Tokai University – Training for Hakone Ekiden
Article by Tait Hearps of Sweat Elite.
The ekiden is what lies at the core of the Japanese prowess in long distance running. Ekidens are long distance relays, which can take place over multiple days and have legs of varying lengths. The most prestigious of all is the Hakone Ekiden, a race which sees the top universities of the Kanto region around Tokyo compete, captivating the nation every January. Hakone Ekiden was inaugurated in 1920 by Shizo Kanakuri – known as the father of the marathon in Japan – with teams running from 108km from Tokyo to Hakone on the first day (January 2) and 109.9km back to Tokyo the next.
Tokai University took the crown in the 2019 edition of the race, with the ten athletes covering the whole course in a stunning 10:52:09. That’s 3:00.2/km, the fastest time ever run on the current version of the course. This year’s iteration of the race, the 96th time it has been run, saw a demolition of the records. Seven of the ten segment records were beaten, and Aoyama Gakuin University was the winner with a total time of 10:45:23, Tokai came in second in 10:48:25, also well under their old course record.
During our trip to Japan this year Tokai’s assistant coach – Noriaki Nishide – kindly invited us to join a session taking place on the university’s royal blue track. It was an absolute pleasure to watch Nishide working closely with head coach Hayashi Morozumi, overseeing the orderly procession of their athletes ripping through mile repeats.
Morozumi was one of Japan’s most successful high school coaches before moving to Tokai. Suguru Osako, the national record holder for the marathon (2:05:29 – set at the Tokyo Marathon 2020, the day after the session we watched), rose to prominence under his tutelage, among many other top athletes. Under Morozumi’s guidance the Tokai team have made steady improvement over the past few years.
In addition to inviting us to join the session at the university, Nishide has also generously shared with us the training schedule his athletes followed in the build-up to Hakone this year. The mileage is quite high early on, and notably their schedule includes a very high amount of “easy jogging”.
In an email exchange after our departure Nishide spoke about this, “Japanese universities and professional teams put a lot of emphasis on morning practice. We are one of them.” Even on days when they have a quality workout in the afternoon, the team still does their morning practice. And, he adds, “most “Easy Jog” workouts are double sessions in the morning and evening.” These are run at around 4:00min/km when the group runs together and at between 3:40-5:00min/km when athletes run alone, which is the case for around half of the easy runs.
The program goes from late November through to race day in early January. They started strong. “For us, the week of November 25 to December 1 was a strengthening training week. So I asked them to run 200 to 220km in a week. The next week was recovery week, so I asked them to run 150~160km in a week.” Interestingly, they only included two “long run” sessions (each 30km) in the build-up to Hakone Ekiden, which has legs of varying lengths, all around the half marathon mark.
Some notable sessions include:
8 x 1km (2:50) + 12km (3:20/km)
Track 3000m (8:40), 6000m (18:20), 3000m (8:20) with 3 min recovery
6 x (2km (6:20) – 1km (3:40) + 5km (15:40)
16km with 5km in 14:40 (2:56/km), 8km in 24:50 (3:08/km), 3km in 8:30 (2:50/km).
[If you enjoyed this article we suggest reading The Perplexing Depth Of Talent In Japanese Running]
