Training of Said Aouita

All the below information about the training of Noureddine Morcelli was taken from the book 'Running with the legends', by Michael Sandrock.

Profile

Date of birth: November 2^nd, 1960, Morocco
- Previous world record holder for the 1500m, 2000m, 3000m, and 5000m
- 1984 Olympic gold for the 5000m
- 1988 Olympic bronze for the 800m

Said Aouita is known as arguably the most versatile runner ever. Sebastian Coe once said in reference to Aouita "Besides winning 800s, he could run a brilliant 1500m and an unbelievable 5000m. In terms of range of distances he's unsurpassed. The biggest gap is between 1500m and 5000m and he made the jump with sublime indifference".

Aoutia played sport and ran from an early age, his athletic potential was picked up by his childhood soccer coach, Aouita then began training and started winning races immediately.

The Lone miler

Aouita was self-coached, he is reported as stating that "I prefer always to be alone", "I have no coach". Therefore, Aouita's training has remained mainly a secret, however various information has been made available over the years. Points concerning the training of Aouita are outlined below:

• Aouita deeply believes in the value of altitude training.
• He is reported as stating that he trains “between 50 and 70 miles a week”
• Intense track sessions were the backbone of Aouita's training. He would always stretch for a long time before his track intervals and all his intervals were done at an intense pace.
• His track sessions would vary, depending on whether or not he had an 800, 1500m or 5000m race around the corner.
• He never ran over 15-16 km.
• The quality of his hard work-outs was everything. He had easy days and he had hard days. He took as many days recovery between his hard days as he felt he needed to be properly recovered for his next hard session.
• Examples of track sessions include:
  • 4 by 3 by 400m (1 minute rest between the reps, and 3minute rest between the sets). All in approximately 57 seconds.
  • 10 by 400m (90 seconds rest) all in 53-56. Average 54.5seconds.
  • He often did time trials in training. He is recorded as stating that he often ran 3000m time trials in around 7:35 in training.