Matt Centrowitz: Training Program
Although Centrowitz’s 1500m personal best is just 3:30.40, he wins a lot. He’s a brilliant racer.
Centrowitz trains at the Nike Oregon Project. The NOP run on 20-22 week cycles – twice yearly in which one peak is typically for indoors (March) and one for outdoors (August). At the end of each cycle, there is a rest period of at least 2 weeks completely and then 2 weeks of easy running to build up to the start of the next cycle.
“Within those 20-week cycles we are usually looking for about 5 weeks of building up gradually, and then having about 8-10 weeks at the very maximum level volume and intensity. Then we will go with a 4-5 week taper period into the championship races.” – Coach Alberto Salazar
Before we look into the specifics, here is a standard weekly program for Centrowitz under the Nike Oregon Project. This typical week is for during the middle of the 20-22 week cycle.
Monday
7 miles (42-45mins)
5 miles (30-33mins)
Tuesday
4-6 x 1 Mile (4.25>4.10) or 6mile Tempo (29min)
4 miles (25-26min) + Gym (Core, Weights)
Wednesday
9 miles (54-57min)
5 miles (30-33min) + Massage
Thursday
7 miles (42-45mins)
5 miles (30-33mins)
Friday
Rotating: 200m hill reps or 600/800/1000m repeats @ 1500m pace
4 miles (25-26min) + Gym (Core, Weights)
Saturday
7 miles (42-45mins)
5 miles (30-33mins) + Massage
Sunday
15 miles (83-86mins)
Rest
Of course the above is an ideal week, on the program. From time to time, a run here or there might be skipped if there are any injury concerns or he’s just too tired.
When approaching races, workouts will, as you’d expect, become a bit more specific. Some examples of these workouts:
- 3 x 1 mile in 4:05, 4:01, 3:57 (easy 1km jog recovery)
- 6x400m in 51sec average (500m easy jog recovery) – this was completed the week before Rio 2016.
- 10x400m in 55-56sec average (400m easy jog recovery)
- 15x200m in 25-26sec average (2min/200m jog recovery)
- 1000m (2:21), 800m (1:52), 600m (1:19), 400m (51) with easy lap jog recovery.
“My bottom end speed is usually pretty good, so like 200’s, 300’s, 400’s – they come around pretty quick – but that 800, 1000 kind of rep, that’s my weakness and what I tend to work on a lot.”
“We do a lot of under and over distance stuff. We’ll go 4-5 miles at a time, maybe 6, a lot slower than race pace. And then we do a lot of repetitions of 800m, 1000m at race pace – over and over.”
An important element to Centrowitz’s training program, when approaching racing period (and during racing period) is doing very fast intervals at the end of workouts. This could be anything from 100m to 400m and fast, as in 150m in 17sec or 400m in 51-52sec.
“The last couple of weeks over in Europe after London, at the end of workouts I was sprinting when I was tired and doing shorter stuff that I’d never done before. He believes that this is going to mean huge improvements for me over the next couple of years. I expect to see myself have a stronger last 50 meters.”
The strength training program at the NOP, Matt Centrowitz uses, isn’t the usual…
“Back going thirty years ago there was an old philosophy about strength training for distance runners. It was this idea of lightweights and lots of reps. And I really don’t believe in that. When do something like that, at some point there’s no stimulus or further growth. At some point if you’re just doing lots of reps and light weights, you’re going to maintain where you are at but you’re not going grow,” Alberto Salazar..
Centrowitz does deadlifts, squats, lunges and other common weight training exercises with heavy weights and low amounts of repetitions (often 4-8 per set).
2-3 times per week, an intensive core routine will be done, including lots of planking, clamshells and other exercises using a medicine ball. You can find more on the core stability workout here.
