I was lucky enough in the lead up to the London Olympics 2012 to have spent two 6 week blocks at the High Altitude Training Centre (HATC) in Iten, Kenya, training for my own Belize marathon qualification. Team: 1 person. Coach: 0.
I am however probably the only person to have gone out there, trained intensively and gotten slower.
I used to do my track session at night, so 1) I wouldn't get run over by 100 kenyans which was similar to running alongside a stampede of buffalo and 2) to avoid the indignity of being so appallingly slow. My fellow nocturnal companions consisted of 3 drunk policeman cheering me on, 5 cows and several sheep that weren't going to move. I felt better after reading they didn't move for Mo either, so I don't take that personally.
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| Kamariny Stadium and the local track |
Two years later I can finally immerse from the trauma, breathe the oxygen and reflect!
In this small rural village, based at an altitude of 2400m, the standard of running is phenomenal, home to the best Kenyan elite marathoners and attracting the best international distance runners. My room at the training facility neighboured Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe and so many an evening was spent washing spandex in a bucket next to Mo. All quite surreal. Had I not have been so hypoxic, I might have been really star struck.
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| Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe |
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| The children all ran faster than I did! |
Some sources quote the number of sub 2:10 marathon runners in Iten around 150. In reality this may well be more, as many of these runners don't have enough money to go to races at sea level to actually log a time. This phenomenon where talent emerges from small global pockets is not unusual and you see it time and time again, where a number of very good athletes come from a very small demographic. I wonder if this is another example of the pareto principle commonly known as the 80/20 or law of the vital few states that 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes.
The theories of why the high altitude Kenyan runners are so good are vast and is a much debated issue. I can't answer that, but I expect it is a combination of socio-economic factors contributing to motivation, physiology, training environment, the fact that the pool of elite runners is so big and a million other reasons. Some will say "ugali".....hmmmmm that was not a treat. Boiled maize, which makes the staple of their diet. The belief system amongst the Kenyan runners is also second to none.
They believe unequivocally that if you are from the high altitude kalenjin tribe (close to 5 million people), you are or can be a good runner. The proof is all around them. If person A can do it, then absolutely they can.
In terms of marathon training what struck me is the training is hard. Long runs are not steady conversational paced affairs, they are fast! The terrain is also very hilly which is another onslaught to the senses. I think it's almost fair to say there is NO flat terrain in Iten and the surrounding area and I never had an easy run. Hills in 15% oxygen, even walking feels like hard work!
On the opposite side of the spectrum, when a kenyan runs slow, they run REALLY slow. This is their recovery runs.
One coach who I feel huge respect for having seen him in action is the Italian Coach Renato Canova, renowned for his application of sports science and making the good athlete, really good. Speaking in an almost incomprehensibly thick Italian accent and wearing shellsuit track-side fashion, he is passionate, knowledgeable and intuitive. He will say things like "when you stop learning, you are dead".
Canova lives and trains a small group of elite runners in Iten, but they come to him already seasoned. These are the best of the best elite Kenyan runners but the Canova methodology is to be feared.
There is a great quote by him where he says "the coach like the athlete needs to have the mentality of an explorer. He needs to be able to go into a dark area, just a little bit, so if he's wrong you can come back immediately" He is taking about intensity. "when you prepare an athlete for top shape, you are always on the border, if you don't go to 99% border of what you can do, it is not enough for winning but if you make a small mistake and go at 101% you are no longer able to continue for 6 months".
His take on the dark area, is the blackest of black of intensity. A place I am always curious about but somewhere to go with caution.
Below are the principles by which he trains the elite:
Pace is more important than distance
Canova advocates the importance of Intensity and Extension. Increasing the distance you can run at goal pace. He believes in the western training systems, too much emphasis is spent on building the aerobic system and that there is not enough development from this. The aerobic base is essential, but the % of higher intensity training is too low from traditional US/UK training systems. I expect probably about 30% of pre-season training is high intensity under his system.
"when you move to the marathon, the base of everything is mileage, but the base is the base - it is the basic situation for developing what will happen after. Instead (in the US) there is not development. The base remains the base. This is the mentality for an amateur"
He believes long runs much slower than marathon pace don't have the specificity to the race for the elite runner.
"What does a 2 hour easy run have to do with the marathon? -nothing. You must practice running at or around goal race place for long periods of time"
Traditional Periodization vs Canova's take on it
Pre-season training or the Global period
Traditionally the annual training plan, revolved around a long "base building phase" favoured by the New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard. A period of several months of high volume, low intensity mileage.
A different "Canova" approach is to focus on short speed and strength, then gradually increase the distance and decrease the speed through the training program. The three main components being:
Specific Competition phase
The emphasis on:
High intensity training has the goal of improving Lactic Capacity and Lactic resistance
What really seemed apparent was when the session is hard it is REALLY hard, but the recovery periods are also long, so these sessions may only occur every 5-6 days.
