Kenyan 1500m/mile training?

Thats good stuff.

20x400 at 55? That's absurd

Yes, that EPO is great stuff.

Not all Kenyans train the same. Here are three who ran relatively low volume for 1500m/mile training.

Keino, Boit, Lagat.

What does it mean "Kenyan 1500m Training" ?

There are different methods, of course depending on the coach.

For example, this is the current program of an athlete (in my group) that I don't want to name, but is in top 5 in the World (starting on 1st November) :

Mon, 1.11

a) 1 hr moderate run (16 km)

b) 30' easy + 12 x 80m sprint uphill

Tue, 2.11

a) 50' easy

b) 20' easy + 5 circuits of strength-endurance (see after)

Wed, 3.11

a) 30' easy + 5 x 6' fast rec. 4' easy

b) 40' easy + gym

Thu, 4.11

a) 1 hr with short variations of speed (30" / 45") after 20'

b) 30' easy + exercises of reactivity : 10 times 30" jumping with blocked knees + 10 times 30m bounding + 4 sets of 3 starts from different position (on the ground)

Fri, 5.11

a) 1 hr moderate

b) 40' easy + gym

Sat, 6.11

a) 30' easy + 8 km fast (about 3'05" / km)

b) 30' easy + stretching

Sun, 7.11

40' easy

Mon, 8.11

a) 1 hr 10' moderate run

b) 30' easy + 12 x 100m sprint uphill (max intensity)

Tue, 9.11

a) 50' easy

b) 20' warm-up + 6 circuits for strength endurance

Wed, 10.11

a) 30' easy + 6 x 5' fast recovery 3' easy

b) 40' easy + gym

Thu, 11.11

a) 1 hr 10' with short variations of speed after 20'

b) 30' easy + exercises of rapidity : 10 x 30" skipping very fast + 10 x 20" heels-to-buttocks very fast + 10 x 50m running very fast in high frequency (very short strides)

Fri, 12.11

a) 1 hr 10' moderate run

b) 40' easy + gym

Sat, 13.11

a) 30' easy + 8 km fast (about 3'02" / km)

b) 30' easy + stretching

Sun, 14.11

40' easy

Mon, 15.11

a) 1 hr 10' moderate run

b) 30' easy + 4 x 120m sprint uphill + 10 x 80m sprint uphill (max intensity)

Tue, 16.11

a) 1 hr easy

b) 20' warm-up + 6 circuits for strength endurance (rec. 6')

Wed, 17.11

a) 30' easy + 6 x 4' fast rec. 3' easy + 3 x 2' fast rec. 2' easy

b) 40' easy + gym

Thu, 18.11

a) 1 hr 10' with short variations of speed

b) 30' easy + exercises of explosivity : 10 sets of 10 squat-jumps + 10 sets of 30 sagittal splits + 10 sets of 5 jumps with knees to the chest

Fri, 19.11

a) 1 hr 10' moderate run

b) 40' easy + gym

Sat, 20.11

a) 30' easy + 8 km fast (under 3' / km)

b) 30' easy + stretching

Sun, 21.11

Rest

For your info :

* Easy run is between 4' and 4'20"/km (6'20" - 6'50" Mile)

* Moderate is between 3'20" and 3'40" (5'20" - 5'55")

* Fast is between 2'50" and 3'10" (4'32" - 5'05")

** Circuit for strength endurance :

60m sprint

40m skipping

60m sprint

40m bounding

60m sprint

40m heels-to-buttocks

100m sprint

10 squat-jumps on the place (recovery 6')

Wow. Thank you for the responses!

Renato,

After this training block, what is changed in training? Are volume or pace increased? Or does the cycle repeat itself? Thank you for your response.

Never a cycle MUST be repeated. We have to change, depending on the goals. For example, in this case we don't want to run indoor. I have a plan for improving during this winter both STRENGTH and ENDURANCE. I need that the athlete can continue to have the same level of endurance (we speak of an athlete able running 10000m in 28'), so some training, from January, with a group of HM runners is ok. But at the same time I need to build a different ability in changing speed quickly (at the moment the athlete doesn't have this ability), working on the neuromuscular system.

For doing this, we need time. Never we have to lose what we have, and at the same time we have to increase the level where we are insufficient.

