Author: Marius

work. We put all our stuff into a rented taxi and it drives behind us to light up the road during the warmup. It is very dark – no lights around at all. Quite different to warmup under the stars. You get a nice, cold breeze while warming up. And right after the 5 km warmup down to the startingpoint it is just so that you can see the road in front of you with no problem. 8 hard repeats of running and in the middle of the workout you have the sunrise. This is perfect since the mornings get really hot very fast at the moment. Because recovery is crucial to altitude success you have no choice but to do all you can do avoid extra stress. This includes running at the coolest time of the day.

About two more weeks down here and I think I have had my fair deal of training stress at altitude. It will be nice to come down again to sea level with lots of good, hard mileage done 🙂

Marius

plantations to meet some people. We will pass places where a lot of great runners have been born. For example Wilson Kipketers birthplace – a very, very simple house in the middle of the rural farmlands. Strange to see when you know where he has reached in his life.

Quiet days up here,

Marius

example Abraham Cherono won the 12 km race with a HUGE margine. Even though he has placed high in the World Cross before and is a decent steepler it would be expected that the field was a bit closer.

I have had a great week of practice. I was left very tired on Thursday but had two days of fast running after that – with once again fresh legs. In total I managed to do all the work planned. Usually I have to cut a session down because of the tight and hard schedule but this week I got through all the hard work.

Some of the other Norwegians have left for Norway now. I will stay here a total of six weeks so I was the first to come and will be the last to go back home again. Six weeks may seem long but when you know what weather you have back in Norway compared to here……:)

I was only doing easy running yesterday and could have gone on a trip with some of the others down here to look at some wildlife (mini-safari) about 3 hours drive away. But I have been on similar trips before so I stayed in Eldoret. Thankfully… because the car broke down on the way and they had to get back with a lorry that came by (sitting on the outside and freezing at night). And the safari ? They saw about three animals and that was including a squirrel on the way back :)) Poor guys, next time they should head for Masai Mara or Serengeti national park instead…

All going well in Eldoret,

Marius

people in the Norwegian group down here went up to St.Patrick High school today for some sightseeing plus a visit to one of the good Kenyan camps. I have been there before so I decided to stay down in Eldoret to rest. Four years in a row down here and you have pretty much seen what can be seen in the Eldoret area 🙂

Training-tired but still going strong,

Marius

different. I have spoken to many other elite athletes and they say the same ; the biorythms are different at sea level compared to altitude. And many do this kind of change up here (run intervalls in the morning, and feel fresh very early)

The whole group of athletes went up there. And by 8 we were finished, just before the day gets hot. It is a great way to start the training week. You get in lots of hard, quality miles plus you feel like you started the new week out on the right way.

Back in Norway the Athletics Federation have hired both a new Sports director and a new Administrative leader. I think it looks really good. They both get very good references from alot of people. Will be quite interesting to see where they can bring Norwegian athletics which is quite down at the moment. It may take some time but I definately think it is possible.

Some studying to do now. I only have one exam left at the University for my degree so I am considering taking it either this spring or next fall. It is really no hurry but I just like to have some other things to think about while staying on these long training camps 🙂

Marius

to those specific workouts back three years at altitude. In exact times, heart-rate curves and lactate tests. So you get a very clear and complete picture of where you are in training.

Tomorrow is a double hard session. I have to run it very early and very late in the day because the hot January weather has hit Eldoret. Yesterday evening at around 5 was way to hot to run intervalls. You get used to it but in the beginning it is much better to avoid the sun as much as you can.

The others Norwegians down here are doing fine as well. Some of them are at altitude for the very first time so they need to be careful. 90 % of athletes at altitude the first time work too hard (myself included – three years ago) and break down the body much more than they realize before it is too late. You not only need discipline but you also need patient. Because you will not feel the stress until about a week later up here. You feel great and run hard the first week and you will feel horrible the next.

We went to Iten yesterday – up to 2400 meters altitude to meet Honore Hoedt the coach of the middle/distance runners of the Netherlands. We also met with Jim Svenøy, the Norwegian steepler. Quite a group of runners up there at the same time ; Lornah Kiplagat (World class marathoner), a 1.55 female 800 meter runner – 3rd World Champs Edmonton from Surinam, Bram Som 1.43 800 meters, Jim 8.12 Steepler, Gert-Jan Liefers 3.31/32 1500 m, Marko Koers about 3.32, another 1.45 800 meter runner, myself, Kamiel Maase 27.23 10000 m, a 2.10 marathoner, a 13.33 5k runner plus three girls all from 4.09 to 4.14 in the 1500 meters. Not bad. The surroundings were beautiful up there. It rains quite a bit so it is very green. Only 1 km from St. Patricks high school so this is right in the heart of distance running :))

Easy workouts today.

All going well,

Marius

manager Kim McDonald) in its prime years – with Komen, Ngeny, Kiptanui and the rest. I asked him what he thought about the current situation here in Kenya. He just shook his head ; things are not well organized at the moment – except Fila but that is only on the road races. Not well organized is strong words coming from a Kenyan….to say the least. Here nothing seems organized…:) One of the main “fabrics” of Kenyan talents is gone and I think – in 3-5 years we will see the results of this. The 800 meter runner explained how they used to do workouts down in the camp – the times (incredible) and the system. Quite clever and it cannot be compared with much else (expect maybe some of the much smaller Fila camps). Even Daniel Komen misses what he had done there – running his own camp in Kaptagat at the moment (w/Kibowen/Chepkuriu etc)

Maybe they will manage to change things down here but I think the corruption you find in Kenya/Kenyan athletics has scared away many of the “good” European managers from bringing up talents from the bottom. Now they only wait until they are well developed. But what when this development does not come anymore ? Who will they pick from ?

Just looking at the last few years. They won a bunch of medals in 2001 WC due to the tactics of coach Mike Kosgei. But where are the new faces ? I wonder if the Etiopians will catch up for real soon – not only with the top runners (where they are already at almost the same level) but also in depth. Time will tell.

A good session this morning after a really heavy one two days ago 🙂

Marius

elections over 2000 people were killed… But it was VERY quiet after the elections this time. People were happy about the results and very, very proud of how things had gone ; both about the new president (who won by a great margine) and all the support they had recived from other nations saying that the election had been going well.

It is still a national holiday here so it is quiet. People are just chatting to eachother about the political situation (politics is very big down here – probably because the democracy it so young) and how it will be. Lots of expectations so NARC, the new ruling coalition party, has alot of work to do to meet the demand of the people.

I have gone on a few easy runs down here so far. Feeling fine and I think I am ready for several weeks of hard training. Tomorrow a group of seven more Norwegians will arrive here – making it nine. All kinds of levels. It will be a nice change from the October/November stay :)))

All well !

Marius

previous times it has been really turbulent there after elections. So wish us luck :)))

Marius

continue to do just the same year after year. You have to take what works well and make it better and more advanced as every year goes by.

Tomorrow is a treadmill session is Oslo. I will travel the 120 km there in order to run it on the great Woodway treadmills. They can not be compared to any other kind of treadmill. The impact of treadmills, especiallly on the knees, can be quite hard. But the Woodway treadmills is like running on soft, wooden paths.

All going well – just sort of waiting for 25 degrees C 2000 meters altitude and Kenya 🙂

Marius