Over the past couple of months I've been reading up on the training methodologies of some of the world's top middle distance runners. Sebastian Coe, Wilson Kipketer (800m WR holder and the only man to break Coe's mark), Kip Keino, Nixon Kiprotich, and the King of the Mile - Hicham El Guerrouj. (I still haven't gotten around to Norredine Morceli, but I will be doing so in the near future)
It's pretty easy to find info on Coe's training through the various books published by his coach and father, Peter Coe. However, finding detailed info on a lot of these other guys is a bit more difficult. (I'd really like to find more detail on how Kipketer trained)
I happened to stumble upon this training information of El Guerrouj as he prepared for the 1997 season. Only a few cycles of his year round training are included (I understand he only rested about 3-weeks a year), but it gives a pretty good overview.
You'd expect to see the period of ridiculously tough workouts as the season approached, but what I found interesting was the intensity of his early season training. (October-November of the previous year) A great deal of weight training for strength, hill repeats and plyos for power, and up-tempo aerobic running that was in the form of either cruise interval type repeats at around 5k pace or 30-60 minutes of continuous running at an unbelievable pace of about 3-min/km. (even for him that was fast as it was just 30% slower than his mile race pace!)
Anyway - some good info there for anyone who cares to read it. Perhaps I'll post up some training of the others from time to time.
Nice 5-miler today, and tomorrow morning I've got a tough rep session that El Guerrouj could probably do running on his hands.
Training:
Thurs, 12/25: Off
Fri, 12/26: lifting - general upper, abs
5-miles @ 6:58 pace
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