Inside the Training Diaries
A few weeks ago there was an interview published Kelvin Kiptum’s coach which detailed his training for his World Record run at the Chicago Marathon (the article is here).
How does Kelvin Kiptum train?
A lot of running and a lot of hard work.
280-300 km’s per week. Four ‘hard’ days per week and 35-37 km of ‘jogging’ on an easy day.
OK, the sheer amount of running might be surprising but I think we probably already knew that running a World record in the marathon meant lots of running and lots of hard work. I don’t think there is much to learn from the article.
What if we open up the training diary of a top athlete to see the whole training process? Every session and the thoughts behind the training. Not a highlight reel or a ‘typical week’.
Everything.
How was the plan set? Why those sessions? Did they adapt or change the plan?
That sounds a lot more interesting to me.
That is my winter project - convince athletes and coaches to share detailed looks into their training.
I’d encourage everyone to read Scott Fauble and Ben Rosario’s ‘Inside a Marathon’ - it is one of my favorite running books (I’m definitely a nerd when it comes to these things!). It is a training diary with notes from the athlete and coach. That is the level of insight that I crave when reading about an athletes training. It will have have been a lot of work to pull it all together.
My pitch to athletes is this: I’ll do the work and we can put some interesting and useful stuff out into the world. Showcase your process.
I’m grateful that a couple of athletes have already agreed to talk to me. The first article is almost complete and it was really interesting to work on. I think there is a lot of valuable information in it.
How this series progresses will depend on whether athletes are willing to share this info and talk to me about their training. I hope people see the value.
If you are a high level runner or coach - in any discipline - and think this is interesting: Get in touch and see if we can pull something together. You don’t have to be a World Record holder.
People are interested in the details. The ups and the downs. The exciting weeks and the monotony. I’ll do as much as I can to make it easy for you.
Everyone else, if you think this is interesting - let me know. Like and share the articles when they come. Tell me what I can do better. What do you want to know that I’ve missed? Who do you want to see next?
First article incoming.