Remember that the first FUNDAMENTAL PERIOD of training (in this case from beginning of November till the last of January, lasting 3 months) is built with the phylosophy to look at the INTERNAL LOAD. This means that we have to work for increasing the qualities, that only during the special period can be assembled together for creating the PERFORMANCE. So now, also in Kenya, somebody can use more scientific approaches, and to speak about "Kenyan training" is something not only restrictive, but also wrong.

Renato,

What does the athlete do in the gym, if you don't mind telling us?

Also, I notice the lack of a long run. Do you believe that the 70min moderate run is enough for a 1500/mile athlete?

Thanks

bump

In the gym (because is the first time he uses) at the moment he has sessions of about 1 hr 20', with general exercises, mixing flexibility, articular mobility, reactivity, coordination, strength (at the beginning without weights, after one month with very light weights). But the final goal is to move to postural exercises, learning to use proprioception.

About the long run, personally I don't believe in the effect of long moderate run for long time. This has the only effect to be a support for the SPECIFIC AEROBIC POWER, that for a specialist of 1500m can be developed running fast for 6-10 km, not at moderate pace for 1 hr 30' or more (we speak about one of the best in the world, not of a beginner).

So, in the program you can see 8 km fast (the third time already under 3' per km), that arrive till 12 km at the end of January, with the participation in some local Cross, too.

This is the real support for the beginning of the SPECIAL training, when we start to run long intervals on the track, at a speed more close to the speed of the race (for an athlete running 3'30", that is 2'20" per km, 90% of the speed is 2'34" for 1000m, and we go to develop SPECIAL AEROBIC POWER running, for example, 10 km about this speed, alternating intervals and recovery long the same time of the test : for example, after 1000m in 2'35" we use 2'30" of recovery, after an 800m in 2'02" we use 2', after a mile in 4'10" we use 4').

What about your Gym work what you do fro that? Olympic Lifts??/ And a complete random question of all coaches in the world who is the greatest 800m/1500m coach in your opinion????

Renato Canova wrote:

For example, this is the current program of an athlete (in my group):

Renato, thanks for this. It's very interesting.

I notice you are paying a lot of attention to speed development - hill sprints, gym work, strength-endurance circuits. Is it always this much for your 1500 runners, or is it a particular focus with this athlete to try and develop more leg speed?

Renato, if you were to write out a year's training plan for 1500 meter runners including descriptions of all the ancillary work, I would absolutely buy it.

Daniels Running Formula is what - $20 or something, and it's a whole book. I'd pay twice that for Canova's Running Formula, and it wouldn't need to be an entire book, just about 20 pages - enough detail to get me through a full year's training plus any tips you think are relevant.

I don't know how confident you are about your English, but I'd gladly offer to help write it for the English-speaking audience if that's a concern.

Renato i have been wondering a long time about one question,

Say you have an athlete that easily gets injured at hard spots by mileage is it okay to do more of those SPECIFIC CONDITIONING runs each week (like those 8 kilometers at 2.50 - 3.10 you describe for the very pro). For example change the steady runs of 60 minutes in specific conditioning runs with maybe some 30 minutes of active recovery there after (pool work and such).

I am not talking of optimal training but just optimal base training for a runner that would otherwise get injured from mileage overuse.

Thanks

The best way to learn about Kenyan Running is to come to Kenya - I expect Renato will agree?

At The High Altitude Training Centre in Iten we have a program called The Kenya Experience where runners of any ability come to Kenya and learn the secrets of the stars!

See for yourself what makes these guys so fast, share the roads and the track with them and learn from the top names in Kenyan running.

We take you to the homes of the local runners and invite star guests into the camp to talk to you and answer your questions directly.

Kenya is a magical country and there is something truely special about the town of Iten which can't be described by any training schedule.

For details see

www.lornah.com

and visit the Kenya Experience page.

If you have any questions my email address is provided

I agree. The first step for running fast is to have an aggressive mentality about training. Too many times athletes from Europe, US and Oceania are prisoners of "perfect scientific training", looking at what is not important and forgetting what is fundamental. The "main dish", for every running event, is : RUN LONG (according to the length of your event) and FAST. After, we can put a lot of exercises, we can look at increasing strength, ability, coordination, flexibility etc., but don't forget that all the specialisms of ENDURANCE have in SPECIFIC ENDURANCE the key for improving. The problem is that the most part of training is TRAINING FOR HAVING THE POSSIBILITY TO TRAIN.

