Bekele's Training ....

I vaguely remember reading something about his training, and it seems like it was pretty intense. Something like 4 workouts a week plus a long run. I don't know KB myself though, so who knows.

xcharrier wrote:

I know this has been on these boards before, but no one can at least summarize the kind of training he does? I read that his long runs are never longer than 1 hour 45 minutes. What kind of weekly mileage and more imporantly, what kind of workouts and when? Do you think/know he does intervals year round?

Does he inject EPO before or after his runs? Is there an advantage to doing it one way or the other?

in Running Times magazine the issue where he won male athlete of the year, they did a story on him and got some quotes from his coach. He runs 93mpw (150km), his longest run is 1hr 45min, he does a lot of steady runs and a lot of fartleks during off season and he trains twice a day. He also does plyometrics regularly and weight lifts twice a week.

And I bet it would be hard to find a whole lot more information than that. I remember Kenenisa being quoted, when asked about his training, that it was secret or something to that matter. I'm sure he was trying to joke, but I'm also pretty sure the world's current fastest distance runner doesn't want to publish a book on how he does it.

Theres no information on what kind of fartleks he does off season? I can't imagine anybody doing intense vo2 max fartleks year around. Maybe a fartlek alternating 10k pace/Training pace? Any ideas?

No, the off season fartleks are most likely various forms of lactate threshold training. 3x 15 minutes @ Tempo Pace, 2 minute Recovery Pace, or something like that..

Nacho Man wrote:

Does he inject EPO before or after his runs? Is there an advantage to doing it one way or the other?

why do you guys always fell the need to make asinine comments like this?

I read somewhere on here that Bekele was in the States in spring 2005 (Las vegas?) and was doing workouts paced by Bolota Asmerom. Something like 8X 1200m quite fast (around 3 flat). This was in preparation for his 10k and 5k record attempts.

Someone probly has more information about his stint in the US, or maybe Marius has some info on him. I believe Bekele trains in St. Moritz when hes not in Ethiopia.

How much recovery?

bekele trained in kenya for a while. I saw him a lot and got to see his training. the above description is accurate. lots of steady running and fartleks (long intervals and some short interval type ones, nothing done at an insane pace but you could tell he was moving). from what i got he was averaging around 130km. His longest run was 100min that i saw.

as far as his recovery from what i have been told it is generally moderate around 2-3 min depending on the intervals.

a) RunningTimes interviews are highly suspect; they had some translation issues in Tirunesh's interview.

b) What does it matter? How can knowledge of his workouts effect you? He is a genetic freak, one of the most ridiculously talented athletes to have ever lived. He can do things that 99.9%+ of the human race could never do. If you gave him to the jackass XC coach down the street he'd still run fast.

mobile9 wrote:

b) What does it matter?

It's interesting. Why does anything matter?

I'm not interested in his training so that I can imitate him. I'm just curious as to how he trains, his mileage, the pace he does his workouts, etc.

cmurph wrote:

Nacho Man wrote:

Does he inject EPO before or after his runs? Is there an advantage to doing it one way or the other?

why do you guys always fell the need to make asinine comments like this?

Cuz if you think the "secret" lies in his training, you're nuttier than a jar of Skippy!

the thread below is the one i referenced

I saw Bekele in Kenya during his time of training there. A lot of steady running with fartleks at a pretty quick speed. I was training at the same time as well. He was running roughly between 130-140km with his longest run being around 25-30km at a fairly high speed. His fartleks seemed to be of a ladder style and like the above poster said he did not run these all out but you could see he was moving very fast man. He did do one tempo run I saw which was at a very fast speed but i didnt stay long enough to see the distance but he must've been moving around 2:55-3:00 per km and he had covered roughly 8-9km when I left.

He never seemed to be exhausted after his running, he always looked as if he couldve continued going for much longer. A friend of mine who got to meet bekele during season training said that he spent roughly 30min doing many drills and striding prior to his workout. The workout itself was your basic series of intervals but the paces and rests were very specified, there werent numbers just thrown out there, his coach apparently spent a great deal of time formulating the exact needed pace and rest for Bekele that would benefit and develope him. He spent about 15min explaining the workout to bekele. Again though, he stated bekele didnt seem exhausted after the workout but during you could tell it was very tough but he looked smooth and relaxed the whole time so he concluded that though the paces were very fast they were well within his capabilities.

notempo wrote:

No, the off season fartleks are most likely various forms of lactate threshold training. 3x 15 minutes @ Tempo Pace, 2 minute Recovery Pace, or something like that..

This is pure guesswork from the "you can´t do Vo2max work year round" morons. I do track work at the same time as a 13,22 5k/European Cup winner and he does brutal 3k/5k pace track sessions year round!

Nacho Man wrote:

Does he inject EPO before or after his runs? Is there an advantage to doing it one way or the other?

EPO is not injected, it's a pill.

It might be funnier if your wisecrack was based in reality.

Old Runner Guy wrote:

Nacho Man wrote:

Does he inject EPO before or after his runs? Is there an advantage to doing it one way or the other?

EPO is not injected, it's a pill.

It might be funnier if your wisecrack was based in reality.

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Nacho Man is right, You are wrong, EPO is injected subcutaneosly (under the skin).