BREAKING: G. Dibaba before 2015 Worlds 4x1500 in 4:06, 4:05, 4:03, and 4:02!!!!!!

Holy crap, that is INSANE (if true).

How did you amend her training in that first year?

It was very hard to explain to her at the start, so I used a translator. Now she speaks good English but she is very shy. I was trying to see what works, but now I’ve found out she needs the mileage – to keep slim and also because she has natural speed, so I don’t think she needs any coach to give her a lot of speed.

This year we haven’t done speed and she’s running faster, so the key has been keeping up mileage and doing good repeats. You will have seen the workout, 6x800m, but [how it was reported] was not exactly how she did it. She did six: 2:04, 2:03, 2:04, 2:03, 2:02, 1:58.

What was the recovery?

Four minutes, not two minutes, as they said. There was another workout, the last one before going to Beijing: 4x1500m in 4:06, 4:04, 4:03, 4:02 with 4-5 minutes of recovery. She trains with guys who are running 3:40, 3:42. Many people question how can she run 3:50. I say that’s not the point; she can run faster.

Read more at

http://www.athleticsweekly.com/featured/jama-aden-interview-coaching-genzebe-dibaba-38335/#EHAYIFUXIRSF17G6.99

I don't agree with your conversion to a male miler's workout.

Relative to her 1500 best, those times are:

93.40%, 93.48%, 94.35%, 94.78%

So it would be like Kiprop (3:48.50) running:

4:05, 4:04, 4:02, 4:01

Or it would be like Brenda Martinez running:

4:18, 4:17, 4:14, 4:13 for 1500 repeats. Seems doable to me.

That is the workout of a 13:30 5000 runner, or a 3:37 1500 runner. Must be some spicy turtle soup they have for dinner.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

I don't agree with your conversion to a male miler's workout.

Relative to her 1500 best, those times are:

93.40%, 93.48%, 94.35%, 94.78%

So it would be like Kiprop (3:48.50) running:

4:05, 4:04, 4:02, 4:01

Or it would be like Brenda Martinez running:

4:18, 4:17, 4:14, 4:13 for 1500 repeats. Seems doable to me.

Surely you don't think kiprops mile ability is only 3:48...

It would be like kiprop running 4x1500 in (roughly):

3:36 3:35 3:34 3:33

Correct me if I'm wrong... I am doing this math on my phone as I eat lunch

Seems more like what a sub. 3:45 guy would do.

Seb Coen wrote:

G. Dibaba did what would be the equivalent of a guy doing 4xmi at 3:52, 3:51, 3:50, and 3:49 for the Mi. How is this humanly possible? They looked up what it took to win World's previously and had her do 1500 repeats at that pace.

Again, how is this posisble?

sure, you can run 425 mile repeats if you are capable of 407.

It's the workout for a 13:30 5000 runner or 3:37 1500. Nothing to see here....

Oh, the workouts you can do with ZERO out of competition testing.

Maybe you should rerun those splits for a 3:26 1500 runner... Just a suggestion :)

Breaking?

It happened several months ago.

Macdaddy wrote:

Lenny Leonard wrote:

I don't agree with your conversion to a male miler's workout.

Relative to her 1500 best, those times are:

93.40%, 93.48%, 94.35%, 94.78%

So it would be like Kiprop (3:48.50) running:

4:05, 4:04, 4:02, 4:01

Or it would be like Brenda Martinez running:

4:18, 4:17, 4:14, 4:13 for 1500 repeats. Seems doable to me.

Surely you don't think kiprops mile ability is only 3:48...

It would be like kiprop running 4x1500 in (roughly):

3:36 3:35 3:34 3:33

Correct me if I'm wrong... I am doing this math on my phone as I eat lunch

Using the same percentages and Kiprop's 1500 PR, you'd get closer to:

3:41, 3:40, 3:38, 3:37

Imagine that we were talking about a 4:30 miler in HS. That runner would be doing 4 x mile in:

4:50, 4:49, 4:46, 4:45

The other things to consider are:

1. You'd want to reduce the duration of the repeats because there is a big difference between doing 4 min intervals and 5 minute intervals. Maybe 1200s at 3:38, 3:37, 3:35, 3:34 would be more comparable.

2. With 4-5 minutes rest, this is not a 5K pace workout. I would assume she would run closer to 14:10-14:20 based on this workout.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Macdaddy wrote:

Surely you don't think kiprops mile ability is only 3:48...

