Ok, I haven't posted anything for a while, I know. Now though I have something fairly interesting to put up here... I'm writing this from Iten (pronounced like playing battleships "E:10"), Kenya. One of the best, if not THE best, running hotspots in the world.
Situated up at 2500m elevation in the Rift Valley region, with a great climate and hard-working Kenyan work ethic, it is a great place to come and train. The locals are very hospitable and friendly, with every child you run (or even walk) past turning with a wide smile and waving with a chirpy "How are you?" Any of the local runners (including up to the many elite athletes who reside here for months at a time) are very happy to invite an aspiring runner along for any of their runs or jogs... but once there its up to the invitee to try and STAY with the rest of the runners. Most train 2 if not 3 times per day (6am, 9am and 4pm) and just know its what they're here to do, there are no excuses.
When you are training and racing as a chance to earn money, as your occupation and provide for your family, the idea of risking injury on a muddy morning run (we all head onto the "All weather trail" for these times) or taking a rest day is a very hard notion to validate to yourself.
I'm up here with my fellow professional service providers from The Running Centre: Raf Baugh and Ben Green. We are also lucky enough to have Philo Saunders (Exercise Physiologist and consistent 1500m Australian National Finalist) come along for our 2 week trip, staying at the High Altitude Training Centre, set up by Lornah Kiplagat.
The air is thin, the training is hard but we rest just as hard between sessions. For many of the nights we have been here it has generally rained down hard somewhere between 5pm and 5am making the soft clay unsealed roads that surround Iten, very soft underfoot and you end up with an extra 1kg attached to each shoe by the end of an easy (well EASY up here isn't even easy) jog. And then by the same afternoon, if you head out for a second run, you'll be stomping along on baked-rock-hard clay.
The track session we did this morning (along with about 100 other Kenyan athletes spread across the field) was a 400m rep session. The hard dirt track is actually quite nice to run over, especially once "lane one" becomes a well worn path to follow.
Most of the athletes were doing 10-20 x 400m with around 1 - 2 min break. I opted for just 2 sets of 4, seeing as I've only been up here a week, while Philo pushed out 3, 2 and 1 with a break between but he was moving very well and was asked to lead out most of the reps with a simple gesture and "Muzungo, you lead... 62!" and then they'd all crowd behind him and push to run a 59 sec rep anyway!
I'll try to post a bit more of a story before we leave on the 18th Nov. Photos and video will be put up on The Running Centre and Front Runner Facebook pages over time.
Gotta run
:-) Marc
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