About a year and a half ago, I started an article about Renato Canova's training methods in response to a thread he posted in concerning the Paris and Rotterdam marathons in 2009. After working on it off and on ever since, I have finally finished it and proofread it. Several people have requested that I post a thread about it, so here it is.
The article is in pdf form at the following Google Docs link:
I appreciate any discussion any feedback, and I hope you all enjoy it.
I should add that I was waiting to hear back from Renato Canova (I emailed him using the address he has posted on the forums a few times), but received no response. So I'll take the blame for any misinterpretations or mistakes.
I'm definitely going to give this a read. Thanks for all your work!
Good article but did you use his marathon book as a source? The training in there seems a good bit different than what the article states.
Don't forget about the short hill repeats and the circuits he frequently stresses the importance for.
Canova Fan wrote:
Good article but did you use his marathon book as a source? The training in there seems a good bit different than what the article states.
NS tossed in Canova at one end and got Daniels out the other, i.e. 100 percent Daniels, with Canova's name tossed in here and there, garbage best tossed away with the trash.
Great summary. I think it both captures what is different, and makes it all sound eminently sensible.
Let's hope the man himself reviews it and gives you feedback.
ditto the previous poster. Thanks for your hard work it is much appreciated.
Well done, thanks for this.
Page 5, you probably mean 53 seconds.
E_Minor wrote:
Page 5, you probably mean 53 seconds.
Nope it's 63 sec for 500m--same pace, but 100m further
Correct me if im wrong, it seems you mentioned that canova believe in not especially difficult workouts but more workouts that are moderate difficult just more frequent or compounded into one day and a greater variance in speeds?
So say a 5000m runner had previously been running under another coach with a peak of with 2 structured workouts and a tempo at 95mpw then switched to canova and dropped to 70mpw how many hard days would that individual have in the week?
If you could put this in a 7 or 14 week layout it would be greatly appreciated!
Correct me if im wrong, it seems you mentioned that canova believe in not especially difficult workouts but more workouts that are moderate difficult just more frequent or compounded into one day and a greater variance in speeds?
So say a 5000m runner had previously been running under another coach with a peak of with 2 structured workouts and a tempo at 95mpw then switched to canova and dropped to 70mpw how many hard days would that individual have in the week?
If you could put this in a 7 or 14 week layout it would be greatly appreciated!
I'm a bit hesitant to answer questions, as I'm only a "transmitter" of information. But to be brief:
It's more like starting with moderate workouts and progressing with them. 8x400 at 1500m pace with 2min recovery is not so hard, but once you've done that, you can do (for example) 8x500m or 8x600m at the same pace. Is this harder? Sort of.
Extension of race-specific speeds and modulation is the name of the game in the "specific period." Canova DOES believe in big stresses, but big recoveries following them. When we start talking about "runner x doing y miles a week, etc etc" I think we risk missing the forest for the trees.
As far as mileage, it's not so important in the specific phase. The only reason you go running at ALL between workouts is for recovery. The 2-3 days of regeneration running between workouts is NOT training, it's recovery. So whether you do 50 and 20 or 60 and 30 or 70 and 40 minutes of running on those days is probably not too relevant. But maybe Renato Canova himself will show up and tell me I've got it all wrong!
Northern Star wrote:
I'm a bit hesitant to answer questions, as I'm only a "transmitter" of information. But to be brief:
It's more like starting with moderate workouts and progressing with them. 8x400 at 1500m pace with 2min recovery is not so hard, but once you've done that, you can do (for example) 8x500m or 8x600m at the same pace. Is this harder? Sort of.
Extension of race-specific speeds and modulation is the name of the game in the "specific period." Canova DOES believe in big stresses, but big recoveries following them. When we start talking about "runner x doing y miles a week, etc etc" I think we risk missing the forest for the trees.
As far as mileage, it's not so important in the specific phase. The only reason you go running at ALL between workouts is for recovery. The 2-3 days of regeneration running between workouts is NOT training, it's recovery. So whether you do 50 and 20 or 60 and 30 or 70 and 40 minutes of running on those days is probably not too relevant. But maybe Renato Canova himself will show up and tell me I've got it all wrong!
Great work. Thanks. I hope Canova pops in.
Northern Star wrote:
I'm a bit hesitant to answer questions, as I'm only a "transmitter" of information. But to be brief:
It's more like starting with moderate workouts and progressing with them. 8x400 at 1500m pace with 2min recovery is not so hard, but once you've done that, you can do (for example) 8x500m or 8x600m at the same pace. Is this harder? Sort of.
Extension of race-specific speeds and modulation is the name of the game in the "specific period." Canova DOES believe in big stresses, but big recoveries following them. When we start talking about "runner x doing y miles a week, etc etc" I think we risk missing the forest for the trees.
As far as mileage, it's not so important in the specific phase. The only reason you go running at ALL between workouts is for recovery. The 2-3 days of regeneration running between workouts is NOT training, it's recovery. So whether you do 50 and 20 or 60 and 30 or 70 and 40 minutes of running on those days is probably not too relevant. But maybe Renato Canova himself will show up and tell me I've got it all wrong!
If you read the published training logs of Shaheen you can see that he was doing high mileage during peak track season.
Bumping in the interest of discussion and visibility.
Bumping in hopes of commentary from Coach Canova.
Wow, very good stuff, can't wait to really read it closely, thanks for making that available. And a bump for Canova's thoughts.
What do you think of this summary?