This is an oldie but a goodie, Nixon Kiprotich (silver medalist in Barcelona, 1:43.31 pr) describes his training:
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0287.htm
In summary:
- October and November - OFF
- December and January -
Monday through Friday, 9.5 miles AM, 5 miles PM, all at 6:30 pace. No speedwork at all. Saturday and Sunday are rest days.
- February and March -
Same base work except Monday and Saturday are hill workouts, 20x200 meter hill.
- April & May - track workouts. Typical week:
M - 2x(5x1000) in 2:45 to 2:55. He says that the last 200 is at race pace, so the 800/200 splits for these 1000's are something like 2:19-2:29/26.
T - 8x200 in 25-27 with only 5-10 meters of easy jogging between reps.
W - 4x600 in 1:23-1:26, then 5x300 in 40-41 with the 100/200 splits as 14/26. 2 minute recoveries on all of this.
Th - 4x400 in 49-50. 2 minute recoveries.
F - 4x500, with the 500 in 1:06-1:08. 2 minute recoveries.
Sa - 40 min jogging
Su - off
- June to September - competitive racing season - training is reduced and less interesting, no need to summarize here
Everything about this is crazy to me. The two months completely off, the high volume base except he doesn't appear to run on weekends (?), then the insane 5 days a week of very fast speed workouts in April and May. How can anyone possibly make it through that week? Every day is a race!