It would be like kiprop running 4x1500 in (roughly):

3:36 3:35 3:34 3:33

Correct me if I'm wrong... I am doing this math on my phone as I eat lunch

Using the same percentages and Kiprop's 1500 PR, you'd get closer to:

3:41, 3:40, 3:38, 3:37

Imagine that we were talking about a 4:30 miler in HS. That runner would be doing 4 x mile in:

4:50, 4:49, 4:46, 4:45

The other things to consider are:

1. You'd want to reduce the duration of the repeats because there is a big difference between doing 4 min intervals and 5 minute intervals. Maybe 1200s at 3:38, 3:37, 3:35, 3:34 would be more comparable.

2. With 4-5 minutes rest, this is not a 5K pace workout. I would assume she would run closer to 14:10-14:20 based on this workout.

We're talking about a female runner doing 1500 repeats at 13:30 pace on 4 rest. With each individual split based on the time it would take to win the world championships.

I believe these splits are most accurate when it comes to Kiprop doing a similar workout with the same rational.

3:36 3:35 3:34 3:33

Truly insane! I used the mercier scoring tables and got 3:35, 3:34, 3:33, 3:32. which is very comparable to the 3:36-3:33

Didn't Kennedy do 4 x mile at faster than 5K pace with 1 min rest? How is it so far fetched that Dibaba does 4 x 1500 about 10-12 seconds faster than 5K pace with such a long recovery?

Also, here is my math of how I got the Kiprop times:

Dibaba's best is 3:50.07 per 1500m.

4:06 for 1500m is 93.52% of her best. (230.07/246 = 93.52%) In other words, she would cover 93.52% of a 1500 (1402 meters) in 3:50.07 running at that pace.

The other splits would be 93.91%, 94.68%, 95.07% of max. I had entered in her PR incorrectly before, but I just checked it on her IAAF profile.

So for Kiprop:

3:26.69 / 93.52% = 3:41.0

3:26.69 / 93.91% = 3:40.1

3:26.69 / 94.68% = 3:38.3

3:26.69 / 95.07% = 3:37.4

You can't really use the Mercier tables when comparing these two athletes, since Dibaba's 1500 best converts to a 3:24.3 1500m for men. The only logical way is to compare them to their own personal maxes.

And who knows what her 1500 or 5k fitness really was at that time.

2nd lap in Monaco was 64. Price was hurting. Probably not the best pace maker on that day.

Also from Aden in the article

This year we haven’t done speed and she’s running faster, so the key has been keeping up mileage and doing good repeats. You will have seen the workout, 6x800m, but [how it was reported] was not exactly how she did it. She did six: 2:04, 2:03, 2:04, 2:03, 2:02, 1:58.

What was the recovery?

Four minutes, not two minutes, as they said.

Another from Aden speaking on World Records

In the 5000m it’s possible. In Paris she ran 14:15, and it was cat and mouse. The problem is to get a pacemaker right. You have to get one good enough to run the race, to 3000m at least, and it’s not easy to find that.

Looks like the training is just reducing the workouts to more quality sessions instead of 3 a week. Stay away from speed work because she has the turnover already, and build the mileage up.

Pretty simple. You want to run fast, train fast.

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Didn't Kennedy do 4 x mile at faster than 5K pace with 1 min rest? How is it so far fetched that Dibaba does 4 x 1500 about 10-12 seconds faster than 5K pace with such a long recovery?

Source? I've never heard of such a workout and I don't believe it's possible.

So lets say the workout represents her 5k fitness. (4xmi on 4min rest is certain a 5k predictor) Does that mean she is in closer to 13:30 shape and her 1500 potential is closer to lower 3:40's?

Lenny Leonard wrote:

Didn't Kennedy do 4 x mile at faster than 5K pace with 1 min rest?

No.

How much rest? Galen supposedly did 3 x mile in about 4:02, but with 15 minutes rest. That's about 3k pace. 4:02-4:06 might be a good 3k pace for Dibaba. With long enough rest it could maybe happen.

Bob Kennedy on Duathlon.com:

"The way Kim coaches and the way the Kenyans train, when we have a session, he will say do 5×800 meters with 2 minutes recovery. There is no time gage. Kim’s philosophy for that time of the year is to run as fast as you can and finish the session. If it is within 10 days of a major championship, he will tell me to run the workout but don’t run it any faster than 2:04. Otherwise, we’ve been out there running 1:57′s for 800 meters. Last year we did a session and it was 1600, 1200, 800, and 400, with 3 minutes between each interval, and it was myself, Daniel Komen, and Paul Koech, and the other top guys. And these are my times: I ran 3:57, 2:56, 1:55, and 55. And I was kind of in the middle of the pack. Komen ran about 3:54, 2:53, 1:54, and 55. Not many people would ever conceive of training at that speed. "