But higher mileage (105-120mpw) and really difficult workouts that only a world class athlete could handle. Salazar was big into periodization but also throwing wild stimulus into Galen's programs (800m runner workouts into marathon training blocks). Add in the Nike sponsorship and the ability to experiment with some of Nike's tech, altitude tents, etc at a younger age then you have the recipe for massive success and improvement.
I'll never really know if Galen truly did any sort of performance enhancing drugs. Wasn't there, never tested him. But I do know that he passed every test that was given to him.
We all think/know Salazar was pretty dirty, so why would he conveniently ignore his prized athlete when it came to passing out PED's? Galen will always be suspect because of that relationship.
Barring all talk of pharmaceutical aids and other grey-area stuff, I believe NOP training was fairly straightforward:
1) big focus on speed throughout the year. 100's, 150's, 200's, 300's year round done at goal paces and championship paces (i.e. 49 - 50s 400 speed). closer to goal races these become 600s, 800s, and 1000's at anywhere from 3K pace to mile pace (1K's at mile - very hard).
2) big accumulation of aerobic work -- basically maxing out on mileage with doubles and triples if time allowed. Runs as long as possible while still making physiological sense (60 min easy runs, 120 min LRs) Additional low-impact aerobic work (treadmill, underwater treadmill, Alter-G). A good portion of these runs done close to marathon pace when possible. Galen also lives in an altitude-adjustable house where he spent literally all of his time outside of training.
3) "threshold" work (basically aerobic stuff) - lots of work between 5K and 10K pace. Basically lots of cruise intervals and HM pace tempo runs. Closer to goal races more 1600s at 5K - 3K pace.
4) weight room focus -- combo of PT-style "bodybuilding" (i.e. building up strength in specific muscles) but also developing absolute strength in the fall/winter and converting that to power through Olympic lifts in the summer
Not sure what they did in terms of hills or pure speed development (like 40 - 60m flys - I think they did more 80 - 100s at max effort) but I think this is a pretty good representation of what they did.
I think there was still a good amount of recovery in there in terms of nutrition/hydration, treatment/therapies, naps -- they basically did nothing besides deep rest and hard training, which allowed them to have a really dense schedule.
Basically, a combo of aerobic training based on Daniels and speed-oriented training based on Coe-Martin.
They also focused on long term goals instead of winning the next race. When Rupp lost in Footlocker, Salazar consoled him by saying it was part of the growing process.
He kept Rupp healthy. Serious compare Rupp to guys like teg, Ritz. Solinsky, derrick, Fernandez, and who ever else to how often he missed large periods with injury. He started to break down after 30 but up until then he was a machine...
My assessment has always been alsal was good about slowly building over the years AND Rupp was crazy obsessive about doing the small stuff...
He kept Rupp healthy. Serious compare Rupp to guys like teg, Ritz. Solinsky, derrick, Fernandez, and who ever else to how often he missed large periods with injury. He started to break down after 30 but up until then he was a machine...
My assessment has always been alsal was good about slowly building over the years AND Rupp was crazy obsessive about doing the small stuff...
In the 2008 Olympic Trials 10K, Galen Rupp played to the hometown crowd by wearing an Oregon University singlet and Abdi Abdirahman celebrated making the Oly...
1) big focus on speed throughout the year. 100's, 150's, 200's, 300's year round done at goal paces and championship paces
That wasn't until after the 2008 Olympic Trials when the Black Cactus tormented Rupp.
As I've said many times before, you don't suddenly get speed at the end of the year, you need to work on it year round.
good point. For a long time Rupp was a well-documented slowpoke on the last lap of any race. Fast forward to some of his best running in 2011 - 2013/14 and he was legitimately unbeatable over the last 600.
He was still never the quickest guy outright, but he was certainly the strongest which allowed him to use more of what he had vs the other guys flooded with fatigue.
1) big focus on speed throughout the year. 100's, 150's, 200's, 300's year round done at goal paces and championship paces
That wasn't until after the 2008 Olympic Trials when the Black Cactus tormented Rupp.
As I've said many times before, you don't suddenly get speed at the end of the year, you need to work on it year round.
Exactly, like Haile Geb always throwing in strides throughout the week. It doesn't have to be a lot either, something like a few short strides, a few shorter reps between 150-300 and hill sprints. Nothing overly taxing during base phase, just to keep it in the training cycle to remind the body and not to lose it.
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