David Rudisha: Typical Friday (Base Period)
The Sweat Elite team spent May 2017 training with St Patrick’s athletics group in Iten, Kenya – David Rudisha’s training group. We learnt the ins and outs of their unique training program that has produced many sub 1:45 800m runners.
Base training for David Rudisha’s training group involves quantity of around 50-60 miles per week (80-96km), lots of steady state running and a large focus on stretching and core stability work, to prepare them for the track work beginning in late February.
Typical Friday – Base Period
6:30AM: Easy Jog
6-9km very easy jog.
The 800m runners will do 6km and the longer distance runners will do 9km. They do this run individually. We joined in with 2 of them in 2 occasions and both times the pace of the run was around 5:00-5:15/km.
10:00AM: Main Run
9.2km on “The Loop”
They do the same loop every friday, as well as monday, at more or less the same intensity for the 800m guys (see Monday for paces).
The longer distance runners will usually do 14-16km on fridays, at a slightly slower pace, closer to 4min/km.
** From time to time, athletes are very tired by friday and if they are, they will bring the pace right back and run at closer to 4:45-5:00/km but for the same distance. Most friday’s there are at least 2 or 3 athletes chosing to do this.
4:00PM: Flexibility and Drills
4km Warm up + 1hour of stretching and speed drills. There is nothing unusual about this workout, in terms of specific exercises. Stretching will normally last 30mins (standard stretches but with lap focus on the hip flexors) and drills will be standard speed drills, like fast turn overs and scissor kicks.
See other Typical Days for David Rudisha in the list of David Rudisha articles here.
