In a few hours I will be off to South Africa. I feel the timing is perfect for it now – considering the three weeks I have had back in Norway. Time for some altitude training and warm conditions again…..
The next update will be from…
Pretoria,
All well 🙂
Marius
It is getting closer now to the travel down to South Africa. So I am trying to put in as much hard work as possible so that it will be ok to rest during the travel and the first period thereafter.
Training has been going well. I have done…
fast evening sessions down by “Frognerkilen”, a 2-3 km long stretch by the Oslo harbour for some variation. If you have snow and ice other places, this place may still be nice to run on. I will try and combine those sessions with the trainings of the club Vidar, where my friend Henrik is training.
I cannot wait to get to a warmer place now. Even though the stay will be somewhat shorter than I normally would stay. They say that Pretoria will be hot this time a year – but so will Athens :))) No problem. Since spending hours running hard in 35-40 degrees C in Chicago and Indiana as a young runner heat has never bothered me much. Plus the training stays in Kenya has helped too. Sort of like altitude – once your body gets a hang of it, it is fine for the next times also 🙂
Time for the morning training,
Marius
I am now starting to pick up the training pace after the Kenya stay. And I hope to keep working on that feeling until I will travel to altitude again.
This time I will stay in South Africa, in the Pretoria area for one part of the stay and a…
bit outside for the rest. In Pretoria, there will be a good group of sprinters (John Ertzgaard 20.47 200m etc) that I know well from before. Plus their coach, Leif Olav Alnes will be there – and he has been very helpful with training ideas and methods that has also influenced my training since the 2000 season. I am really looking forward to it – they have a strong and tough training mentality. Hard, intelligent work all through. Which brings the right kind of atmosphere during such a camp.
Training conditions have been a bit up and down here recently because of snow on top of ice. Combined with around zero degrees celsius.. hard to run moderatly fast even on the longer runs. So I am sticking to the treadmill even more now. It is good for both frequency and intensity so no problem at all.
Tomorrow is an easy day of training before going hard again on Sunday. Because it is post-altitude training I am very careful to run the training sessions on particular days/periods so the training week (in terms of day/quality sessions) vary quite a bit.
All well from here !
Marius
I am back again from Kenya now after about two and a half weeks down there.
Staying close to Iten, in the remote higher areas proved to be a very good choice as training results continued to improve throughout the stay. The cooler…
temperatures, the hills and the quitness for recovery made it possible to work just that bit harder on each workout.
In the future when I go to Kenya this will probably be my training base. After staying for almost a year of my life in Eldoret, it is good with some change :))
The rest of this training week will be easy before going into a hard period of training after that. When things are on the way up, it is important to use that feeling to build endurance as much as possible this time a year. So that will be the main focus – hard, hard treadmill sessions – with short recoveries and variation of distance. Hopefully this will give another lift, as the stimuli will be different than in Kenya at altitude. Your body adapts very good and quickly to new things, and the change both in weather, running surface and altitude brings you into a totally different “zone of training” even though the aim is the same. Then, going back again to altitude after some time gives you another lift etc. It is very close to what I did in 2001, after spending 2000 working on the ideas together with my former coach Frank. We definately were on the right track and I hope to develop this even further this year. And so far it looks like its working 🙂
From Oslo and the Norwegian winter,
Marius
I am down again in Eldoret for a short time after spending lots of time in the area above the city.
This morning I did a 2000 meter session up there. The rolling mountains at that altitude takes every breath out of you :)) But I was very…
satisfied with the results so the quietness and atmosphere up there must have worked positively. Plenty of rest, plenty of good people to train with and in general just plenty of good, old Kenya…
“Mzungo, mzungo!”
Marius
Everything is going really well here in Kenya. Though internet access is difficult, so I will have to be brief.
My body has responded better than expected to the first part of the altitude stay 🙂 That usually gives you some important…
signals for the remaining part also – that your body is ready now. All the factors added together, such as times, recovery, sleep and general well being put together gives you a good view of the situation 🙂
I hear we have some snow in Norway now. So I just managed to get out of the country in time. Just like last year, but then it was already in October.
All well from Kenya !
Marius
I have decided to stay in the area a bit above Eldoret for this altitude stay. Therefore, updates will be limited for the first period down there as there is no connection up in the mountainsides.
It will be a great chance to build endurance as…
it is higher in altitude than I normally stay in Kenya.
from Oslo airport,
Marius
In under two days I will be down in Kenya. I cannot wait to get down there.
I started the new year with a good, hard training session today which shows that the good progression is continuing. Now it is just to build on that down there. I…
know exactly how to do it – based on the last years experience with altitude and Kenya in particular. Most will be based on the training principles put together in 2000-2001, but also expanded with some new elements that I look forward to trying.
I will be met in Nairobi by one of my Kenya friends, Philemon. Then we will stay overnight there, do a couple of training session before flying up to Eldoret. Where I will probably be one of very few mzungos around, as we do not travel as a big group of runners this year. But that will be fine, I like training and hanging out with the Kenyans.
A happy new year to all of you !
Marius
In under a week I will be down in Kenya again. I am currently checking out different options in terms of location but it will be somewhere close to Eldoret, probably the Kaptagat area. The living standard will be lower there, but that is no problem…
as long as training conditions are good. Plus the altitude is a few hundred meters higher and the air fresher.
We have had a great training fall here in Nlrway, because of the mild weather so I am well prepared for the outdoor running in Kenya. Usually it takes a few days to get used to running intervalls on the ground again after weeks in treadmills but now it should be ok.
I cannot wait to get under the sun again and meet my friends there. Five years in a row down there makes you feel at home 🙂
Marius
Finally home to Sandefjord for the holiday after a very, very busy fall.
The good thing is that I managed to finish up my degree in Political Science and English at the Univ. of Oslo. Plus I managed to train properly while doing so. Leaving…
all options open for the next year.
I have been lucky during my running career. I have enjoyed the sport, the travel, the planning and the training alot during the last years. But I have been lucky and also had time to make studies the priority during the fall. Lots of reading and catching up but now I have the “bachelor” from Univ of Oslo plus the one year from the Univ. of Indiana for jobs and future choices after my running career.
Training has been going nice and steady the last months. Today I had a threshold session in the morning before leaving for Sandefjord in the evening. And showed a good, steady incrase in speed compared to the previous weeks. Which is inspirational because you know you have done the work needed during the fall despite the studies. That gives me inspiration for January and Kenya. I am in well enough shape to go down there and “hammer” the hard kilometers at altitude.
All well from here !!
Marius