For example, is clear to everybody that, if I'm able to run (A) 3 times 800m in 1'52" with 6' recovery, and I run 1500m in 3'35", the day I'm able running (B) 3x800 in 1'50" with 5' recovery my performance becomes 3'32". The problem is : HOW CAN I IMPROVE MY TRAINING ? WHICH IS THE ROAD FOR GOING FROM POINT A TO POINT B ?

It's very easy to look at biomechanical improvement. The way of running is something we can see and control with several instruments. We can use cameras, computers, we can measure many particulars, having the right instruments.

But the base of the performance is TO IMPROVE THE BIOENERGETIC SYSTEM. And we cant see inside the body, so we need very high feeling with the athlete, and he needs very high feeling with himself. Forget the "official" physiology, top training with top athletes doesn't work as the books of physiology try to explain. Physiology is not an INDUCTIVE SCIENCE, but a DEDUCTIVE SCIENCE : like every experimental science, physiology can only investigate, and explain, what REALLY happens in our body.

The problem is that NEVER physiologists are able to test a full training program of a top champion.

When Shaheen beated the WR of steeple, many scientists as ked me to test him, and I refused. I explained that I was really interested in a collaboration, where the scientists COULD FOLLOW THE DEVELOPMENT OF MY TRAINING. Instead, they wanted to check THE FINAL PRODUCT : the athlete, using the normal protocols, FOR HAVING A STATIC PICTURE OF THE SITUATION OF THE WORLD RECORD HOLDER.

This is completely useful. TRAINING IS A DYNAMIC SCIENCE, we work for modifying the physiological parameters (otherwise there is no reason that an athlete can improve), and what we have to use in order to provoke this evolution is a road that we have to cover from the starting point till the end.

NEVER the physiological studies had top champions as models. If you makes a study with 3 different groups of students of your University, the study can be wonderful, but the animal is wrong. A top athlete is something different from the beginning, for a gift of God, Mama and Papa, and can train very much harder than a normal athlete, also because can have advantages in his final result that a normal athlete cant have.

For example, when I explain that, for top runners of 10000m, there is a MAX LASS (maximun lactate steady state) lasting about 17'/19', about 8-10 mml/l, this is something that physiologists cant accept, because THEY never tested (but some top coach instead well knows). When we explain that after a Marathon, run with cold, rain and some downhill, some athlete can arrive with 18,000 of CPK (when normal values are about 200, and if you are around 700/800 sometimes a doctor send you to the Hospital for a test, fearing you can have an heart attack), a doctor doesn't believe, because in the normal literature nothing like this exists. BUT THIS HAPPENED, and the athlete didn't die, simply had to recover for about 3 months.

So, we look to much to what other people wrote, and what is written automatically becomes THE TRUTH. Instead, Kenyan athletes don't know anything, and have the mentality of an EXPLORER. If you want to overtake your limits, YOU NEED TO GO IN A DARK AREA, NOT YET KNOWN, for discovering till where you can arrive. If you feel protected inside what you are able to do, YOU NEVER CAN OVERTAKE YOUR LIMITS.

And, in our Society, we are the one creating our limits.

Mr. Canova, I asked on another topic a question to you, anyway, maybe you can answer here: what is your opinion about using simulated high-altitude conditons at sea level (e.g altitude tent)?

We had long experiences about training in altitude, using several combinations :

a) Living in altitude and training in altitude

b) Living in altitude and training at sea level

c) Living at sea level and training in altitude

d) Living in one altitude and training in different altitudes (for example, living at 2000m, training sometimes at 2500, sometimes at 1500)

We didn't have very important results using the formula b).

Therefore, since sleeping and also living in the simulated high altitude conditions, but training at sea level, is exactly the same experience,personally I think this solution completely useless, because what can help the athletes in running faster is their TRAINING IN ALTITUDE, using the lack of Oxygen for increasing the Aerobic Power, that doesn't increase training at sea level.