14

3) Paul Tanui (Ken) 32:15

4) John Kipkoech (Ken) 32:20

5) John Koech (Ken) 33:34

When we apeak about fast continuous run, for an athlete as Imane it means pace between 2:57 / 3:00 per km in 12 km (35:20 / 36:00), for 1.0 slower per km on longer distance (3:00 / 3:03 for 15 km = 45:00 / 45:45) and (3:03 / 3:06 for 18 km = 54:54 / 55:48 for 18 km).

Since the current value of Imane can be about 27:20 in 10000 (2:44 / km = 16"4 every 100m), we can say his long fast run is carried on at 90% of the speed of his 10000 (12 km) till 85% (18 km).

Renato Canova wrote:Since the current value of Imane can be about 27:20 in 10000 (2:44 / km = 16"4 every 100m), we can say his long fast run is carried on at 90% of the speed of his 10000 (12 km) till 85% (18 km).

are you saying he's only currently a 27'20 guy ??!!

it's hard to believe anyone winning the big title, even if it was a slowish pace off only 27'20 ability, especially considering the kenyans he beat musta been somewhere in 26'40 - 27'00 range

Bump

I think the level of Paul Tanui, Vincent Chepkok, Mathew Kisorio at the moment is not better than 27:20. Geoffrey Mutai was of sure in a shape for running abour 27:00 during Trials, but lost part of it, as WCh showed.

There is no way that, during Winter, all the athletes can have the same shape they have during the track season. This because the competitions on track have a prominent role in reaching the max shape, connected with the speed.

Preparation for cross is different. I don't want to analyse the training in the camp, but in any case nobody can have the same "stamina" he can build using competitions, too.

mmmmmmmm wrote:

what does modulation mean?

When Canova refers to modulation, I believe he means a greater difference between the intensity of day to day workouts. In other words, you run harder during your hard workouts and easier on your easy days, rather than running with moderate intensity every day.