Vorsprung's BC sessions are in a group, at a set-pace: based on the slowest person in the group. They are methodical and rhythmic sessions. A simple, comfortable pace and constant. No talking. No dipping-out of formation (whether single-file or block). No heart-rate monitors. No steps-per-minute.
These can act as a recovery session, to some degree. Though, it is not a true recovery session, unless, you under-take a different discipline. If you are a runner your recovery session should be a cycle or swim, so you are allowing the legs to recover from the constant impact and use of the leg muscles in a particular manner.
Like Vorsprung, Colm O’Connell (Brother Colm) often does things very differently to the mainstream. He loathes the modern phenomenon of analysis—all the metrics like VO2 max and stride length - that dictates the regimes of most of today’s elite athletes.
“If it works, it works. Why must we analyse everything?” he says.
He prefers to train his athletes by feel, not by numbers and the results speak for themselves. The bottom-line is: if it is working, it is working! Since he began working in Kenya in 1976, 25 world champions and four Olympic gold medalists have come through Brother Colm’s programmes, making him the most successful running coach in history.
He is a firm believer in listening carefully to the body. Emphasising correct form in training (he will sometimes drive with the group on longer runs and remind them of form, even at slower paces).
He asserts, that, the hills in Iten are the key to the strength and power of his athletes. Over time, this builds incredible strength.
The group complete fairly low mileage (50-60 miles / week maximum).
The 800 metres runners will run at maximum 55 miles in a week, and often less.
But, the over-all intensity is on another level.
The longest run he’ll do all year is 12k, or about 50 minutes and the longest repetition ever done on track is 800 metres: and this is rare. Even the quantity / volume of repetitions on the track is low.
What’s, also, interesting is how differently they treat recovery than most: recovery during work-outs and recovery in general, Very rarely will a recovery be set and locked-in for a work-out. It’s normally rough 3-4 minutes, or walk 200 metres.
It’s drilled into them from a young age to listen to their body. If you’re tired, you don’t do the planned work-out. They can always tell the difference between being tired and very tired. Tired is okay. Very tired isn’t.
This is how BC Sessions aid the listening process. Vorsprung teaches people to listen to their bodies, from within and from without. Listening to the inside from the outside, and to the outside from the inside.
The huge amount of stretching, that, they do with Brother Colm - an average of 30-40 minutes per day, sometimes more, also, helps this process of listening to and learning about their bodies.
Vorsprung's BC Sessions are more than simply performing a physical act. It is a time of reflection. A time to off-load. A time to embed. A time to embody.
In Iten, they consume no supplements at all: no sports drinks; no protein supplements et al. They eat purely non-processed foods and they eat no junk foods. This is part of the Vorsprung BC session too. The session is a complex, as much as Vorsprung is, itself.
If you are training properly you can not survive on junk foods or no food. If you are 'managing' on no food or junk foods, then, you are not training properly or hard enough.
During a BC Session the group will begin to sync (strides or strokes or revolutions). Vorsprung's belief in syncing helps to bond a group together. It helps slower athletes be ‘driven’ by faster ones. In a race situation, this aids them, by allowing them to over-take those ahead with more ease and more efficiency. In a group, the slower ones will get pulled-along.
This makes the BC Session truly inclusive as it supports the less able, the slower, the varying ages and so on.
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