Africans - Mileage?

10 yrs old - 30mpw

12 - 40mpw

14 - 60mpw

16-18 - 80-100 mpw

Africa is a big place and not a country. Imagine saying Asians, how much milage do they run? Im always reading Africans this Africans that. Load of rubbish.

stupidstupid wrote:

Africa is a big place and not a country. Imagine saying Asians, how much milage do they run? Im always reading Africans this Africans that. Load of rubbish.

how about stop being a homo, everyone knew what he meant and stupid assholes like you had to come on here and think they are so smart or be a smartass and think its funny, how about you shut the hell up and post somewhere else if ur not interested in answering the question that he brought up.

i hate people like you wrote:

how about stop being a homo, everyone knew what he meant and stupid assholes like you had to come on here and think they are so smart or be a smartass and think its funny, how about you shut the hell up and post somewhere else if ur not interested in answering the question that he brought up.

You know....I'm don't agree with the way you said what you said, but I agree with the point you made 100%. I'm tired of it too. Stupidstupid, what's the point of being a jerk and being needlessly confrontational? Did you think were going to chuckle to themselves in agreement with your condescending post? The Elite East African Distance Runners are who people refer to as "The Africans"...everyone knew what the original poster meant, so why be mean, referring to him as "stupidstupid," when your imput is really useless and unecessary?

Jump on the bandwagon there Kid-o. I'm tired of you.

PS its "I don't"

Ooops...I made a typo. How totally stupid I feel.

Cheack it--I'm also tired of the stupid grammar police on this bored jumping to point crap like that out. You really think I'm so inept that I'd say, "I'm don't," in conversation or think that it was at all grammatically correct? It was a typo...stop being such a d-bag. And by the way, I don't ever "jump on the band wagon," otherwise I'd be saying something incredibly despicable and condescending about every runner to ever do anything for themselves and I'd be making nasty threads at the expense of other people and saying, "It's not funny the a geb killed Meb's cousin, but you've got to admit it's kind of ironic," talking about how all Americans are stupid and support the war in Iraq, about how every one is a dirty cheat and no one can be trusted...I'd be shooting down simple questions like the one asked by the original poster, hiding behind some bs fake name (at least you know my name), and I would also be contradicting every ex-elite professional ex-world record holding runner to offer advice on this board like 70% of the disenchanted, wannabe vegetables that bring their poisonous, piss-poor attitudes to this board daily. At least I'll discuss things on here...at least I'll offer a coherent, rational, opinion that isn't confrontational simply to be confrontational (this is probably the most belligerent you'll ever see me on here). I know what I've got down below...I don't need to prove it on a letsrun message board.

YOU'RE tired of ME? Well I'm SICK of you and seeing people like you think that being a pri--(fill in the blank) does any good in any facet of life other than being a DMV worker. Get a life and don't call me "kid-o," "old man." I cand and DO vote for the stabilization of the freedoms that make you comfortable. Stop being so smug.

boing

Do they seriously run 80mpw + at 16?

First, the intention of my post is not being smartass. But I think the poster "stupidstupid" still has a point: Even if by "Africans" the East Africans are meant, there is still a great difference in training philosophy between the Kenyans and the Ethiopians.

Still, a lot of people in the US say "Africans" in a running context thinking of Kenyans and not knowing that there are elite distance runners looking "African" but not coming from East Africa, like the South Africans, eg Ramaala and Gert Thys. And they also train differently even in their youth than the Kenynas.

Sure? wrote:

First, the intention of my post is not being smartass. But I think the poster "stupidstupid" still has a point: Even if by "Africans" the East Africans are meant, there is still a great difference in training philosophy between the Kenyans and the Ethiopians.

Still, a lot of people in the US say "Africans" in a running context thinking of Kenyans and not knowing that there are elite distance runners looking "African" but not coming from East Africa, like the South Africans, eg Ramaala and Gert Thys. And they also train differently even in their youth than the Kenynas.

Most top south african runners are white though...and the Morroccans have a more middle eastern, almost Armenian appearance. I think "The Africans," as you said, really is a term in reference to those from the Rift Valley. Either way, anyone know how much the KENYANS run on average before turning 18? I think there may be some answers to this question on Marius Bakken's website and in books by elite Kenyan runners such as Paul Tergat.

Why am i being an ass? Cause you dont agree with me? I dont know what the first poster was asking.... seriously... there is no training system called 'the african system'. My buddy is from south africa... and a runner he says god knows if hes running the same way a group of runners in a country a few thousand miles are running.

Morrocco has a national training system but not every morroccan is training that way.... are nigerians? who f***ing knows.

You are simple and racist and making a stupid assumtion and IM sick of posters like you talking about AFRICANS.

People from North America, what kind of milage are they on? Fool.

From wikipedia: With more than 890,000,000 people (as of 2005) in 61 territories, it accounts for about 14% of the world's human population.

Anoymous wrote:

Do they seriously run 80mpw + at 16?

Many are probably doing that or more at 8 yrs old, or so. Renato has said that James Kwalia would run 5mi to school in the morning, 5mi home at lunch time (he didn't like to carry his lunch with him), 5mi back to school at the end of luch, and then 5mi back home at the end of the school day. That's 20mi/day, 5 days/week, and that's not including chasing goats around the farm or playing with other kids.

