Author: Marius

treshold workouts I do – and I only do them at altitude and when I am fresh in my legs. After 60 minutes he dropped out and I finished by myself. But today, on a similar workout he was with me the whole way. So he is getting quickly used to the work.

He still has to build some more running muscles though. He is now 1.80 tall and 56 kg 🙂 I asked about his diet and it consisted of the following : breakfast tea with sugar, lunch ugali (packed maize) with some milk if avaliable, dinner ugali…. try that and run three workouts during the same day 🙂

I am now midway through the altitude stay and I am still feeling fine. I have had two really tough weeks here and will go easy the next one. I need it now to keep the system in balance. In the easy week I will focus more on speed, plyos and strength before going back to the hard distance work again.

You find some strange running examples here sometimes. The guard outside the hotel is one example. He works from 7 in the morning until 6 in the evening. He stands outside the hotel the whole day on his feet and have very little to eat and drink. His workout schedule ? Very simple : 32 km in the morning as hard as he can. 32 km in the evening as hard as he can. Every day… We have given him some guidance now so hopefully he will improve a bit. You need a LITTLE more system than that 🙂 Aneasy day or two for example…. or maybe some more speed work.. but it still says alot about the mental attitude. Go out and run. Simple as that.

Very easy workouts this evening in great weather here in Eldoret,

Marius

champ), Richard Limo (WC 2001), Moses Kiptanui, Benjamin Limo, Leah Malot etc. watching the races.

An interesting observation struck me as I watched the large field of Kenyans race the different races. Much more so than in for example college or high school races in the US you can see the how the difference in running economy determines the racers performance. In the Kenyan field, it seemed like almost the only difference between nr.10-20-30-40 etc was how he ran…Their bodies seemed to be made the same – with almost the same internal abilities, but the strides made all the difference between the runners. These similar internal abilities (blood oxygen transport/muscle fibres/lungs/light skeletal buildup) seems to me to be much more similar in the Kenyans than any other (mostly) homogenous group. So if you have a Kenyan with a great running stride, he will almost automatically run fast. That is not the way with mzungos…

All is going well here. Some days with beautiful, warm weather and great runs on the Platue above the city of Eldoret… :))

Marius

second day up here once. Not to be recommended, I though I was about to die 🙂

I am feeling better for each day up here. The relaxing lifestyle, plenty of rest, good food and great weather/trainingconditions make progress possible at a very high level of performance. I will go into the hard middle part of the altitude stay next week, but with already good mileage in my legs.

You get little things here and there that reminds you of the Kenyan running mentality. Yesterday, Philemon Boit the coach down here was asked if he was training at the moment (he is now 41) He replied : “Only twice” That is….only twice a day :))) To the great surprise to the mzungo that asked. Three times training up here, 6, 10 and 6 again is normal routine. I have done that, but decided to stick with most twice a day runs. Their morning run is extremely slow, only 6-7 minute pr km usually (with a bit harder at the end if it is an easy day)

I came home totally out of it after the training this morning. 32 km, with most of it at hard intervall pace. That takes some energy out of you….. I dragged myself into the hotel only to see that the waiter was ready with a big bottle of cold Coke !!! How sweet that tasted :)))))

All going well in Eldoret,

Marius

200 meter splits did not make sense. One 200 meter seemed longer than the other. Well it turns out the track is only 388 meters (!). Only in Kenya…. but I guess if take into account the bumps and holes during a lap it would probably add up to about 400 meter 🙂 The session felt fine, I was just working my way through some track reps after a hard session this morning. The length of the track reminds me of two years ago when I asked Brother Colm at St Patricks High School about the 1.49.4 Kipketer is registred at in the 800 meters at the age of 13. I asked if his age was correct. “Yes it is”, he said. But added :”though the track was too short and the watches too slow”…

Bumped into Daniel Komen at the hotel yesterday. I have been in races with him many times but it is sort of strange to just bump into someone like that like you do here in Eldoret. Inspirational to put it that way.

