Eliud Kipchoge's workout this morning, 9 weeks before London Marathon. Stronger than prior to Berlin?

It looks to be better if JS takes over the coaching of Kamworor. I think he can squeeze out the last that is needed with his great coaching skills.

Tue, 02.04.2019

AM Track: 3km warm-up(14min) + 15x1k w/2' recovery + 10x400m w/1' recovery + 3km cool-down(15min) . Total : 33km in 2h01min

Splits: 2'52 / 2'50 / 2'53 / 2'53 / 2'54 / 2'51 / 2'53 / 2'50 / 2'49 / 2'52 / 2'51 / 2'51 / 2'47 / 2'49 / 2'44

2' recovery after each km repetition (around 400m each time)

Avg(64s/400m), Fastest(61s/400m)

1' recovery after each 400m repetition (around 200m each time)

PM : Rest

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Day's total 33km, altitude 2200m . Weather : AM +17C, sunny

Great stuff, thanks so much for posting!

It's interesting to see how much focus Kipchoge still puts on shorter reps with regular 400's and the like despite marathon training. Sub 13 5k speed surely not too far away during his build up if he chose to. The notion that marathon runners are too slow for the track is long gone.

Fantastic! wrote:

Great stuff, thanks so much for posting!

It's interesting to see how much focus Kipchoge still puts on shorter reps with regular 400's and the like despite marathon training. Sub 13 5k speed surely not too far away during his build up if he chose to. The notion that marathon runners are too slow for the track is long gone.

I agree, it is super interesting -- I wonder how relevant some of this is to your average LetsRun "hobby jogger" -- say, someone who's in the low 2:40s after doing 7 marathons

Perhaps it's time for me to step up my speed training during marathon training. Granted, I'll keep up the strength stuff, the marathon pace stuff, the tempo stuff. But I am coming around to the idea that I need to push the pace on some shorter stuff (but with lots of reps) if I'm ever going to drop another 10, 15 seconds per mile in my marathon career...

Note : Only Kipchoge did the 400m repetitions today. The 15x1k session was a gruelling one and only very few athletes in the group(3-4) finished the last reps with him.

Thursday they'll do the final fast 40k long run, i don't think many are looking forward to it to be honest.

It seems clear that Kipchoge is very much within himself for all these sessions whilst the others are just racing and hanging of for dear life. To finish 15x1km and then be fresh enough to throw in some fast 400's shows the strength of the man. He really is something else.

Was Augustine Choge also in the front group. And is he running a marathon in the spring or maybe pacemaker for Eliud in London.

What's his regime for staying injury free, massage, etc?

As we say here in Australia, that intensity of training would "kill a drovers dog".

Yeah but his ‘speed’ workouts (I.e. those 400m reps) are at what, basically 5k-3k pace? They aren’t blazing at all, just a bit of turnover work

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

curious.nerd wrote:

I agree, it is super interesting -- I wonder how relevant some of this is to your average LetsRun "hobby jogger" -- say, someone who's in the low 2:40s after doing 7 marathons

Perhaps it's time for me to step up my speed training during marathon training. Granted, I'll keep up the strength stuff, the marathon pace stuff, the tempo stuff. But I am coming around to the idea that I need to push the pace on some shorter stuff (but with lots of reps) if I'm ever going to drop another 10, 15 seconds per mile in my marathon career...

Yeah but his ‘speed’ workouts (I.e. those 400m reps) are at what, basically 5k-3k pace? They aren’t blazing at all, just a bit of turnover work

Good point, and thanks for clarifying my thoughts. That's what I mean -- doing more "speed" sessions (lots of reps of it) faster than what I'm used to doing (lots of tempo stuff) but not like you're training for track necessarily. And that, in addition to getting in the volume and the necessary strength work.

Guess I could boil it down and say, when training for a thon, perhaps I should be doing more "speed". So if I'm used to running 6:10 pace for the thon, or 1:32 per 400, then maybe be running more 1:23-1:26 second 400 repeat workouts

Curious.nerd wrote:

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

Yeah but his ‘speed’ workouts (I.e. those 400m reps) are at what, basically 5k-3k pace? They aren’t blazing at all, just a bit of turnover work

Good point, and thanks for clarifying my thoughts. That's what I mean -- doing more "speed" sessions (lots of reps of it) faster than what I'm used to doing (lots of tempo stuff) but not like you're training for track necessarily. And that, in addition to getting in the volume and the necessary strength work.

