Eliud Kipchoge's workout this morning, 9 weeks before London Marathon. Stronger than prior to Berlin?

Postman Pat. Postman Pat. Postman Pat and his black and white cat.

+1

Mzungu, do you know what his training is like in the first 2-3 months of his buildup? Does he do a traditional base, or does he do interval work year round?

After a marathon they usually take 2 months relatively 'off' . This means around 150km/week and still, 30km long runs with some interval work&shorter repeats, however less intense and less overall volume. Eliud also travels around the world in this period for sponsorship, charity, motivational purposes. It's a relaxed approach with less emphasis on running, getting the mind and body fresh and hungry for a new training cycle.

After that phase they start building it up for the next 2 months, getting to 200km a week while maintaing a relatively low intensity of the training, slower km repeats or fast but not a lot of them, a bit slower progression long runs than these in the thread.

And about 10 weeks out from the goal race...it's business time.

Mzungu in Iten wrote:

After a marathon they usually take 2 months relatively 'off' . This means around 150km/week and still, 30km long runs with some interval work&shorter repeats, however less intense and less overall volume. Eliud also travels around the world in this period for sponsorship, charity, motivational purposes. It's a relaxed approach with less emphasis on running, getting the mind and body fresh and hungry for a new training cycle.

After that phase they start building it up for the next 2 months, getting to 200km a week while maintaing a relatively low intensity of the training, slower km repeats or fast but not a lot of them, a bit slower progression long runs than these in the thread.

And about 10 weeks out from the goal race...it's business time.

Does he take any time with no running? Does he put on weight? Thanks!

Thu, 28.03.2019

AM : 30km long progression run in 1h35min. ( undulating road course) + 2km wu/cd in around 10min each

5km splits: 17'22 / 16'20 / 16'09 / 15'38 / 15'01 / 14'48

PM : Rest

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Day's total 34km, altitude 2200m . Weather : AM +16C, cloudy

Note : Last km was completed in 2'53" . A big pack of athletes started the long run at a decent pace ( this time it was done on the roads as a change and also there were some thunderstorms in the area in the last 2 days ) . As the long run entered it's last 10k which were very fast, the pack broke into little groups. In the very diminished front group, Kipchoge&Kirui shared most of the pacing in the last 5k.

Also, as far as i know, he ran every day for as long as he can remember. Usually when he has a 10-12 hour flight in a particular day or feels under the weather, he just goes for a light jog (30min), but won't take a day off as it makes him feel stale.

One month to go now!

Mzungu in Iten wrote:

After a marathon they usually take 2 months relatively 'off' .

During which time a guy like Kawauchi will have pumped out another 3 high-level marathons, 2 half marathons and maybe some track races ....

Mzungu, thank you for all your posts. Very interesting.

I would love to know more about the ancillliary stuff he does around the running. I know it’s way less important. But drills, stretching, strength, weights etc.

I’ve seen him do step classes on YouTube.

I cannot thank you enough for here continued updates. So great!

Does not he take some days off (no running) after the race?

That’s 3:10 per k for 30k at altitude and over hills. That’s really not far off of marathon pace when you adjust for altitude and terrain.

That is super fast wrote:

That’s 3:10 per k for 30k at altitude and over hills. That’s really not far off of marathon pace when you adjust for altitude and terrain.

It doesn't really work like that, the adjustment isn't that significant. As Renato said, it's about 3-5"/km and due to the undulating course, maybe make it 6"/km as a whole, so basically a 30k at 2:09 pace. It was a relaxed run with a fast finish for Eliud ( equivalent of his MP ).

Also, to answer some questions, he does run in the days after a race. Easy, 40-50min runs, as they make the recovery quicker than no running at all.

They also use to do some stretching, weights, mobility exercises, however they are done especially in the first 2-4 months of a training cycles during some easy days. They sometimes stop to stretch for a few minutes between the warm-up and the start of a workout.

Mzungu, thank you so much for all of your contributions.

What shoes does Eliud wear in training? I’m assuming it’s different for track, fartlek, Long Run, etc.

As far as i know he likes to alternate them, so the feet get used to a variety of options.

Nike vaporfly 4% fk, Fly Fk, Peg Turbo, Peg 35, Vomero 14, Epic React, Streak 6.

SUPERIOR COACH JS wrote:

Not the perfect way to do the rest by forcing the body to cut the rest more and more instead of let the body decide how much rest is needed. Yes...I now it looks strange I criticize the training of the worlds best marathoner….but I see there is room for even more effective individual training. Cheers! And good luck to Eliud Kipchoge in London! ))) - The Magician-

This + 1!

Mzungu in Iten wrote:

As far as i know he likes to alternate them, so the feet get used to a variety of options.

Nike vaporfly 4% fk, Fly Fk, Peg Turbo, Peg 35, Vomero 14, Epic React, Streak 6.

Thanks (again) for all that you post.

Sat, 30.03.2019

AM Track: 3km warm-up(15min) + 5x3k w/3' recovery + 3km cool-down(16min) . Total : 24km in 1h29min

Splits: 8'46 / 8'49 / 8'39 / 8'35 / 8'25

3' recovery after each 3 km repetition (around 600m each time)

PM : 10km easy (approx 40min) - scheduled

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Day's total 34km, altitude 2200m/2400m . Weather : AM +17C, sunny PM +24C, sunny

Note : Good luck to Kamworor, R.Kwemoi, and all of Team Kenya today at the world xc champs.

Hi Mzungu,

Based on your last two training posts, the track workout in particular, would you say 2:02 is likely in London with good weather?

Also your thoughts on Kamworor's race today please!?