More Tempo Running – A Key Ingredient To The Kenyan Success
[Article by James Mortimer of Sweat Elite]
A recent article published in the European Journal of Sport Science aims to compare the volume of systematic training and different training activities undertaken by a group of elite-standard long-distance runners. The overall group consisted of 55 male runners, all either 5,000m, 10,000m, half-marathon or marathon athletes and an average age of ~29 years old.
The authors split participants into three categories, defined by competition standard and IAAF points. The lowest group were those at a Spanish national level (“Nationals”), the second group were the “Europeans”, including medallists from the European Cross-Country Championships and European Track Championships, and the top group were the “Kenyans” including medallists in the World Cross-Country, World Marathon and African Championships as well as Olympic and Commonwealth Games. Whilst not explicitly mentioned, we can determine that the Kenyan group included Leonard Patrick Komon and Wilson Kipsang.
The study used participant recall (predominantly from training logs) to determine the breakdown of a typical training week 10 weeks out from major competition and did this for each participant at 1, 3, 5 and 7 years into systematic training. The authors themselves acknowledge the limitations of using a single week of training and extrapolating this (this does not account for training periodisation or fluctuation) however as the protocol was the same for each group, comparison between the groups within the study is still useful but we should be cautious when comparing these values to any other assessment of training.
So what did the study find? Their major conclusion was that in this time period, as well as simply doing a greater total kilometre volume, the Kenyan runners were conducting more of their training as tempo runs (consistent runs at a relatively high-intensity pace). When comparing interval sessions, all three groups completed similar distances of long intervals and tests/competitions but the Kenyan group completed significantly greater distance in short intervals. For this study, short intervals were defined as repetitions at 1500m to 5,000m pace and long intervals were longer repetitions at 5,000m to 10,000m pace. Tempo runs, short intervals and long intervals were all deemed to be “deliberate practice”. The study then states that coaches (or individuals) looking to increase athlete training intensity should focus on adding tempo runs and short intervals as these appear to be crucial to Kenyan runners.
As I mentioned before, it is extremely important that we keep the results of this study in context; the training structure that works for Wilson Kipsang 10 weeks out from competition is very probably not the best structure for you after a Christmas break. Accordingly, training should be prescribed on an individual basis and drawn from a combination of evidence and principles rather than simply what someone else is doing.
When prescribing any form of training we should always consider the SAID principle; that our body will adapt specifically to imposed demand. So whether it is an easy run, tempo run, short or long intervals the question should always be what demand are we placing on our body and do we desire the subsequent adaptation. As aerobic athletes, there are four key physiological parameters of interest, these are; VO2max, exercise economy, lactate threshold and oxygen uptake kinetics. Whilst the vast majority of training will have some degree of impact on each of these parameters, we can broadly attribute different training modalities as aiming to specifically improve certain factors. Accordingly, when we look at the training breakdown of the elite Kenyan athletes, we can postulate that their tempo runs serve the purpose of maintaining their aerobic capacity (VO2max) whilst the interval sessions aim to improve other parameters.
High-Intensity Interval Training (HIIT) has boomed in popularity with the general public, particularly in the last few years, but is clearly nothing new in any athletic space. In fact, Sir Roger Bannister was noted as completing “10 quarter mile intervals per workout at close to race pace, with about two minutes of recovery between each interval”. More recently, HIIT has been shown to have beneficial effects on a number of physiological variables that contribute to running performance (muscle buffering capacity, mitochondrial content, capillary density and running economy to name a few). In relation to the study in question, we may guess that the Kenyan athletes were completing a greater portion of their training as short intervals to elicit some of these benefits in the lead up to their major events.
For reference, the Kenyan athletes were completing about 60% of their total kilometres as easy runs, 25% as tempo runs, just under 10% as short intervals, just under 5% as long intervals and around 1% as tests/competitions. For comparison the national level athletes completed close to 70% of their total kilometres as easy runs, 10% as tempo runs, around 6% as short intervals, 12% as long intervals and 2% as tests/competitions.
When considering the application of this for either your own or another athlete’s training it is obviously extremely important to consider the goals, strengths and weaknesses of that specific case however the comparison between athletic levels presented in this study is definitely interesting. If working in a similar time period (10 weeks from major competition) and you’re doing a lot of longer intervals, it may be worth switching some intervals for tempo runs, and hey, Wilson Kipsang does it.
Article:
Casado, A., Hanley, B., & Ruiz-Pérez, L. M. (2019). Deliberate practice in training differentiates the best Kenyan and Spanish long-distance runners. European journal of sport science, (just-accepted), 1-25.
Other relevant pieces:
Barnes, K. R., & Kilding, A. E. (2015). Strategies to improve running economy. Sports medicine, 45(1), 37-56.
Jones, A. M., & Carter, H. (2000). The effect of endurance training on parameters of aerobic fitness. Sports medicine, 29(6), 373-386.
https://uk.humankinetics.com/blogs/excerpts/training-regimens-from-racing-greats
