Eliud Kipchoge (born 5 November 1984) is a Kenyan long-distance runner.
Lifestyle
I don’t have extra money to actually make my mind go haywire. I am a human being and I stay as a human being. Money stays away. I’m not working with money; money is in the bank. I want to live a simple life.
ELIUD KIPCHOGE: THE HUMBLE HOME LIFE IN RURAL KENYA BEHIND REMARKABLE ATHLETIC SUCCESS | BBC
Workout
On a typical day in training camp, Kipchoge starts his running routine at 5.45am. He trains twice a day, six days a week — Monday to Saturday — and aims to get in between 200 to 218 kilometres each week, although not every day is the same.
“I try not to run 100 percent,” he explained in an interview with Outside magazine. “I perform 80 percent on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday and then at 50 percent Monday, Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday.”
Twice a week, Kipchoge will also work on his strength and mobility, focusing on improving his glutes, hamstrings, and core muscles using exercises like bridges, planks, and single-leg deadlifts. The focus with these workouts isn’t to get stronger, but rather to prevent injuries.
“The idea is to create a very basic balance in the body,” says Marc Roig, the physiotherapist who oversees the routine. “We know the important part is running, so we want to complement it a little bit and avoid any negative interference.”
Kipchoge is also meticulous about documenting his training, logging every session and all the details in a notebook — a practice he began in 2003 and still does to this day. “I document the time, the kilometres, the massage, the exercises, the shoes I’m using, the feeling about those shoes,” he said.
For Kipchoge, recovery runs start at a shuffle, typically an 8:30-to-8:45-minute-mile pace, and slowly build up to finish around 6:30 to 7 minutes per mile. That’s starting at four minutes per mile slower than his marathon pace, and still two minutes per mile off his marathon pace at the end
Diet
When it comes to his nutrition, like everything else in his life, Kipchoge keeps it simple. In addition to drinking a generous amount of water (three litres) each day, his diet is mainly made up of homemade bread, local fruits and vegetables, meat, and ugali, a dense maize-flour porridge.
He also doesn’t take any supplements. “I’m not having any problems with my body so I don’t need to supplement,” he told Runner’s World. “Growing older you don’t recover as fast, but all-in-all I’m doing well.”
In between training sessions, he’ll take an hour-long nap and also spend time doing chores around the training camp — whether it’s cutting up vegetables for the dinner, doing maintenance work in the garden or scrubbing the toilets. Once the day is done, Kipchoge usually heads off to bed no later than 9pm, getting just under 9 hours of sleep each night.
Although Kipchoge is not entirely plant-based, it is the majority of his food intake. Kipchoge has cut out most of the meat and dairy from his diet.
Kenyans overall predominately eat a diet of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes, seeds, and whole grains.
Sources:
- https://balancethegrind.co/daily-routines/eliud-kipchoge-daily-routine/
- https://runnerclick.com/eliud-kipchoge-diet/
- https://www.outsideonline.com/health/running/eliud-kipchoge-marathon-workout-training-principles/