

Renato Canova
I'm at home, after the Congress, and I will stay in Italy till 20th of November, before going to Qatar and then to Kenya. Next winter, I'll spend many months in Kenya (normally in Iten) for coaching a big group of Qatari-Kenyan, Kenyan and Ugandian athletes. If some one want to join the group, is possible to do at a very low cost, so, living some time with these athletes, you can cancel many urban legends regarding Kenyan athletes (a lot of time I can read something regarding African runners that makes me laugh for its commonplace, written by people that never went there but think to know everything....).
I have only some minute for partially replying to Racer1.

In the programs regarding Shaheen and others that I spent before, you cannot find workouts regarding Circuits because, at that time, the athletes did'nt use this type of training. This fact is not due to a different interpretation of training, but simply means that a coach must be on the place for teaching different ways of execution, and different goals, seeking and finding correct opportunities given from the habitat for building circuits using WHAT YOU HAVE. This year, after becoming responsible of Qatar for middle distances, I could stay in Kenya longer time, and for the first time I had the opportunity to check different places, good for this type of training. So, in the current program they have circuits, in the programs of the past not yet, but only sprints uphill or easy technical exercises that I had the opportunity to teach during European stages.

These are examples of this type of training, because during a Congress I cannot show ALL THE TRAINING OF AN ATHLETE, but not because is a secret, but because we have no time, and must cut what is not interesting and doesn't concern the theme. So, don't think that, during 4 months, an athlete can go ONLY 4 TIMES for a well specified type of training : this means that this training IS CASUAL, instead TRAINING MUST BE SOMETHING FOLLOWED A REASON. Under this point of view, never you have to froget CONTINUITY and GRADUALITY, to big principles of Training.

Someone wrote that has not at his disposal a type of hill like I described. In this case, he can change the circuit, using exercises joined with run at different speed. You must have fantasy, not becoming prisoners of schemes that cannot use. If I want to live in a house costing 2 millions dollars, and I don't have this money, the other option is to live in an apartment that I rent, smaller, with a rent of 400 dollars per month. So, the first thing that is important to understand is that AT THE BASE OF A PERFORMANCE THERE IS THE TALENT, so the most important part of training are MAMA and PAPA. When someone asks me "how much is the percentage of intervent of a coach with a top runner", I answer "0 or 100%. Zero because, without talent, the best coach cannot change a donkey in a horse. 100, because, without a coach, may be that the talented athlete could remain a talented man, never becoming an athlete".

Regarding the last week of Kwalia before Bruxelles, I confirm that the last 6 days were dedicated to very easy run. This is another legend that we have to discredit : that REST can be damageous. In the MODULATION that I use, there are LONG PERIODS OF VERY HIGH LOAD WITHOUT COMPETING (or using competitions like training), and periods of competitions (may be 3-4 races in a very short time) during which training is pratically almost nothing. There are weeks of 40 km, due to travels, problems of accomodations, tiredness due to a lot of reasons. So, with Kenyan runners, I teached them NOT TO PAY ATTENTION TO THEIR TIREDNESS DURING TRAINING AT HOME, because in this way is possible to develop GENERAL and then SPECIFIC VOLUME, but i learnt from them that, during competition periods, YOU MUST RESEARCH THE FULL AVAILABILITY OF ENERGIES, because if your physical and nervous energies are not at the top, you cannot have a top performance. So, when a Kenyan is tired, his training is to sleep (may be also one day). When a European, or an American, is tired, the first thing is to go running, because training is not considered something in order to improve, but something like a drug, irremissible also in very bad general conditions.

At the end, this is the reason because is not correct to say TRAIN HARD, WIN EASY. You must TRAIN WELL. Train well is, of course, train hard. But in managing training, you must manage different situations having the final goal to improve in your ability in performance and during a big competition. THE REST is what allows a correct MODULATION, and MODULATION is what allows the SUPERCOMPENSATION. Without mixing these elements, is not possible to have a GOOD TRAINING, but only a hard training, not able to produce the best possible results.

