How They Train: Hobbs Kessler’s new training approach
Hobbs Kessler recently gave insights into his new training approach, revealing that he doesn't do long runs anymore. Say whatttt??? Let's talk about it...
WEEKLY WISDOM: HOBBS KESSLER’S FASCINATING TRAINING
HOBBS KESSLER’S BACKGROUND
Hobbs Kessler is a professional athlete sponsored by Adidas that runs for the Very Nice Track Club, a group coached by the legendary Ron Warhurst. Unlike many professional athletes who go through the NCAA before turning pro, Hobbs was talented enough to go straight from high school to the professional running scene. Amazingly, in his senior year at Skyline High School in Ann Arbor, Michigan, he ran his workouts with professional runners Nick Willis and Mason Ferlic, both from the Very Nice Track Club, while doing his easy days with his high school teammates. That year, he broke the US high school indoor mile record with a 3:57.66, won states in the 1600-meter, and ran a 3:34.36 1500-meter at the Portland Track Festival to break the North American U20 and US high school records, qualifying him for the 2021 US Olympic Trials. Crazily, that time was faster than the NCAA record at that time. Unsurprisingly, he was named the 2021 Gatorade National Track and Field Athlete of the Year. The day before the US Olympic Trials, he signed with Adidas, at which point he entered the professional running world. Entering into his professional career, it was not immediate success for him. It took time for him to get adjusted to the new lifestyle, and his first year as a pro was not what he had hoped for (stated by himself). However, coming into 2023, he came out strong, breaking the 1-mile road record with a 3:56.13 at the World Road Running Championships, following that up with a third place finish at the Kalakaua Merrie Mile in a 3:57.12 and a first place finish at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix with a 3:33.66 1500-meter against speedy boy (yes I said that) Jake Wightman. He has continued this momentum into 2024, coming in second place to Yared Nuguse at the Millrose Games Wanamaker Mile, running a ridiculously smooth personal best of 3:48.66, and coming in third place not long after at the World Indoors 1500-meter.
HIS NEW TRAINING APPROACH
Following Hobb’s stellar performance at the Wanamaker Mile this year, he had a very interesting post-race interview where he revealed details into his new training approach.
He later revealed further details to this with Matt Fox on the Sweat Elite Podcast, an episode I’d highly recommend you listen to.
Summarizing the above content, I came away with this understanding of his training. He runs on a seven-day cycle with Sundays off, running doubles Monday through Saturday of roughly six to seven miles in length with no long run (yup!). Hobb’s reasoning behind not doing a long run was that the fatigue induced by long runs was excessive and trailed into his next training week, having negative consequences as a result. Additionally, he always found that, in the past, doing an easy eight to ten miles as opposed to a 7-7 double (seven miles in the morning and seven miles in the afternoon) was too much for him, giving him that fatiguing feeling of “bonking,” as he likes to call it. By limiting each run to seven miles and doubling up, he is able to avoid that “bonking” feeling and get more miles on the week. As for the structure of his training week, here is how he outlined it to Matt:
Monday
Easy 7-7 double with the second run1 including wickets, drills, and speed development (e.g., warmup set of 40, 80, 120 at 1500-meter pace, 2-3x80 at 800-meter pace, 3x40 at 400-meter pace)
He said that roughly every other week, that speed development will be more intense with some really hard, maximal 40-meter reps to close. He believes this work has a bit of a cost (e.g., neuromuscular fatigue) given how fast the 40-meter reps can be but he thinks it’s well worth it for the mechanical and neuromuscular benefits.
Tuesday
Double threshold day with longer intervals in the morning at lower lactate levels then shorter intervals in the afternoon at higher lactate levels OR single threshold day and easy double
His threshold pacing is variable, ranging from 4:40/mile to 5:20/mile pace, depending on levels of fatigue, life stress, and other limiting factors. He runs them all by effort, often starting conservatively to err on the side of caution and allow room for progression.