Great training conditions now. A bit rain during the night makes the paths soft and nice. Sunny and warm during the day, fine running temperature in the evenings and morning.

All well !

Marius

the morning flight. So I got two good sessions yesterday. Same comments like usual when a mzungo comes running through the Kenyan rural areas. Yesterday the comments were “how are you mzungo” (about 15 times) and “bring me to America”. Plus from a five year old who simply said “how are you mzungo, give me your watch” 🙂

I did a quality session today and was feeling fine in the morning. Since I am here alone at the moment I have to take lactate acid tests during the runs myself. But I have found a great way to bring with me the equipment while runnig and an effective routine to do the testing. I used the first two intervalls today to tune into the lactate treshold and then stayed there for the rest of the session.

I am getting some massage this afternoon. Which is a story by itself… the harder they do it, the better they think it is… sort of like driving down here ; the faster you can drive, the better driver you are.. the theory behind giving you really hard muscle treatment is that you have to “break the rocks inside the muscles”… 🙂 No reason to argue against that…

Easy day tomorrow. I will stay here for quite some time and will gradually build up the shape.

All well from Eldoret,

Marius

will be back at the place where most of the worlds best distance runners are from. No better place to start the running season.

We have planned most of the training for the stay now. It is extremely hard. In one way I look forward to it, but in another way I know it will be on the edge of what I can handle. It is a challenge. But I can rest alot down there and the climate/atmosphere makes you recovery much faster than in Norway. Altitude is a great benefit, but I think the training conditions are just as important for choosing Kenya for winter training.

I will meet coach Philemon Boit down in Nairobi when we arrive. They soon have elections (might be some turbulance) down there, so it is nice to have a native guide with us a bit. It is my seventh time down there so I know my way around. But you should always be careful, there is no need to take any risks.

Next update from Eldoret !

Marius

Brrrr……

Down in Kenya I will get perfect running conditions, great weather and the most relaxing running atmosphere you can imagine. It surprises me that not more elite athletes use Kenya as their training ground (except the Kenyans themselves, of course 🙂 )

So I am just hanging on with training before that. I was a bit tired on todays run but felt strong on Tuesday. Every week, better times in practice. Very inspirational.

So all well from here ! Looking forward to some sun again…

Marius

the formal and practical experience we were looking for. The rest of the team will look like last year, with Leif Olav Alnes, Ståle Jan Frøynes, Ole Holt Olsen and Arild Abrahamsen. All of them have either bachelor or master degrees in sports science or medical school education. An extremely strong combination of great people to work with. I think you have to look far out to find a team this strong..

It is with great relief that we now have these things ready. I have started training for next years season already and it makes things alot easier when you know who you will work with. It has been a real puzzle, but now things are ready to go.

The last week of training has been hard and demanding but rewarding when you look at progression. I feel back in shape again after three and a half week of training. Now it is just to plan things in detail onwards. Where to go and what to do. What I know for sure is that I will soon leave for Kenya and do altitude training down there. The outside temperature is getting close to 0 degrees C (32 F) here now and you can get much more good training done at 25 degrees down in Kenya.

Today I did a double hard session. In the morning 6×2000 meters treshold (comfortable) and in the afternoon 3×8 minutes hill work hard (well above the treshold) I was a bit heavy on the morning workout, which was shorter than normal due to the hard evening training. But then this afternoon I was feeling great and finished well within the times I have had earlier in the year. So I feel well and strong. No more symthoms on the feeling I had this summer :))

All well from here,

Marius

out of it the three-four first day after the hard weeks. It is sort of an anti-climax. But my goal is not to feel light during the easy week, but to lift my body going into the next hard one. Because that is where the most challenging work will be. I am very satisfied with the start this year. I am motivated and I am hungry for success again.

I have also started planning the altitude stays for next season. I will probably do one already this fall. The last weeks of training has been promising and I feel ready for it. When it gets dark and cold here in Norway during the fall, there is no better thing to do than to go south 🙂

Short sprint session tomorrow and some jumping work. Just to keep the muscles going a bit.

Marius