They total 890,000,000 people but almost everyone single runner coming out of those 61 territories come out of two countries or were born orginally in them and then moved because of money usually, but once again that even proves the point more about why they say africans, u can name a few current south africans or a few morrocans, but you can look at the top statistic lists on iaaf and see 50 or 60 kenyans (exageration prob.) that outnumber every country 5 to 1 so in the general sense they are african, they are from africa, they make up about every runner coming out of africa, so yes African works for the question he asked. And yes you can ask about how many miles an american runs in high school that is descent or elite, usually around 50 to 70 before they graduate few hit 100's and some only do 40's at intense speed, we already know this, we want to know what the africans are doing that are producing such incredible results like 17 year olds running 12:54 or 15 year olds running 28:24 for 10k. Just this past year on the junior list 16 of 32 in the 10k were from 2 countries out of the entire world, or 19 out of 30 for the 5k were from those two countries once again, or the 3k every single person that made the list besides 2 which could still be kenyan depending if they moved away were once again from kenya or ethipia, i saw very few from morrocow or south africa simply because they have there few people that are good, so does america and eveyr other coutnry in the world, but that doesnt compare remotely to the depth shown by kenya or ethiopia.

And for you grammar people i already know that its not my strong point so no need to point things out.

stupidstupid wrote:

You are simple and racist and making a stupid assumtion and IM sick of posters like you talking about AFRICANS.

Only a simple person would make a comment like that. Racism and gerographical generalization (especially as far as training systems is concerned) having nothing to do with eachother. Stop fueling the fires of hatred with stupid, FALSE accusations of racism. You should keep that user name.

bump

How the Young Kenyan Athletes are Training

Iten Athletics training camp, December 1998

Training program for St. Patrick High School, Kenya – the “birthplace” of runners such as Charles & Kipkoech Cheruiyot, Peter Rono, Matthew Birir, Helen Kimaiyo, Wilson Kipketer, Japhet Kimutai, Sally Barsosio, Rose Cheruiyot, Joseph Tengelei, Benson Koech, David Kiptoo, Lydia Cheromei and Julius Chelule. (age 14-18 year)

(complied by Joseph Ngure and Brother Colm O’Connell)

Mon : am (men) 8-9 km and stretching

am (women) 6-7 km and stretching

pm (men) Long run 45-60 minutes (12-14 km)+excercises

pm (women) Long run 45-60 minutes (10-12 km)+exercises

Tue :

am (men) 8 km 27-30 minutes

am (women) 6 km 25 minutes

pm (men/women) 10 munutes w/up,Fartlek for 60-75 minutes – 2 minutes hard/3 minutes easy or 3 minutes hard, 2 minutes easy+exercises

Wed :

am (men) 9 km pace endurance 60 % and flexibility

am (women) 7 km pace endurance 60 % and flexibility

pm (men/women) Circuit training 4x2 min each, 3x2 min each. Then 100 meteres striding plus long strides for 45 minutes

Thu :

am (men/women) Long slow 60 minutes over mixed terrain

pm (men/women) 15 min. runs. Then diagonal drills for 30-35 minutes, 10 minutes dynamics

Fri :

am (men) 8 km easy 30 %

am (women) 6 km easy 30 % plus dynamics

pm (men/women) Hill reps. 120-200 meters x 14 at 60 % pace.

Sat :

am (men/women) striding for 40 minutes over 100-120 metres

pm (men/women) Competition or speed play over 1-1 mins. or 500 meters

Sun :

am (men) easy 8 km

am (women) easy 6 km

pm (men/women) active rest

Comment by Marius : St. Patrick High School is located about 35 minutes drive from Eldoret (2150 meters altitude) and is around 2500 meters above sea level. It is very hilly and all training is done on soft red cinder. If you look at the training program, from the experience I have had when visiting Iten training camp - and the talks Frank Evertsen has had with O’Colm (O’Colm has also visited Frank in Norway) - all long runs, except the one labeled “easy 30 %” and “the long slow run in terrain”, is AT running. Even for these very young ones.

Twice a week before the real racing season starts (spring) the athletes go down to around 1000 meters (in the Valley only 20 minutes drive) to do speed work. So “high-low” training has hit Kenya as well :-)

It is also interesting that the home of 800 meter runners like Wilson Kipketer and Kimutai emphasizes speed work so much. Lots of drills and striding - even as main workouts. That might be one of the reasons why Kenyas top 800 meter runners come from St.Patrick. If you look at the program, they run 13 sessions and one “active rest” at very young age – and at high speed. The “fartlek” on Tuesday I observed in 1999 and it was VO2 max training. So in one week, they have 2 Vo2 max sessions (Tuesday and Saturday) 2-3 speed sessions (Wednesday and Thursday, plus partly Saturday morning) and one speed endurance session (hill reps on Friday). This comes in addition to the 4 AT sessions/week (the “long runs”) and two easy runs (am Friday and am Thursday......even though I would suggest that this last one does not go very easy at the end :-) )....so there you have it......the Kenyan training at a young age. AT training, speed and Vo2 max sessions....and competitions year around almost....try it on 14 year old Norwegians or Americans and let them enjoy.......at 2500 meters altitude :-)

For the spring training in Iten and more info on St.Patrick High School : look at the web page

http://www.iatfcc.org/Kenyan.html

. This page adds some good stuff to the program I have shown you here (that I got down in Kenya from a friend). On the page you can also see the all time best list for former St. Patrick High School students in the 800 meters (as of 1996 – later Kimutai has run 1.42s and Kipketer 1.41low :-) ) :

I ran 80mpw at 16. Big deal. Where's Malmo at. I'd like to take the fool who said high school kids shouldn't run such and such mileage, take him into the woods and shoot him..:) You want something? Take it. You want to run 80mpw during the summer as a 16 yr old. Do it. Stop saving yourself for some future endeavor.

Alan

Thanks chris, interesting information there.

Alan: What sort of improvements did you see with this mileage?

Thanks