BerlinMarathon:detailed analysis by Renato Canova

Renato, can you comment on what exactly Wilson does in the weight room? Heavy weights, low reps or more stabilizing/core exercises? Or cross training like ergometer/bicycle?

Absolutely no heavy weights, in spite of cross-fitters can say, this type of training is not only useless, BUT VERY DANGEROUS for all the distance runners (including specialists of 1500m !).

The fact is that a distance runner needs to have STRENGTH ENDURANCE, and this can grow only with big volume of repetitions using very light weights, or better, the weight of the body.

The problem is not to increase the maximal strength, but the percentage of the strength they can use for the time of the competition.

Don't forget that, when we speak about ENDURANCE, this is a metabolic and bioenergetic problem, not only a biomechanical problem.

We must have focus in training mitochondrions, not only the fast fibers and the nervous system.

Too many times we see confusion in what "specific" training means.

Absolutely no heavy weights, in spite of cross-fitters can say, this type of training is not only useless, BUT VERY DANGEROUS for all the distance runners (including specialists of 1500m !).

The fact is that a distance runner needs to have STRENGTH ENDURANCE, and this can grow only with big volume of repetitions using very light weights, or better, the weight of the body.

The problem is not to increase the maximal strength, but the percentage of the strength they can use for the time of the competition.

Don't forget that, when we speak about ENDURANCE, this is a metabolic and bioenergetic problem, not only a biomechanical problem.

We must have focus in training mitochondrions, not only the fast fibers and the nervous system.

Too many times we see confusion in what "specific" training means.

Renato Canova wrote:

The fact is that a distance runner needs to have STRENGTH ENDURANCE, and this can grow only with big volume of repetitions using very light weights, or better, the weight of the body.

Maybe we have a different understanding of "very light weights". I saw a video of Haile Gebreselassie with pink dumbbells, probably weighing 2-5 lbs (less than 3 KG). When I think of bodyweight training, I think of pushups (= 66% of bodyweight equivalent of the bench. E.g. a 100 lbs kenyan doing 20 pushups would be the equivalent of him doing 20 bench presses with 130 lbs (or 66 KG). But this is not "very light weights" for me.

When you factor in other BW exercises like the chinup or even pullup it gets even harder - this is certainly not "very light weights" anymore.

So would you be able to explain in a bit more details? Thanks.

So - from what we understand about Salazar he has his athletes doing some quite heavy weights/low reps. This seems to work pretty well for Mo Farah. But Renato says that this is a bad idea. Obviously 5k/10k are not quite the same as the marathon, but are they that different as far as this kind of thing goes?

his reading comprehension is fine, but he is a troll:)