Guess I could boil it down and say, when training for a thon, perhaps I should be doing more "speed". So if I'm used to running 6:10 pace for the thon, or 1:32 per 400, then maybe be running more 1:23-1:26 second 400 repeat workouts

Short turnover work during marathon training is way underrated. At least every other week during your marathon training you should do a workout of just short reps, ranging from 200-600. Not much, just anywhere from 3k-6k in total volume. It keeps your legs fresh and makes the other workouts feel easier.

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

Yeah but his ‘speed’ workouts (I.e. those 400m reps) are at what, basically 5k-3k pace? They aren’t blazing at all, just a bit of turnover work

After 21km of running, 10 x 400 at 3-5k pace probably isn't that easy even for Kipchoge.

Exactly. That IS blazing. Try doing a 15 x 1k workout, period. Then try tacking on 10 x 400 at 3k/5k pace at the end, and I'm pretty sure you won't be so blasé about it. People on message boards seem to love being almost dismissive of that kind of workout, as if they do it all the time. Probably nobody commenting in this thread has ever done a remotely comparable workout, even adjusting for their race pace.

OMG So Easy wrote:

Exactly. That IS blazing. Try doing a 15 x 1k workout, period. Then try tacking on 10 x 400 at 3k/5k pace at the end, and I'm pretty sure you won't be so blasé about it. People on message boards seem to love being almost dismissive of that kind of workout, as if they do it all the time. Probably nobody commenting in this thread has ever done a remotely comparable workout, even adjusting for their race pace.

It doesn’t matter who you are, 400m reps at 3k-5k pace are not blazing and never will be. Was he running then tired? Yeah, duh.

It’s an impressive workout but he’s also done stuff like this for years on top of 120mpw at altitude. I was simply pointing out that those 400s, relatively speaking, aren’t blazing. Still a good workout, though.

Try to act less upset(??) on your next reply.

ThatAverageRunner wrote:

curious.nerd wrote:

I agree, it is super interesting -- I wonder how relevant some of this is to your average LetsRun "hobby jogger" -- say, someone who's in the low 2:40s after doing 7 marathons

Perhaps it's time for me to step up my speed training during marathon training. Granted, I'll keep up the strength stuff, the marathon pace stuff, the tempo stuff. But I am coming around to the idea that I need to push the pace on some shorter stuff (but with lots of reps) if I'm ever going to drop another 10, 15 seconds per mile in my marathon career...

Yeah but his ‘speed’ workouts (I.e. those 400m reps) are at what, basically 5k-3k pace? They aren’t blazing at all, just a bit of turnover work

Full stop. They're done on 60 sec rest at 7500ft on a dirt track after 15x1k. C'mon, man.

Yes, Augustine Choge was in the front group at the business end of the workout. I'm not really sure about what they are planning, but surely he is bound to race this spring as i would say he's in decent shape.

As for Eliud's key to stay injury-free, it's about consistency and running within himself. Of course, they have a physiotherapist who work with them every week + gym work, house work at home, etc.

Thank you for the updates. Great stuff!

You should film some workouts and long runs and upload to youtube if the group allows.

Mzungu, during the previously published buildup from Berlin 2017 Saturdays were always off-track fartleks while Tuesdays were on track.

Can you think of a reason for the change away from a weekly fartlek in favor of two track workouts?

Thu, 04.04.2019

AM : 40km long progression run in 2h11min. ( dirt road, undulating course, not too hard) + 1km wu/cd in around 5min each

10km splits: 35'34 / 33'12 / 32'30 / 29'57

PM : Rest

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Day's total 42km, altitude 2300-2500m . Weather : AM +15C, partly cloudy

Note : I can't tell why they change it this way but due to the xc wch, they added a lot of hills for the long runs and some were run on very hard cross country courses, so i guess there was no need for more hills. This way they could focus on the speed endurance workouts on the track i guess.

This was the last 40k fast long run in this build-up.