Kenenisa Bekele – 4 Key Marathon Workouts
The Sweat Elite team spent 1 month training in Sululta, Ethiopia in January 2019.
We did a bit of training with Kenensia Bekele’s squad and although he was injured throughout our stay and mostly in the gym, we were able to learn his training structure and attend some of the key training sessions his squad do.
Below are 4 key marathon interval training sessions Kenensia Bekele (and squad) use to prepare for a Marathon (or Half Marathon):
2 x 3km, 3 x 2km, 5 x 1km with 200m jog recovery between reps and 400m jog recovery between sets.
This session was done on tartan track at 2700m altitude. In terms of pacing, it was done right around their goal marathon pace for the 3km reps and ending at closer to their Half Marathon pace in the 1km’s. The recovery wasn’t timed exactly, but it was roughly 1.5-2mins between reps and 3-4mins between sets. Overall this is 20km on the track if you include the recoveries.
8 x 2km with 200m jog recovery
A real mental grind! 2km reps were done at between Half Marathon and Marathon goal pace and kept even in terms of the times (61min half marathon runners were running around 6mins for the reps). Again, recovery wasn’t specific, but jog 200m and this session was also done on a tartan track at 2700m altitude.
25 x 400m with 1min recovery
Another mental grind: 25 laps of the track (2700m altitude) at between 10km pace and Half Marathon pace with 1min recovery (jogging/walking). We watched Yenew Alamirew (12:48 5000m) do this workout as he was coming back from injury. He was running them in around 67-68 seconds but he was far from 100% fit. Coach Mersha Asrat said he would aim to do these in 63-64 seconds in a couple of months time when approaching races.
5 x 4km with 1km float recovery
This wasn’t done on the track, but on a relatively flat road at close to 3000m altitude. 4km reps were done slightly slower than goal marathon pace (keep in mind this is at close to 3000m (10,000 feet) altitude. 2:06 Marathon runners were running this session at around 3:10-3:15/km on the roads at this altitude. Recovery was 1km float, in around 3:45 so not slowing down much.
You might also like to read the article: Track Thursday with Kenenisa Bekele’s Squad.
