Kenenisa Bekele is often regarded as the greatest distance runner in History with 3 Olympic gold medals, 1 Olympic silver medal, 5 World championship gold medals, 1 World indoor gold medal and an astonishing 12 World cross country gold medals.
He broke 4 World records throughout his career. Both his 5000m and 10000m world records were recently broken by Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei. He still holds the 5000m indoor World record of 12:49.60, as well as the World indoor 2000m record of 4:49.99 which he broke 3 days prior to the 5000m one.
Bekele also has the 2nd fastest marathon time in history with 2:01:41, just behind Eliud Kipchoge’s World record. Bekele’s marathon time for context is a 4 minute 38 second mile, 26.2 times in a row. Just under 13 Miles per hour, for 2 hours, 1 minute and 41 seconds.
The main question this leaves is; why is Kenenisa Bekele so good. Mentality, genetics and lifestyle all big factors, but one which is undeniable is his training.
What is Kenenisa Bekele’s training?…
This next part provides a general training plan used by Bekele as well as the rest of the Ethiopian National Team. In 2004, at the start of Bekele’s track dominance.
| Typical Weekly Schedule | |
| Monday | |
| AM | 3 hour long run in the forest (5:40/mile) |
| PM | none |
| Tuesday | |
| AM | 1.5 hour run; stretching |
| PM | 1 hour easy |
| Wednesday | |
| AM | hard 15km – 30km run on roads (half marathon – marathon pace); stretching |
| PM | 1 hour easy |
| Thursday | |
| AM | sprints in spikes; jogging; long warmup; 20 minutes stretching |
| PM | 1 hour easy |
| Friday | |
| AM | 15 – 20 x 400m hills with jog recovery; 15 – 20 minutes stretching |
| PM | 1 hour easy |
| Saturday | |
| AM | track work; 3 x 1200m to 8 x 2000m; stretching |
| PM | 1 hour easy |
| Sunday | |
| AM | 1 hour very easy |
| PM | none |
| Specific Workouts | |||
| Session | Pace | Specifics | Workout Goal |
| 6 x 800m | 1:57/800m | lap 1 at 1:04; lap 2 at 0:53 | final lap kick |
| 6-10 x 1000m | 2:27/1000m | 3 minutes recovery | 3000m pace work |
| 3 x 2000m | 5:00/2000m | 3 minutes recovery | 5000m pace work |
| 5 x 2000m | 5:15/2000m | 10,000m pace work | |
| threshold | 4:25-4:45/mile | 15k – 30k (half marathon to marathon pace) | threshold |
| basic speed | plyometrics and strides (100m) | basic speed and kick | |
| strength | light weight lifting at high repetitions | strength endurance |
An Ethiopian newspaper reported on a workout run by the Ethiopian National Team during June of 2004. The athletes ran 7000m (in Addis Ababa at altitude) at an average pace of around 2:40/kilometre. They split 13:22 for 5000m on their way to a 7000m time between 18:40 and 18:45.