Haile Gebrselassie- Marathon World Record Holder

Haile Gebrselassie
Originally uploaded by G4SSport

Normally, I am training for about three hours, and when it's two months before a competition, I will be doing about 35k in that morning slot.

"In the early evening, I spend most of my time in the gym doing strength work. "But even if I am in the gym, I will still do 10k on the treadmill and another 10k on the bike.

"Then I will do some strength training. That is seven days a week, except for Sunday, when I only do the morning session.

"In total, I will normally run 160 miles or 220k in a week. That is the average."

-Ethiopian Review

Good luck! He doesn't even get into intervals, etc. but interesting that he devotes several hours a week to strength training, and even biking.

Use Speed Work to Run a Faster Marathon

“When I broke the world record in Berlin, I had trained for the 10,000m on the track too and I did a lot of speedwork,” Gebrselassie said. “I did not win a gold medal in Beijing but the speedwork I put in during training helped me break the marathon world record - and I know I will break it again, soon - 2:02 is very possible.” -Daily Nation

-quote from marathon world record holder Hallie Gebrselassie. Gebrselassie finished 6th in the 10K in Beijing

MY COMMENT: I've experienced this before. Several years ago I competed in the World Masters Track & Field Championships in Brisbane, Australia, entering the 8K cross country, 5,000 meter, and marathon. I really wanted to run a fast 5K, so most of my focus going in was on that, running a couple of very hard track workouts a week. At 48 years of age at the time, I was hoping to break 16:30, however my typical workouts were 10 x 400 in 80, or 1.5 mile time trials in 8:00. I seemed to be able to hold 80 second 400s, but not much better. Sure enough, in the 5000 I went through the 400 in dead list (out of 23 in my heat) in 80, but proceeded to clip off 80s just about every lap thereafter to finish 8th in 16:40, averaging exactly 80 seconds per lap.

I guess I ran close to my potential in that race, and a week later ran a very good (for me at 48) 2:45 marathon, feeling very, very good.

I am not suggesting that you will run a good marathon on track work alone, but once you have a good base of aerobic distance, a dose of short quality workouts can pay dividends in the marathon.

Haile Gebrselassie Update

Geb’s next race is a half-marathon in New York in March, but he says he has no plans for his next marathon, apart from saying it will probably be in Europe. “I’ve no idea right now. Sometime after September. The Berlin course I like very much. But the big aim is to save my power ‘til London 2012. Until then, two marathons a year, or less. And keep my speed with 10k’s and half-marathons…. As long as I keep my shape”. -Pat Butcher's blog on marathon world record holder Hallie GGebrselassie,who is now 37 years old.

Is Ryan Hall, who never runs anything other than a marathon every 6 months and one or two half marathons, paying attention? In order to excel at the marathon distance, there is no doubt that sharpening speed at shorter distances is helpful, especially following a couple of sub-par races. I am curious why Ryan continues to ignore what other top marathoners such as Hallie do to remain on top. Hall's PR's are 13:16 for 5K and 28:07 for 10K, slow compared to his marathon PR of 2:06:17. (According to The McMillan Running Calculator, Hall's 2:06:17 translates to 26:55 for 10K and 12:57 5K.)

Ryan is a great runner, but until he or his coach figures out that you need to race and PR at shorter distances, it's very doubtful he'll compete with the best. I hope he proves me wrong.

I'd love to see Hall, Ritz, Tegenkamp, Solinsky, and the rest at the U.S. Cross Country National Championships.

Geb Hits "The Wall" But Still Wins Berlin

Great analysis of Geb's world record attempt at The Science of Sport. 15:57 for the last 5K (his 5K splits between 25K and 35K were 4:35 each!) 2:06:08 was the winning time.

2 Fastest Marathons of All Time Go Head to Head in Berlin This Weekend!

Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie (2:03:59) is facing a stiff challenge Sunday in Berlin. Not only will Gebrelassie be attempting to break his record once again, he'll be facing Kenyan Duncan Kibet, who has run the 2nd fastest marathon all-time with his 2:04:27 at Rotterdam.

Gebrselassie thinks that he can at least slice off another 30 seconds from
his present marathon record. "If everything fits together perfectly then
may be even 2:02:59 would be possible," says the Ethiopian, who is going
for a record fourth consecutive victory at the real,- BERLIN-MARATHON -marathonguide.com

You can watch this one live at universalsports.com starting at 2:50 am EST.