Renato Canova's hill sprints

You sprint on the flat for 12 - 15 seconds.

anyone?

Sounds like Lydiard style

Renato usually has his runners do something like:

40' easy followed by ten 100 meter uphill sprints on a 15 to 25 percent grade, done at maximum speed with a fast start, and with two to three minutes recovery.

Don't think Lydiard did it like this. I'm pretty sure he preferred hill bounding, but I could be wrong.

different than lydiard, i think hudson does this with ritz, kinda sounds like what ritz's mention in his prerace interview here on letsrun

Hudson has been doing these for a long time. He has kept refining them with Canova's influence. I did them with him for many years.

The first training that every long distance runner can use, good for every period of preparation, is to sprint from 60 to 100m climbing. Speed is a quality depending of nervous capacity and muscle strenght. Nervous capacity is the capacity of high explosive concentration, thet you need for recruiting the higher number of fibres of a muscle. Strenght of a muscle is the capacity of producing tension, and speed of contraction.

Our muscles don't work like the engine of a car. If you have an engine able to do 5000 revolutions reaching 180 km of speed, when you go at 100 km of speed you use only 3000 revolutions, but the engine works in the same way.

Instead, if we have a muscle made with 100 fibres, we use the most part of the fibres during max. speed, and only a part of these reducing the speed. For example, jogging you can use 20% of your fibres, ALWAYS THE SAME.

So, when you have to use speed, you are not able to use the percentage of fibres normally resting. These fibres are less strong, but also unable to receive in short time the order of the brain.

Running always at slow speed, you de-fuse your nervous system regarding the fibres that you don't use normally.

So, the best way for training not the speed, but the CAPACITY OF NERVOUS SYSTEM, basic for the speed, is to do short efforts at max.intensity, like short sprints uphill. You must interpret this work in explosive way, like a sprinter, not using progressive speed, because the first aim is to develop the capacity of the brain.

Running for a time of 10/15 sec, you cannot do too much lactate. You can use 1min / 1:30 of recovery, so lactic acid can be eliminated almost totally.

But what you have to remember is that THIS IS A TRAINING FOR THE NERVOUS SYSTEM, needing max intensity, so recovery times are not very important.

Too many times, long runners give big importance to recovery times also in type of training not having the goal of improving endurance, but basic nervous and muscular qualities. This is a mistake, when we are speaking about RAPIDITY we are speaking about a quality, when we are speaking about SPEED we are speaking about the USE of that quality. And, for a long runner, we must train the basic quality before the practical expression of this.

So, is not true that long run can reduce speed, and that speed can reduce endurance. Training is what you do, not what you don't do, and you don't improve your speed IF YOU DON'T USE SPEED, at the same way you don't improve your endurance IF YOU DON'T USE ENDURANCE.

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The gradient of the sprints uphill that I use with all my athletes is about 15%, but is possible to use different hills. Instead, I don't agree that we can use the run on the sand with the same goal. We try to develop the reactivity of feet, because thru this quality is possible to develop the speed. For reacting very well with your feet, you need a HARD GROUND, not able to absorb the elasticity of the feet of the athlete. Instead, if you run on a soft ground, like sand, your feet cannot work in elastic way, and you reduce this quality. You can use run on the beach for increasing the strenght of your quadriceps, but is a mistake for very elastic runners.

Always I try to develop the elasticity of my runners. So, I prefer to use hard ground and good gradient climbing.

All my marathon runners and athletes of other events use this type of training.

Selina Kosgei, winner in Paris with 2:24:32 in her first marathon (she has 2:03 in 800m, 15:01 in 5000 and won Commonwealth Games in 2002 with 31:27 on 10000m), started the preparation for her debut on 15th of January, in a camp in Kaptagat. She had to develop 3 qualities at the moment : long endurance, running once a week good pace with faster final (starting from 28 km, arriving to 38 12 days before the race) ; technque, as she runs with the bust to ahead and too low knees ; strenght, as she is very slim and needs more muscles for running fast also uphill.

So, I used 3 different type of training climbing :

for the first goal (long endurance), hilly courses with many hills up and down ;

for the second (technique) sprints of 100m with an easy gradient (about 6/8 %) trying to use a good frequency ;

for the third, sprints of 60/80m wit

Renato Canova

RE: Rodgers Rop Training 4/5/2004 3:57PM - in reply to Renato Canova Reply | Return to Index | Report Post

But the type of hill and of work depends also on the different attitude and morphology of the athletes.

During the last week end, I had many runners in HM very good. With every one I use sprints uphill, but in different way.

With ROBERT KIPCHUMBA (22 years, winning Stramilano in 60:22) and MARTIN SULLE (22 years also, bronze medal in WHMCh, 2nd in Stramilano in 60:29), that have a technique of agility, using very high frequency, I use sprints of 60/100m with a gradient of 15% about, where they push very hard, trying long steps, for developing strenght. At the end of every session (they use also 3 sessions, in some week, of sprints climbing) they go for a run of 400/500m climbing, at their max. speed (only once). This type of training has the task of using soon your strenght in direction of strenght-endurance.

With ENOCK MITEI (24 years, n. 4 in Stramilano in 60:32) and RICHARD YATICH (24 years, n. 9 in Lisbon in 60:31) I never go under 100m of sprint, but use a hill of about 8/10 % lasting 20/25 sec. They tryi to improve their frequency, seeking more rapidity with a good reaction in their feet, that are not very elastic.

With JOHN KORIR (23 years, n. 5 in Stramilano in 60:47) I use normally very short sprints of about 40m, with a gradient of more than 30% (ramps), only for improving strenght (but too many times he doesn't use because in Military Camp or in Residential Camp before some World Championship nobody goes for short sprint). Before running 26:52 two years ago, John in St. Moritz used this type of sprints twice a week, also for reducing the lenght of his strides.

With SOLOMON BUSHENDICH (20 years, 2nd in Berlin in 60:42 in his first HM) I use only sprints from 200 to 300m, as Solomon is already very strong in his muscles, having short legs very strong. So, with him I try to develop STRENGHT-ENDURANCE, no strenght or rapidity, that already he has at good level. Solomon comes from the mountains, and his capacity in attacking hills is very high.

With DANIEL RONO (26 years, 4th in Berlin in 61:26) instead I want to develop strenght because he's very slim. Daniel uses short sprints climbing (about 15% of gradient) twice a week, going with very high knees and high frequency, as normally he uses too long strides.

So, I think that every type of hilly training can be good or less good depending on the necessities of every athlete.

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Regarding the question about the TECHNICAL WAY for running hills, I can say, from my experience, that :

a) If you have an athlete running with very short strides, using high frequency, he needs to increase his strength and must use sprints climbing more for muscles than for nervous system. In this case, he has to push using long strides, also if the speed is a little bit slower than running with more frequency.

b) If instead you have an athlete using long strides (and of course slow motions), is better that sprinting he uses the idea of "skipping", running with very high knees and trying to increase his frequency. For him, RAPIDITY is more important than strength.

At least, short hills have the goal of improving the DEFICIENCIES rather than improving the qualities that you already have. Using hills, and mixing length, gradient and technique of running, you can leave a mark on different qualities, from nervous reactivity to the capacity in recruiting fibres, training all what you need for having and using more strength.h a very big gradient (30%), that are "ramps" and help you to develop strenght.