Wednesday
Easy 7-7 double
Lift
He works with Jake Wightman’s strength coach who has helped him to develop robustness and power.
Thursday
Hill repeats (e.g., 4x600, 3x(300, 200, 100)) and easy double
He loves the hills for getting a great metabolic stimulus, reducing eccentric loading on the muscles, promoting good biomechanics, developing leg strength, and inducing less fatigue than flatter surfaces would (e.g., a track).
Friday
Easy 7-7 double
Saturday
Double threshold day with longer intervals in the morning at more conservative lactate levels then shorter intervals in the afternoon at higher lactate levels OR single threshold day and easy double
When in base building, this day involves threshold work as noted above. However, when in season, this day involves more race-specific work (3k to 1500-meter pace reps).
Lift if it’s a single threshold day
Sunday
No running (MAYBE a few miles if he’s feeling antsy)
Helps with glycogen replenishment, mental refreshment, and promoting longevity in the sport.
Lift if Saturday was a double threshold day
He noted that his preference would be to always have this as a full rest day, but seemingly there’s no other place to fit his second weekly lift.
Breaking this down, we have the following in his 75-90 mile weeks:
Three quality days on Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday as a threshold day, speed day, and threshold or race-specific day, respectively, with upwards of five quality sessions if two double threshold days are done
Two lifts on Wednesday and Saturday/Sunday
No running on Sunday
WHAT WE CAN TAKE AWAY FROM THIS
Although you must take every pro runner’s training with a grain of salt since they are basically superhuman (please don’t copy-paste a pro’s training into your own program), there is certainly a lot that can be learned from them. From Hobb’s training in particular, here are some key takeaways:
You don’t have to have a long run every week, nor do any within a training block, to perform at your best. You can get aerobically strong without long runs!
Hobbs is able to avoid the excessive fatigue that came with long runs for him while getting aerobically strong through the use of doubles, these doubles allowing him to still accumulate a large amount of weekly miles. Granted, long runs become more important as the race distance increases, particularly for the half marathon and full marathon where it’s almost a necessity (although I’d love for someone to prove me wrong by smashing their personal best in a half/full off of solely doubles).
Do what makes you feel good and don’t do what doesn’t make you feel good.
For Hobbs, runs longer than seven miles start to wear him down, especially long runs, this being the reason for him maxing out his runs at seven miles and doubling. This approach keeps him fresher which makes him better prepared for his workout days. Feel good, train well.
Running seven days a week is not necessary in many cases and can even be physically and mentally detrimental.
Hobbs noted that many top-level athletes who’ve lasted very long in the sport took completely off once a week, including the likes of Nick Willis and Nick Symmonds. Giving your body a day to fully rest can be crucial to staying healthy, fresh, and motivated.
Increasing the number of quality sessions in a week can make sense in certain circumstances, particularly for the more competitive athlete, given the fact that you can squeeze in more quality work while forcing yourself to stay within appropriate efforts (as otherwise you will face the consequences).
Although double threshold days are a prime example of this, this concept can be applied in other ways, too. For instance, you could add one additional workout to the week, thus increasing training density (the amount of quality work done in a given timeframe). You may go from doing workouts on Tuesday and Friday to doing them on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday/Saturday. When approaching training in this way, you must be careful not to overdo each session, as otherwise you risk digging yourself into a hole. For the same reason, you will need to decrease the intensity and/or duration of each, or at least some, of the workouts, and possibly make some (or all) of your easy days easier.
A big benefit to this, outside of accumulating more quality work, is that you have an opportunity to hit another stimulus such as top-end speed development.
If you have further questions, please ask me of course! See my contact information at the bottom of this post; I would love to help.
Next up on All Things Running… The importance of a good pre-run and post-run routine.
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If you want personalized coaching and/or training advice, I’d be happy to help. You can email me at jacobreesmontgomery@gmail.com or send me a direct message on Instagram.
It was a bit hard to tell whether this is done in the first or second run of the day.