I want to clarify some points.
1) I'm not interested to impress somebody with the results of the athletes I coach. I always coached with the ideas to help every athlete to reach his best possible results.
This happened when I was in Italy (for who doesn't know, I'm yet the coach with the higher number of athletes in the Italian National Team, in all the age groups), and happens now I stay long time in Kenya.
2) My behavior is very simple : when I speak with some athletes, of every level, I explain them which kind of qualities they have, and which type of results they can achieve. I explain also what they have to do, according to my knowledge, for reaching those results. Of course, this means a type of training with the following targets : continuity, graduality, full focus, disciplin, motivation, loyalty with other people and with themselves. This means no shortcuts, no doping, no excuses.
Nobody obliges to follow what I say with a gun : it must be their own choice, also because I never go to recruit some athletes, but are the athletes coming to me.
3) After speaking in this way with everybody comes to me asking to be coached, I give two different options, depending on the future value of the athletes, according my ideas :
a) if the athlete has, in my opinion, the possibility to become a real champion, I ask him to follow very strictly what I plan for him, but...
b) if the athlete has the attitude for becoming a good athlete only, I try to convince him in having a more soft approach, BECAUSE IN THIS CASE THE SACRIFICES (that are the same for a top champion or for an amateur) CANT PRODUCE A FINAL RESULT ABLE TO JUSTIFY WHAT ELSE YOU DON'T DO IN YOUR LIFE.
4) This means that I'm the first knowing that my final system is not the right system for normal people. In my life, when I was still in Italy till 2003, I prepared programs for amateurs that came to me for some advice (of course without asking money, JimE), and they improved dramatically, the most part of times REDUCING their mileage, but of course CHOSING the most important workouts to do.
5) So, forget the intensity in extension as normal practice for normal people. However, some of the principles I use with top runners work very well with everybody. These principles are :
a) Training is the answer of the body to some stimulus. Without stimulus there is no real training, and it's not possible to improve : so, WE NEED TO GIVE SOME STIMULUS AT THE LEVEL OF THE ATHLETE IN ORDER TO HAVE A REACTION PRODUCING IMPROVEMENT
b) Stimuli can be in two directions only :
1- Extension
2- Intensity
This means that to repeat a lot of times the same training doesn't give any stimulus, and without stimulus we have ADAPTATION
c) Adaptation is the main ENEMY for every type of improvement. It's like a schoolboy who, because was good in the class 4, wants to repeat again all his life instead using what he learnt for going to class 5, and after, for example, to University. So, amateurs are students finishing their education at the end of primary school or secondary school (depending on their level), professionals are students finishing University, top champion are students with the specialization.
At the same time, teachers of primary school do one very important job, that is not the same of teachers of secondary, of University, of Specialization. It's not one job is better than the other, but of sure IS DIFFERENT.
d) If somebody asks me WHICH SYSTEM I use with the bests in the World in Marathon (Moses Mosop, Wilson Kipsang, Abel Kirui, Jonathan Maiyo, Florence Kiplagat, Mary Keitany, Lucy Kabuu and several Ethiopians), I explain the phylosophy I use with them. I have a group working with my phylosophy, we work together and try to understand what we have to do in training, looking at the reality at the moment. For example, preparing Olympics, we had to face several problems with the best Kenyan athletes, because the time from London marathon was not enough for recovering and using the full plan we normally used. We understood, already during the preparation, that the shape of Wilson Kipsang and Mary Keitany (followed by my disciple Gabriele Nicola) was not at the same level of the first London. Consequently, we had to change trying something without the same intensity of before. Abel Kirui, who already had experience in preparing a big Championship in Summer, had less problems in this direction.
If somebody asks me a full plan for building a marathon runner from the beginning of his career, of course my answer is different.
If somebody asks me which is the training I used with, for example, Thomas Longosiwa during the last 2 months of preparation, I show the training he did. Nothing to do with what he did in 2004, when started working with me in Iten AS PACER OF HIS WIFE (marathon runner for 2:31).
e) But, everytime I answer to questions related with the top runners, there is a discussion about the system for everybody. This is ridiculous, because are two different things. Jim can be impressed by the coach starting with a lot of children without talent, personally I'm more impressed by a researcher able to find a new solution for some sickness than by a teacher of primary school. And this for a very easy reason : in the world there are plenty teachers of primary school, and very few researchers. So, we don't discuss if the researcher is more intelligent than a teacher, that's not the point. We don't discuss if the researcher had the opportunity and the teacher didn't have for studying at that level. WE EXPLAIN FACTS.
f) Jim, I don't know if you can have the preparation for becoming a top coach of top athletes in Kenya : may be yes, mey be not. The fact is yourself explain you are not interested, because there is no the same money you can earn in your normal job, you have a good family at home and, finally, you are happy about your life.
I also am happy about my life, and this is exactly the reason because I went Kenya, after leaving my position of Technical Scientific Director in Italy (I was in Italian Federation from 1969 till 2002, and I couldn't anymore continue with a Federation where, year after year, the level of passion and competence and knowledge of the Counsilors continued to decrease, but the level of arrogance to increase). This fact was a choice of life, not only because in Kenya there were the best talents, but also because I felt happy to do something for people having nothing, opposite to our young boys and girls, the most part without ideals and motivations, because their parents already provided for everything, not teaching them the "taste" of conquering something with their own strengths.
g) At the end, I see you don't know absolutely anything about Africa. Yes, there is a lot of talent, but to coach an African is very much more difficult than to coach a European or an American. We have to teach them the base of professionalism they don't know, we have to educate people around them, we have to fight with wrong traditions, we have to face continue emergencies. I work 15 hours per day when I'm in Kenya, not only for following the athletes, but for meeting them in their houses, helping them in solving their problems, organising easy things for big groups, taking care of their daily problems. Working with European or American athletes, all these problems don't exist.
h) And finally, going back to the technical point, I can say that, without any doubt, if an amateur puts, in his plan, some long run a little bit faster than before, and a little bit longer ; if uses more long tests at marathon pace ; if uses some sprint uphill, and is able to use also the right recover (better longer than shorter), he can improve his PB very clearly. Try using "granum sali", and see the results. And remember that, in any case, the plan for amateurs or young runners is not a miniature of the plan of great champions, such as a Toyota Yaris is not a miniature of a Formula One.