What IS Renato Canova's Training Philosophy?

Here are a couple of links that were kindly added in the "roundtable" thread that explain it. One is a broad look and the other is a detailed look at his program:

http://tinyurl.com/4x6obmj

http://runningwritings.blogspot.com/2011/09/peaking-with-renato-canova_28.html

Test

imo, rc is great at knowing his athletes...he basically uses lydiard but he is a genius in the sharpening phase, individualizing workouts for different runners, maximizing each`s potential.

It's very confusing. Someone who believes he understands Canova will post here and clear it up for about an hour, till another person who believes he understands Canova totally disagrees with the first guy.

I've tried and I can't get clarity on his training method. God bless those who understand. It's like higher math, eventually I just had to stop trying to interpret a page full of technical nuance and study something where the meaning was evident to me.

He gets the worlds best athletes. A JV high school coach could probably get similar results. Run, run hard, repeat.

No secrets in running. You just do it.

Nabisco wrote:

he basically uses lydiard

What asyllum did you escape from recently.

Thanks for that second link, hadn't seen that before, some very interesting stuff. I had seen the first one, but even on the thread that was posted on there were people saying he got some principles very wrong and stuff.

AthleticsIllustrated wrote:

Here are a couple of links that were kindly added in the "roundtable" thread that explain it. One is a broad look and the other is a detailed look at his program:

http://tinyurl.com/4x6obmjhttp://runningwritings.blogspot.com/2011/09/peaking-with-renato-canova_28.html

I believe that Renato has already said that the training in that first link is Claudio Berardelli training, not Renato Canova training.

In fact, you can see the original thread started by Renato here:

Duncan Kibet and James Kwambai : the role of Claudio Berardelli, and analysis of something new in training

Does anyone have logs for one of his athletes for an entire year? Not for copying obviously, but for observing how the whole thing goes together, and the transition between phases. Failing this, any FUNDAMENTAL phase logs? There are plenty of special/specific logs on this site, but very few fundamental. How would one go about designing a fundamental phase for themselves?

I don't want to bring Lydiard into this for the same reasons as in other threads, but one thing he does do very well (or at least, is said in some lydiard foundation presentations) is explain all of his phases and then explain how to build your program. Something like this from Canova would be brilliant.

canova coach philosophy - make those black slaves work hard to 'bring me the money!' for a few years before they be burned out

His philosophy is: Find the best runners (re-locate to Kenya). Then coach them and convince everyone you are the best coach...Even though the Ethiopians are still better at the top end.

Claim to be the coach of anyone you ever watched at a track meet.

the one thing I have not been able to find is a 6-month or 1-year training log for one (or ideally several) athletes. Renato has generously posted many training logs on LRC and elsewhere, but they are usually 10 or 12 week blocks, so you only get a snapshot at one or two of the "phases" of his training.

To be able to fart like an east African.

To be able to drop a turd in Americans compression socks that don't do anything.

That book (green Iaaf) about his methods is also just about impossible to read and understand. I know Jenkins and others have advocated getting it but I can't understand it for the life of me and im a fairly intelligent guy.

Would be great to get some input from Northern Star, or Canova himself.

If you are looking for a resource from Renato himself on his training methods, the most concise and comprehensive post he's made has been this one:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=1363335&page=1

where he talks about all of the paces used in training, converted into paces for a 15:00 5k runner. Very useful and informative, especially when you are trying to understand why runner so-and-so is doing repeats at 105% of race pace or whatever.

As mentioned above, I've written two articles on Canova's training philosophy, or rather my interpretation of it—neither have been vetted by Renato himself, though I tried to email him about it a while ago. I've received a few vague criticisms of them, but nothing specific (i.e. you got [X] wrong, Renato thinks [Y]." Renato DID write a booklet for the IAAF on marathon training in the early 90s, but I don't have it, and Renato himself has said he'd change half of what is in it based on what he's learned about marathoning in the past several years (and certainly, times have changed since then).

I found your nine-page article on Canova's training to be incredibly helpful. It gives you the bird's eye view with enough structure to keep you on track but enough wiggle room to allow adaptation for an athlete's individual needs.Thanks.