"I do not actually run a specific kilometer or mileage per se, but rather I cover in minutes and hours." How many minutes and hours? "I work out one to on-and-a-half hours in the morning and the same in the afternoon session," she says, "so in total I train two to three hours per day." Guessing an average pace of 7:30/mile, as she starts to run very slowly, that works out to 16-20 miles a day.
Well you're most likely wrong, she says she works out for three hours a day, not runs three hours a day, that entails stretching and doing other exercises that Ethiopians do, I'm sure she's not running two to three hours a day, it covers her other stuff like sprints and drills too.
I dont have a vested interest in this or anything but from the simple context of the quote he is actually most likely right and you are most likely wrong.
She just finished saying she does not measure her runs by distance but by time. When asked "how much" her answer is obviously going to be the amount of time RUNNING. The fact that she used the term "work out" (which might actually be a translation anyway) is irrelevant. The context was the measurement of running.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if she were running that much, at least during peak periods. Why would you?
Hey, I just copied word-for-word from the RT article.
It wouldn't suprise me if she ran 16-20 miles a day. That's upwards of 140 miles a week.
up to 140 a week. i always thought "upwards of" meant "more than" or "at least"
Sounds like 112-140 avg.
mobile9 wrote:
Guessing an average pace of 7:30/mile, as she starts to run very slowly, that works out to 16-20 miles a day.
Extremely, extremely unlikely that Defar averages only 7:30/mile in training, even if she's starting each run very slowly and even if most of her training is at high altitude.
Even little old me works out three hours a day. Whooppdie friekin dooooo
say it aint so wrote:
I dont have a vested interest in this or anything but from the simple context of the quote he is actually most likely right and you are most likely wrong.
She just finished saying she does not measure her runs by distance but by time. When asked "how much" her answer is obviously going to be the amount of time RUNNING. The fact that she used the term "work out" (which might actually be a translation anyway) is irrelevant. The context was the measurement of running.
I wouldn't be surprised at all if she were running that much, at least during peak periods. Why would you?
No you're wrong. Just because she measures her time running doesn't mean that she spends all her time working out running. You are wrong. I'm sure she meant what she said literally. I believe this because thats what I thought she was saying and because it is said that bekele doesn't even do over 90 miles a week, so why would she?
whats the difference, she is kicking all our asses anyway. she wont divulge her secrets, nor should she either. why dont we just train harder and close the gap.
i doubt she has a secret, she just can run 69-70 seconds a lap and then close a 5k in 56-58, the way someone can beat that is run under 69 per lap and/or be able to run the last quarter under 57, how many of the girls she runs against can even run 56 seconds for 1 quarter besides tirunesh dibaba? i would like to see her and t. dibaba run with men that are faster, but not to much faster, if they raced men i would not be surprised if they broke 1410.
She probably runs quite a few laps at that pace in training. That's the real secret of Ethiopian success; they run faster in their hard sessions.
i doubt she runs 3 hrs daily wrote:
No you're wrong. Just because she measures her time running doesn't mean that she spends all her time working out running. You are wrong. I'm sure she meant what she said literally. I believe this because thats what I thought she was saying and because it is said that bekele doesn't even do over 90 miles a week, so why would she?
That sounds like competition volume as opposed to off season volume.
i doubt she runs 3 hrs daily wrote:
No you're wrong. Just because she measures her time running doesn't mean that she spends all her time working out running. You are wrong. I'm sure she meant what she said literally. I believe this because thats what I thought she was saying and because it is said that bekele doesn't even do over 90 miles a week, so why would she?
No actually I am correct and you are simply unable to understand the context of the remarks. Sorry you didn't get it.
That is most likely correct about how much she runs. I read that Geb also runs 1-1:30 hrs in the morning. This is just to go out and run. That is a lot of running. But just as the quote says...they are not concerned with pace. There was a European that trained with Geb ( Matt Smith ) and he talked about some of their runs. He said they did a lot of mileage, Ran in the morning for a long duration, did a ton of threshold work at everything from 3k to 25k pace, and also ran extremely easy on their easy runs. He said they ran for about 30 minutes one time in the evening where it was intended to be a recovery run and he thought they maybe covered 3 miles. Anyhow...I am posting his remarks below to read. Might lend some insight to Ethiopian training.
Mike
Per Matt Smith
Fellas,
Maybe i can add a little to this discussion as I did a month training at altitude in Addis a short time prior to his marathon debut in London.
I ran with Haile and the Ethiopian group (inc. NYC winner Tesfaye Jifar and Tesfaye Tola, Olympic Bronze medallist) on several occasions and chatted with Haile several times as well. I only did recovery runs with Haile and the group because they were too quick for me to keep up on workouts.
My observation would be that the 'laufen mit Haile...' OVERestimates Haile's total workload in terms of quality for sure and probably overestimates quantity too. I doubt he runs more than 130miles per week.
When i was there Haile ran 3 hard sessions per week - one track of the 1200 type described, a long tempo of about 20k run hard, and a long run of maybe 35k run hard.
Most of Haile's other running is very slow...but it is at 8000ft plus and on hilly terrain so those conditions are probably more significant stimulus than pace.
Haile ran 13x per week but i doubt it would be a specific or quantifiable as outlined in 'laufen mit Haile...' not least because few of the routes they run were or even are measurable. They run up and down mountain sides on very rough terrain much of the time so pace varies hugely thorughout any one run.
Typically Haile's main session is run in the morning, be that the workout for the day or the longest run of the day if it's a recovery day. The guys get up and run dead early, say 6am, because their farming background means that is the kind of hour they always wake. The AM run on an easy day was between 1hr - 1hr30 and the length over an hour seemed more to depend on if the guys had found a nice route and were enjoying their chat rather than aimed at hitting a pre-planned distance.
This relaxed approach was reflected in most of the Ethiopian training: They ran really hard during hard workouts and very easily on recovery runs. (For example we did one afternoon run of 31mins on the flat that was not even 4miles and that's not a typo because the pace was about 10mins per mile that day, almost walking.)
20mins before that 4mile easy run Haile and Jifar were eating fries in the cafe while laughing and joking. It was striking how, in contrast to European and American runners who are generally preoccupied and anal about exact splits, pace and distance, the Ethiopians just ran hard or easy and often.
At this point Haile reckoned he could run close to the World Half Marathon record - he had won the World Half in Bristol in 60.03 a few months before i was in Addis - and when i was there Haile said to me he was looking at race options to do so (although none turned out to be available).
And, by the way, I don't think Haile's on drugs. Haile's mechanics and ability and training venue and lifestyle are all waaaaaaayyyyy better than mine and i've run 28mins-odd for a track 10000m , so i don't find it hard to believe that Haile can run a good 2mins faster for 10k than i can without him needing drugs to do so.
Finally, i just remembered, as we finished one run there was one of the young Ethiopian guys standing on the other side of the road about to go training. Haile said to me, 'you see him, he's good'. He was pointing at the at-that-point unheralded Kenenisa Bekele...
Amharic was and is way beyond me...although i did learn a few Ethiopian words. One of those was the word for 'ok', which i tended to pronounce in different ways and use as the answer to almost every question. I also learned to say 'how are you' and things like that.
It seemed the Ethiopians really appreciated me making an effort...although sometimes people would assume from my pitiful 'ok' that i actually could speak Amharic. Then they'd launch into a long soliloquoy and i'd reply with my best blank look...
The other downside to my limited vocabulary is everytime Haile asked me how i was feeling on a run i'd have to reply 'ok' because it was the only word i could use...even if we were running up a mountain and i was feeling pretty damn far from ok!
thanks.