Eliud Kipchoge article

Ceepo

Great piece on Eliud Kipchoge in Saturdays (30/10)) Irish Examiner by Cathal Dennehy.

Really highlights what a simple life he lives, and I suppose you could include his training group in that as well.

Some points that's stand out and maybe we could all take this on board.

He doesn't wear heart rate monitors or measure blood lactate, instead he relying on precieved effort.

"I perform (at) 80% on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and then at 50% on Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.”

Simplicity is very often over looked in a quest to have the latest gadget.

Does stride rate/length or vertical oscillation or power meters really matter, maybe, but not as much as doing the simple things well.

https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/othersport/arid-40732662.html?s=09

MrMacPhisto

sorry, that posted twice for some reason 😅

I will try again. The gist of my uninformed view is that I think the whole "simplicity" argument is a little bit of PR and creates a mysticism around the best ever. The guy works hard, very hard, and I admire this. However, I doubt he doesn't look at gadgets/tech/data analysis. He or his team would be being disingenuous to say they don't.

Maybe he personally likes to keeps things simple, but those around him might be doing lots of work and analysis in the background. He wears the highest tech shoes. He is currently sporting the Abott SuperSapiens constant glucose monitor (probably sponsorship related). But if this is not tech or gadgetry, then I don't know what is.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118097388#Comment_118097388

There is no doubt that they monitor things at some level. And I take your point about the tech shoes, I'm not sure I'd class them in the gadget bracket though. And it goes without saying or at least it should that all these guys and girls at the highest level work phenomenally hard.

But after speaking to a good few people that have trained on Kenya, the thing everyone talks about it how simple they keep things.

Murph_D

The other thing that stands out is the amount of genuine recovery running (50% effort). And no complex weight training, just two sessions a week with resistance bands.

Bananaleaf

Just found the article online - here is the link for anyone else interested https://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/othersport/arid-40732662.html

I recall watching the Breaking2 documentary and to me Kipchoge, as well as Desisa and Tadese didn't appear to be wholly familiar with all the advanced gadgetry involved in the process. I've seen short videos of his S&C work too when he is not race training and I think the max he has lifted is a 3kg dumbbell. I 100% believe the 'keeping it simple' approach that he claims. His psychology is also top-notch - obviously you don't post the times he does just by believing in yourself, but his mindset is something to behold.

I was lucky enough to be in the right place at the right time and I met him in London in 2019.

jamule

About 90% of questions on boards could be answered reading the the article. Keep things simple, 3 sessions a week and a load of easy running. no magic supplements, just good food. No eating before a morning run. No lactate testing.

squinn2912

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118099532#Comment_118099532

Can you provide links to his S&C training?

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118099532#Comment_118099532

You could have clicked the link in the original post and saved yourself the search ;)

YFlyer

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118099215#Comment_118099215

I believe Cram was not into weights and Walker into stretching.

healy1835

Really enjoyed the piece. For a bit of extra 'colour', check out Cathal Dennehy's Twitter account where he's found himself been taken to task about the brevity and quality of the piece from a well known coach and former Boardsie...

Murph_D

(deleted)

partyguinness

God given talent, hard work and genetics will always trump the latest gadget.

healy1835

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118101032#Comment_118101032

I'm intrigued now Murph 😉

jamule

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118100761#Comment_118100761

fook me some gobshites will never change, still as insufferable as usual.

Bananaleaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118100428#Comment_118100428

Thanks. I didn't see the link in your original post initially, even though I read all that you had written. I feel quite silly now, apologies.

Bananaleaf

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118100180#Comment_118100180

Hi, unfortunately I can't because I saw them on his Instagram account, on the 'stories'. I had a look back at his instagram to see if they were saved in the highlights but they aren't, instead there are just some screenshots of the short videos that were originally there.

I had a quick check on YouTube and found this video, which was quite similar to the short clips I saw via Instagram. In the Instagram screen shots you can see the light weights he is holding

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=v-areHvwCZc

squinn2912

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118104864#Comment_118104864

Thanks for sending that. I’d love to get a look into what his S&C programme is all the time along with this little snapshot. I’m doing a lot of rehab work at the moment to try to get rid of niggles and it’s much heavier than that. The philosophy is that if I’m going to run hard then the muscles need to be able to take double my weight. So at the moment I’m doing things like split squats with 10-16kg dumbells. It’s an area I know so little about as I’ve spent years ‘just running’ and trying to stay clear of things like that because invariably it would bring on niggles.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118105857#Comment_118105857

While its true that your landing force can be double your weight according to some studies, its how those forces are spread out through the body that counts. Landing full square on your heal for example, would be different that landing mid foot. The force would be the same, but how the force is disapate between the landing position would be different.

I seem to remember a clip from a few years ago, where he was doing so "s&c" work, but I can't find it now. From memory it was smiple enough, thing like "dead bug", "plank" "fire hydrant" (with bands) "step aerobic work" there wasn't any ground breaking exercise in it, and certainly can't remember any heavy weights.

We often see clips from various elites doing some s&c work, as with all of these, they are only ever a snap shot, and we don't ever really know about when they put more focus on it, and secondly just because X athlete does X exercise doesn't mean there's benefit to them or us. We don't know if it's general condition or correctional.

As always context is key.

Sunny Dayz

I watched a documentary recently about him called The Last Milestone. Mostly to do with his attempt to go sub 2hour. Footage from his training showed it fairly simple - easy runs in a big group, S&C in a big group out in the grass with resistance bands, ice bath in a blue plastic barrel. No stage of the art gym, no one-on-one intensive training, no pushing yourself too hard.

Ceepo

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/118100761#Comment_118100761

Eagerly awaiting the next article 😂😂