Eliud Kipchoge – A Typical Week of Training – Preparing For A Sub 2 Hour Marathon
Article by Tait Hearps of Sweat Elite
As we said in the last article which looks at Eliud’s build-up to the INEOS 159 Challenge, little has changed in Eliud’s training in the last five or so years, bar the addition of a more significant amount of strength and core work. This article looks in more detail at a typical training week for Eliud.
The general structure of the training week is broken down by Patrick Sang in the second part of the documentary released by INEOS.
Monday
AM Easy to moderate run: 16-21km
PM Easy Run: 8-12km
Tuesday
Tuesday is usually a track session. They basically do two kinds of workouts on Tuesdays and cycle them in two-week blocks:
- 15km of goal marathon pace work.
15km worth of intervals at right around their goal marathon pace (so 2:55min/km for Eliud). This is actually a bit harder to do on dirt and altitude than on road at sea level, but of course that is part of the training.
Example workouts:
- 15x1km (90sec rest) in average of 2:50-2:55. They might start closer to 3min and end closer to 2:50, but the average is normally between 2:50 and 2:55.
- 12x1200m (90sec rest) in average of 3:24-3:30.
- 5 sets of (2km, 1km) in 5:40-5:50 and 2:50-2:55.
- 10-15km of interval work faster than goal marathon pace.
These are completed at speeds faster than marathon pace. Sometimes at more like 800m pace!
Example workouts:
- 12x800m in 2:10s (90sec rest), 10x400m in 62s (90sec rest).
- 1200m in 3:25, jog lap, 5x1km in 2:55 (1.30 rec), jog lap, 3x300m in 42-40 (1:00 rec), jog lap, 2x200m in 27s (1:00 rec)
- 20x400m in 64-65sec (50sec rest)
Wednesday
AM Easy to Moderate Run: 16-21km
PM Easy Run: 8-12km
Thursday
A Thursday for Eliud involves a long steady tempo run, cycling between 30km (18.6mi) and 40km (24.8 mi) and sometimes a second run, depending on how he feels / if a major race is approaching.
6.10 AM: 30km or 40km tempo run
Again, it’s a 6:10am start for the group, from out the front of the camp in Kaptagat. The first 1-2km are, as usual, a build into the run. They’ll clock the first kilometer at around 5:00 minutes (often slower) to get warmed up, by the 3rd kilometer, the pace is on.
From there on, it’s 3:00-3:25min/km pace (4:50-5:20min/mi) depending on where they are. The route they take normally involves 90% hilly trails and around 10% road (mostly flat, sometimes small hills). On the flat road sections, the faster sections, the pace is right around 3:00min/km (4:50min/mi). When they hit the hills in the forest, the average pace is hovers between 3:15-3:25min/km (5:10-5:25min/mi) depending on how hilly it is.
Although this sounds very fast, many may be thinking “3:20min/km isn’t his tempo pace (threshold)”. However, the terrain they train on sits at 2400-2500m altitude (7800ft) and is very harsh. We estimate that you would expect to be running at 20-25sec/km slower at Kaptagat in the forest, than you would expect to run at sea level on a flat course. On the flat road sections up in Kaptagat, expect to run 10-15sec/km slower.
Here are the times of the tempo runs leading into the Berlin Marathon 2017:
Thur August 10 – 30.8km in 1:42 (3:20min/km average)
On this run, one section of the run was so wet, they needed to change course and they ended up just running back to the starting point, which ended up being an extra 800m.
Thur August 17 – 40km in 2:14 (3:20min/km average)
Thur August 24 – 30km in 1:38 (3:16min/km average)
Thur August 31 – 40km in 2:13 (3:19min/km average)
Friday
AM Easy to Moderate Run: 16-21km
PM Easy Run: 8-12km
Saturday
A Saturday for Eliud Kipchoge involves a fartlek (or to them “speed”) workout in the morning, and either the afternoon off, or a second easy run of 10-12km if they feel up for it.
6.10 AM: Fartlek (on trails/road)
There are 7 different fartlek workouts Eliud Kipchoge uses in his training.
1. 10min reps with 2min rest. 4 x 10min is most common, sometimes they do 5.
2. 8mins reps with 2min rest. 6 x 8min is most common.
3. 6min reps with 2min rest. 8 x 6min is most common.
4. 4min reps with 2min rest. 10 x 4min is most common.
5. 3min reps with 1min rest. 13 x 3min is most common, sometimes they do 14-15.
6. 2min reps with 1min rest. 17 x 2min is most common, sometimes they do up to 20.
7. 1min reps with 1min rest. 25 x 1min is most common, sometimes they do up to 30.
The most common sessions used are:
* 4x10min reps (2min rest)
* 13x3min reps (1min rest)
* 25x1min reps (1min rest)
These seem to be used around twice as frequently as the others.
Paces in these workouts (during intervals) are difficult to report, as the routes they use are hilly, so reps of course vary a lot in speed. but on the flat surfaces, it’s normally around 2:55min/km pace for the 10min reps, down to 2:45min/km for the 1min reps.
Warm up and cool downs for this workout aren’t very long at all – normally just 10mins, sometimes up to 15mins. This surprised us. It’s common in the western world to add on plenty of mileage in your warm ups and cool downs (some do up to 30mins of running) but for Kipchoge, this was short and sharp.
On one particular workout that we joined them (August 12th 2017 – 4x10min with 2min rest) the entire workout, start of warm up to end of cool down took under 1hr20mins. They jogged 2km in just under 10min, stretched for 2mins and got straight into it. At the end of the last rep, they walked for less than 2min before commencing the cool down.
PM: Usually they rest and don’t run at all in the afternoons on Saturday, if they choose to run it is an easy run of around 8-12km.
Sunday
AM *Easy to Moderate Run: 18-22km
PM Rest
* There have been reports from the NN Running Team training camp that a recent change to the training program is a complete rest day on Sunday. It is unclear if this is every Sunday.
This look at a typical training week is based on our time in Kaptagat with the group in 2017. However, as we have said, the group’s training has not changed a great deal in the last years and it can be assumed that they are currently following a very similar structure in the lead-up to Vienna. This formula has worked so well for Eliud in the last few years and has seen him through some great successes, we cannot wait to watch next month and see the culmination of years of work, and hopefully witness the great man rewriting history yet again.
More information on the training of Eliud, as well as insight into the experience of spending time in Kaptagat training with the group, can be found in our e-book: Eliud Kipchoge – History’s Fastest Marathoner
