Regarding Shaheen, he started the preparation from the beginning of November, developing 3 weeks of long run, with a pick of 1 hr 48:00 (about 32 km) during the last week of the month. After this, we used a period of 5 weeks (till the end of December) for developing strength endurance (twice a week there are short sprints uphill, till 20 times, 80m long, and once a week repetitions of about 400m climbing very hard, in times about 1:30 with recovery 4:00 because the intensity is very high) and long endurance at high intensity. During this period, the general volume of km isn't very high (about 140-150 a week), but the speed is always fast (never slower than 3:30 / 3:20 per km, in very hilly courses at 2400m of altitude). We tried to train for the first 5 days of the week with 2 sessions very close (5:30 and 10:00 in the morning) in order to increase the specific capacity of training hard. In this case, both the sessions were fast, and never there was an easy session for recovering. On Saturday we used only one session (normally long and fast run, about 22-24 km with last 5 km under 3:00 per km), in the early morning, recovering from 10:00 in the morning till Monday at 5:30 (always there is rest on Sunday).
During the period of Christmas, Shaheen had some problems, that probably were connected with the two sessions very close. So, I decided to leave this type of training, coming back on the normal system(two sessions, one at 6:00 in the morning and another at 16:00 in the afternoon). In any case, Shaheen continues to run fast.
From 20th of Jan (one week after Edinburgh cross) we started to use mixed fartlek (for example, 2 x 6:00 + 3 x 4:00 + 4 x 2:00 + 6 x 1:00 fast for a global working time of 38:00, recovering 2:00 jogging), and now we have to move to different type of fartlek (10 x 1:00 rec. 1:00 + 10:00 very hard + 10 x 30.0 rec. 30.0 + 6:00 very hard), sometimes using also hills of different length, but always at high intensity. During the last two weeks before WCCCh, my fartlek with all the athletes becomes surprise training, with the athletes running very fast when I press the clacson of the car, but not knowing how long they have to run, and how long they can recover.
The goal of Shaheen is to run well in short cross in World Championships. The same goal is for the Qatari Team, already 2nd last year.
Regarding Kwalia, he developed a good work of long endurance. At the moment, he is yet heavy when has to use agility. We have to start now to work in this direction, after two tests in Caceres last Sunday and in Diekirch next Sunday, that are the only competitions before WCCCh.