This block of intensity however, is built on a very solid aerobic base and he only trains very experienced runners who can tolerate that kind of intensity and can motivate themselves to go into the "dark area".
These are the blocks/phases that will feature in the annual plan
General resistance
Aerobic resistance
Basic aerobic endurance
Special aerobic endurance
Aerobic power
Lactic resistance
Lactic capacity
Lactic power
Speed
Lactic resistance and capacity often quoted in physiology text books as being the same, are however different because the final physiological goal is different. With lactic capacity, the goal is to stimulate a lot of lactic acid in a short time. With lactic resistance, the goal is to teach the body how to work with high accumulation. 20% of lactic acid can be used as an energy substrate, so if you produce more but you can also remove more, what remains can be used like energy.
Transferable learning and application to the non-kenyan load bearing athlete in the Brecon Beacons.
Whilst the average person would probably have an MI (heart attack), after attempting Canova's training there are some principles that can be applied for the non-elite kenyan in us.
Remember these kenyan runners have more than likely had a lifetime of building an endurance base before they get anywhere near Canova.
One of the take home messages I like about training for distance events is to stay as true as possible to the laws of specificity. In terms of the Fan Dance training, my particular goal is 3hr 45 for this 24km route so the value of doing high mileage at slower than goal pace is probably minimal. The trick is finding out how much high intensity training a person can tolerate and recover from and to truly ask if it is high intensity.
Looks like a balls out effort into the dark area then!!
References:
TANSER, T. (2008). More Fire: How to run the Kenyan Way. Yardley: Westholme Publishing.
WIRZ, J. (2006). Run to Win: The training secret of the kenyan runners. Oxford: Meyer and Meyer Sport.
Traditionally the annual training plan, revolved around a long "base building phase" favoured by the New Zealand coach Arthur Lydiard. A period of several months of high volume, low intensity mileage.
A different "Canova" approach is to focus on short speed and strength, then gradually increase the distance and decrease the speed through the training program. The three main components being:
- Hills - To develop Strength, power and recruitment of muscle fibers.
- Circuits - For explosiveness. Mixing plyometrics with moderately paced intervals. An example session could be 5 * 400m (half marathon pace), with 20-30s of jumping exercises performed in between each lap. 3-5 sets with long rest intervals in between each set.
- Short intervals e.g 25* 400m at 10k pace or 6 *1000m at 5K pace.
Specific Competition phase
The emphasis on:
- Fast Long runs e.g 17-24 mile runs at 95% goal marathon pace
- Marathon pace intervals with moderate rest. 3k-7k run at slightly above marathon pace but the recovery is perhaps only 1k at 30s per km slower than the intervals.
- High volume intervals. These intervals need to have benefits that are transferrable to the marathon so total distance is almost always 16K or above at 110% of marathon pace (10-15k pace). E.g (10 x 1600m @ 15K pace) or continuous intervals (20K of 1K at 15K pace/1K moderate)
High intensity training has the goal of improving Lactic Capacity and Lactic resistance
What really seemed apparent was when the session is hard it is REALLY hard, but the recovery periods are also long, so these sessions may only occur every 5-6 days.
This block of intensity however, is built on a very solid aerobic base and he only trains very experienced runners who can tolerate that kind of intensity and can motivate themselves to go into the "dark area".
These are the blocks/phases that will feature in the annual plan
General resistance
Aerobic resistance
Basic aerobic endurance
Special aerobic endurance
Aerobic power
Lactic resistance
Lactic capacity
Lactic power
Speed
Lactic resistance and capacity often quoted in physiology text books as being the same, are however different because the final physiological goal is different. With lactic capacity, the goal is to stimulate a lot of lactic acid in a short time. With lactic resistance, the goal is to teach the body how to work with high accumulation. 20% of lactic acid can be used as an energy substrate, so if you produce more but you can also remove more, what remains can be used like energy.
Transferable learning and application to the non-kenyan load bearing athlete in the Brecon Beacons.
Whilst the average person would probably have an MI (heart attack), after attempting Canova's training there are some principles that can be applied for the non-elite kenyan in us.
Remember these kenyan runners have more than likely had a lifetime of building an endurance base before they get anywhere near Canova.
One of the take home messages I like about training for distance events is to stay as true as possible to the laws of specificity. In terms of the Fan Dance training, my particular goal is 3hr 45 for this 24km route so the value of doing high mileage at slower than goal pace is probably minimal. The trick is finding out how much high intensity training a person can tolerate and recover from and to truly ask if it is high intensity.
Looks like a balls out effort into the dark area then!!
References:
TANSER, T. (2008). More Fire: How to run the Kenyan Way. Yardley: Westholme Publishing.
WIRZ, J. (2006). Run to Win: The training secret of the kenyan runners. Oxford: Meyer and Meyer Sport.
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