Bekele's Training ....

Taken from Dyestat about an online interview from some britsih website

He stated he does 11-13 sessions per week, takes sunday off. His longest run is about 25-30km (~15-18mi.) or 1hr45min. He runs close to 150km per week (~95mpw). He regularly does 1000m repeats, if its equal to race (5x) distance they are done SLIGHTLY (1-2sec) faster than race PR, with rest/recovery determining on his level of fitness. If he does a few intervals equally slightly more than race distance (6-8x), he does them at race pace PR, and if he does a high volume of intervals (10-12x) intervals he does them slightly slower than race pace PR.

He also spends 30-45min EVERY practice working on drills (he does his own set different from the Ethiopian team), striding/sprinting drills and sometimes circuits (did not specify). Cool downs involve adequate stretching and sometimes more drill work.

He also does gym workouts twice a week at Gebreselassie's gym. (did not specify workouts)

Specific workouts are done weekly during the racing season (race simulation workouts). If i remember correctly something similar to 4 x 1mile, with shifting splits, to simulate race surges and such.

Pure speed work is also done regularly.

cmurph wrote:

Nacho Man wrote:

Does he inject EPO before or after his runs? Is there an advantage to doing it one way or the other?

why do you guys always fell the need to make asinine comments like this?

Asinine? It's a legit question.

Exactly. Why is Bekele's Hematocrit 49?

Do you know what kind of fartleks he performs in the off season? One person said VO2 Max Fartlek, another said Lactate Threshold Fartleks. It was also mentioned that they are ladder-style fartlek. Would a 1-2-3-4-5-4-3-2-1 min hard w/ = recovery be an example of something he would perform. Enlighten me.

Anybody have any input? A few poster seemed to know quite a bit about what he does, and seemed to have actually witnessed it. Is there anything else you guys can comment on?

f*** you. its not a legit question

Thats not input.

2 Things to note

Either Bekele is on drugs or he is the biggest genetic distance running freak of the last 100 - 1000 years; and his success really has nothing to do with his training. In EITHER case, the training that Bekele does, does not belong in the training of undrugged or non genetically gifted mortals.

Attempt the training of the drugged up body builders in the muscle mags and I will guarantee that without drugs or genes that are superior than 99.9999% of the population of the planet, the body will break down.

Of course he´s genetically superior. That is why he is the best. We very much want to beleive that the guy who trains the hardest, or run the most miles or is the toughest always wins but the single most inmportant factor is the genes. That´s a tough nut to swallow for many people, because that means that 99,999% of us won´t make it to the top.

steffo wrote:

Of course he´s genetically superior. That is why he is the best.

Yes. And he's also on a buttload of highly effective, banned, performance-enhancing drugs.

agreed wrote:

Exactly. Why is Bekele's Hematocrit 49?

i dunno, why WOULD he dope to just under the tour de france limit? he's not a cyclist, jackass.

i would also like to challenge you to produce any source that revealed something as specific as his hematocrit.

I'm not a jackass. Those Tour de France riders whose crit mysteriously rises to 49 are doped on EPO

Here is my source for the Bekele 49 crit from Renato Canova:

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?board=1&id=447162&thread=446561

Renato says it's natural. Maybe it is, but a natural Hematocrit of 49 is not common amongst highly trained athetes.

Do you got a better source than dyestat?

Link to the interview?

Thank you for sharing the information about Bekele's running and training.

I would say the most accurate info here is in the post from drillz. When I raced in Rome this summer I shared room for three days with Abebe Dinkesa Negera. He did 26.30 10k in 2005 and was also the crazy guy who followed Bekele in his Paris WR 5000 attempt that year (Dikesa passed the 3000 in 7.32.7. together with Bekele but "blew up" and did 12.55...)

His English was very good,much better than the other Ethiopian runners + very nice & open guy. So got to ask him about the training of the Ethio top guys incl Bekele. Quite simple, around 140-50 - 180 km weeks, three hard trainings weekly, long Sunday run. Little/no spikes in the winter, up until after cross country. Sprint work of 60-80 meters in the spring,summer - drills all around. Track work as in the drillz post. Periods of hill work (400 m. hills quite hard etc.) Nothing special really - in terms of "training secrets" ; and much similar to other places in the world like Kenya, the US, top European runners for that sake.

Marius Bakken

Sorry guys being a youngster can i please ask a question?

When you're on about Bekele's hematocrit, is 49 low for a runner or high?

Mine was 42 when i had a blood test 2 weeks ago. It says on my results sheet it says that the range is between 40 and 52.

thanks

Hello Marius,

Since you probably have the most knowledge here on his training, I have a few question.

(1) drillz posted "He regularly does 1000m repeats, if its equal to race (5x) distance they are done SLIGHTLY (1-2sec) faster than race PR, with rest/recovery determining on his level of fitness. If he does a few intervals equally slightly more than race distance (6-8x), he does them at race pace PR, and if he does a high volume of intervals (10-12x) intervals he does them slightly slower than race pace PR."

When drillz mentioned he "regularly" does them, does he mean even in off season training such as what one may call the "base phase" ?

I am assuming he does, just with more recovery of course. Possible something like 5x 1000m w/ equal recovery in duration during the base/non-serious training phases, then another workout with much less recovery when he is working even on VO2 Max.

I also read a poster mention that off season consists of many fartlek workouts. Another possibility is that these fartlek workouts are VO2 max type fartlek used is the base/non-serious training phases in place the set distance workouts.

(2) When is the majority of the hill work performed? (In realtion to his peak race) Would this be another addition to the base phase.

(3) Drillz didn't mention much about tempo runs/cruise intervals. Do you specifically what kind of lactate threshold work he perfoms?

Thanks in Advance

agreed wrote:

Renato says it's natural. Maybe it is, but a natural Hematocrit of 49 is not common amongst highly trained athetes.

Neither is a 12:30 odd 5k - doesn't prove he is cheating just says he is different form most people

Did Dinkessa mention what sort of effort levels the runs between the workout days are at? Some sources I've seen say they are run 'hard', others say they are slow recovery runs. what about other workouts- don't they do alot of tempo runs? Thanks very much for any information