Kenyan Elite Training Series: Betsy Saina (30:07 10km, 67:49 Half Marathon, 2:22 Marathon)
Betsy Saina came 7th at the Rio 2016 Olympics in 10.000m with a very fast time of 30:07 and won the Paris marathon 2018 in 2.22.56, in front of Ruth Chepngetich. Since December 2017 she is coached by Renato Canova, after having dropped out in Tokyo and New York Marathon that same year. While Renato is not around the assistant Coach John Litei follows her training. Betsy is managed by Mezzo Management Group. Already 2014 she ran 30.46 for 10k on the road in Tilburg and her 5000m personal best of 14.39 in the same year is impressive as well. She is training most of her time in Iten, the so-called Home of Champions, at 2400m altitude and mostly on rough roads and dirt tracks. Very little training is on tarmac roads, only during the last weeks before the marathon, she does some single sessions on the hard surface, to prepare the legs for the race.
After Saina joined Coach Canova in December 2017, she started to build back on the one hand her speed and on the other hand she started to do more overall volume and longer and faster runs in general. During the fundamental period from 18th of December 2017 to 14th January 2018, she did per week around 180 kilometres.
In the training from Renato Canova every week looks different than the previous ones and different forms of fartlek sessions, tempo runs, track sessions, long runs, hill workouts are implemented to build the athlete to get gradually ready for the race. During the above-mentioned fundamental period she did for example track sessions like 3 times 2000m in 6.50 with 3min recovery, followed by 6 times 1000m in 3.15 at a dirt track at 2000m altitude. But she did also shorter track workouts to bring back her abilities she had before she shifted to the marathon, like 10 times 600m in 1.52 with 1.30 recovery, followed by 10 times 400m in 72 sec with 1min recovery or even sometimes in the afternoon very short sessions like 10times 200m in 32 sec with 200m recovery jog between. As well different hill sessions like 10 times 100m uphill, 6 times 300m slope at 95% effort with 3 to 4min recovery or 10 times 80m uphill sprints where in the training included to recruit the fast twitch fibres. The goal should be never to lose what they athlete was able to do, even when shifting to the marathon. The track sessions became a lot faster in the specific marathon preparation, where the 2000m intervals came down to 6.10 and 1000m intervals were run consistently under 3.05.
In the same time marathon training requires longer interval sessions and long runs. The long runs from Betsy Saina were relatively slow in the beginning when she joined Renato. Saina started with 25 kilometres in Moiben in 4.15 per k and progressed to 34 kilometres long run in 3.56 per k within short time, because she responded very well to the new training. The longer intervals could vary from 6 to 7 times 2k in 6.50 with 1k between in 4.00 per k, or also 6 times 3 kilometres in 10.30 with one kilometre between in 4.10. This sessions with around 20 to 30 kilometres near to marathon pace are very important to prepare the athlete for the race.
Next to this long interval sessions Betsy Saina did in the beginning of 2018 many tempo runs from 5k up to 15k in good pace, like for example 12k in 3.36 min/km in moiben, a flat course near Eldoret a 2100m altitude. Of course the tempo runs became consistently faster in course of her specific preparation towards the Paris marathon. In March 2018 she did than already a 15k in 3.18 paceas well in moiben. Very typical for the training of Renato Canova is the 40k long run in high pace 4 weeks before the marathon. Betsy did her 40k in Nangili (1900m altitude, rough road and flat course), as well 4 weeks before her race. After the bad experiences the previous year in marathon, Betsy was now ready for a good marathon and won Paris in 2hours 22min and showed she is not only a fast track runner but also fast in Marathon.
After Paris Saina ramped up her training and trained very hard for Frankfurt marathon. In Frankfurt her goal was to break the 2hours 20min barrier but 5 kilometres to go Saina hit the wall hardly and finished almost walking in 2.24.35 on position 9. Earlier this year in February she won Marugame half marathon in a new personal best of 67.49 and did before her Boston marathon the fastest 40k in her training so far, in 2.25.38, which is 3.38 average in high altitude. Its questionable if she trained a bit too hard before Boston but more likely was that the course, which is very much up and down didn’t suit Saina’s running style and she ended up on 10th position with 2hours 30min. It was a big disappointment for Betsy but already her Coach Renato warned, that Boston isn’t a good choice for her. Anyway, she is still very motivated and has sure the potential to break the 2 hours 20 Minutes in marathon and prepares now for the Chicago marathon on 13th of October. Recently she did a 30k (07.09.2019) in 1.47.02 on tarmac in 2100m above sea level and is excited about her training and is looking forward to running marathon again.
Please note: this article was written by Thomas Potzinger (European coach and assistant to Renato Canova). The article hasn’t been edited to correct grammar or brevity but rather published as submitted.
