many places when travelling, and been to many training camps, but there simply is no other place for distance training that compares to Kenya. The temperature is around 20 degrees C in the morning, going up to 26-30 during the day before going down again in the evening. We usually run at 7.30 am and 5 pm. It is great to be out in the fresh air up in the highlands on the soft red cinder, just floating through every stride. In five days down here I have gotten all motivation and strength back that I will need for the rest of the winter. Because of the Olympics I got a slow start to the training (even though I have been doing the work I wanted) in the sense that I was going through the motions, without really putting everything into it. That is usually how it is when starting up for a new year. It takes some time to put the old behind and look straigh forward for the coming year and challenges.
We are 10 people down here. They are Henrik Sandstad (14.09 5k),Susanne Wigene (15.41 5km at the age of 21) Kristian Gautesen (around 9 min 3000), Anita Haakenstad Evertsen (2.33 marathon, 96 Olympic participant, Linn Nybraaten (about 10.30 3000 m.) and Olav Humlebrekke (4.04 1500 m.) Also Frank Evertsen, my phhysiologist from the Olympic Training team (Olympiatoppen) is with us, with the two children he has with Anita (2 months and 2 1/2 years old). So it is a good mix of elite runners and serious runners at national level, with an age range of 19 to 32. They are all doing very well, and especially Henrik and Susanne are looking extremely strong in the hard AT (anaerobic treshold – right before you start accumulating lactic acid in your legs eg. “getting tired”) training sessions. I think they can surprise some people this summer !
The rest of the day, when we are not training, we are doing absolutely nothing. I think Kenya is the only place I can really relax….in Norway I am always running around having things to do. Here you are totally isolated….no phones ringing, not much email, really nothing to take care of. At the hotel next to ours, they have a very nice swimming pool with sun beds and everything, so we relax there. It is like being on holiday at altitude ! Then, right down the street a Swiss man has started a gym, with all kinds of equipment, so we do our strength work there. 200 meter up the street is Kipchoge Stadium with a cinder track of good conditions, and 400 meters away from the hotel, we have the great stepps with hundreds of miles of red hard packed mud paths to run on. What more can you ask for ? 🙂
I have to go now, but will try to update later this week,
All well from me,
Marius