Eliud Kipchoge – 3 Toughest Track Sessions
“The law of consistency says you should get motivated. Motivation makes you move. Motivation makes you to go forward. When you bring motivation and discipline (together), then you can be consistent. When you combine it all together, they say if you want to grow, consistency is the key. I’m confident in saying that consistency is key if you want to grow in a new profession. Be it sport. Be it law. Be it all sorts of professions. If you are not consistent, you can not go anywhere. Consistency makes you to grow.” – Eliud Kipchoge
Kipchoge, like every great sportsman or sportswoman, knows that consistency in training is the key.
Kipchoge’s interval track sessions don’t tend to be anything fancy or overly interesting; in fact they’re usually quite mind numbing and repetitive. Kipchoge cycles 8 different track sessions and regularly repeats the same session twice in a month period, depending on the time of year.
Below are three of Eliud Kipchoge’s toughest training sessions that he completes on the track in the lead up to a major race. Keep in mind that these sessions are done on a dirt track at 2000m (6500ft) elevation. World famous coach Renato Canova believes that in these conditions for the Kenyan born and raised athletes, repetitions are around 5 seconds slower per kilometre compared with doing the same session on a tartan track at sea-level. The altitude accounts for about 3 seconds per kilometre and the dirt track around 2 seconds per kilometre.
1. 15x1km (90sec rest), progressing in pace.
Kipchoge will start these 1km repetitions between 2:55 and 3:00 and slowly build his pace up to finish at around 2:42-2:45. On occasion, Kipchoge has finished his final repetition in 2:35-2:36, but normally it’s closer to 2:42-2:45. He will normally average around 2:50-2:53 for the session.
2. 12x1200m (90sec rest), progressing in pace.
Kipchoge will start these 1200m repetitions at 3:30-3:35 (2:55-2:58/km pace) and like the 15x1km session mentioned above, slowly build up to running around 3:20 for the final few repetitions. This session has a total volume of 14.4km, almost the same as the 15x1km session.
3. 5 sets of (2km, 1km) with 200m jogging recovery (around 2mins)
Another 15km worth of intervals on the track. This one is one of Kipchoge’s favourite training sessions. They’ll normally start the first 2km rep in 5:50-5:52 (2:55-2:56/km), but average closer to 5:45 (2:52/km) for the 5 of them. The 1km reps will typically start right around 2:50 and end closer to 2:40. Therefore, the 2km reps are only slightly slower than the 1km reps.
If you enjoyed this article, you might enjoy reading about more of Eliud Kipchoge’s track sessions here. You may also find his full training log interesting.
