Home Of Champions

Hakuna matata!  I'd love to say I'm currently rehearsing for a role in the Lion King musical but alas, my acting skills only go so far.  Instead, I'm doing something far more exciting (IMO) and slightly better suited to my talents (again, IMO) which is living, breathing, sleeping and dreaming about running out in Kenya. I'm in Iten, living a simple but sufficient lifestyle, getting some altitude training in before I head back to the UK to take part in a few low-key races.  This is my second time in Kenya and it only took me 6 years to come back!  First world problems and all that, you know, work and life making it rather difficult to just up sticks for a stint of training!  The stars finally aligned so here I am, at the home of champions.

Karibu! Iten, the running mecca of world.

At 2400m, Iten is considered an ideal training spot for many International athletes, along with hundreds of Kenyans, probably easily a thousand or more in fact.  It’s interesting to see the vast number of athletes training in the hope of “making it”.  Making it for the majority is simply getting a race abroad to try and win some money which is no easy feat given the competition they face at home.  Yet they dedicate themselves to the cause, training 7 days a week and most days twice daily.

Some of the Run Fast athletes chillaxing.  I'm the one on the left...

Whilst here, I’m lucky enough to be staying with a really good group of Run Fast athletes rather than having some of the home comforts that a few of the more commercial camps offer.  I really enjoy the simpler lifestyle which makes me wonder why I live in London of all places!  Anyway, I’m eating plenty ugali, the magic Kenyan staple food.  It’s just maize flour mixed with water and cooked until it goes quite hard.  It can be quite bland but I’m more than happy to chow down on it with some meat stew or spinach and vegetables. 

Ugali with spinach and vegetables. Very common dinner, makes you run really fast!

Food is only part of the picture here and the main task is to get some running in.  I came here in decent shape having just run a solo 64:53 at Brighton half but the altitude takes some getting used to.  At times I feel like I haven’t run for years, struggling up hills and breathing far too hard, and that’s just the easy runs.  After a few days acclimatising I was feeling pretty good and decided to test out a bit of pace so I jumped in with the ladies fartlek session of 25 x 1min on 1min off.  I was a little concerned I would struggle with the pace and the hills but I ended up pacing the whole session with another guy and we even had to slow it down a little half way in as we had dropped all but 2 ladies, oops.  That was the last time the ladies wanted me to run with them as they said “you killed us”!

Fartlek session, choo choo, jump aboard!

The tables were quickly turned though as I completed my first "long run" with the men. I say "long run" as that seems to be what the Saturday run is called even though it can be as short as 20km or 25km some weeks, though a more appropriate 30km or 35km other weeks.  They typically start easy but quickly pick up to a good pace so this adds to making the run harder.  This one was 25km and was going great for the first 15km, helped immensely by being more or less downhill.  Out here, the laws of gravity work both ways so what goes down must go up.  That made the last 10km quite a struggle, getting harder and harder with each hill, sucking air to try to give my muscles the much needed oxygen they were crying out for.  The hills are probably the thing I've struggled with the most so far. Not only are you working harder to get up the hill, but it is like the extra effort is taking away any spare oxygen so the end result is your legs just feel completely empty and dead.

Kamariny track, nice and early so not too busy yet.  If you look closely you will see the lane 1 groove.

At least on the flat my legs are coping and the main bit of flat running I've done is at the infamous Kamariny dirt track.  It gets used so much that there is a lane 1 groove carved out so you have to be careful with your footing at times, often landing on the banking of the groove throwing you slightly off balance.  The track is a slightly abnormal shape with shorter straights and longer bends and I've been told it is long, anything from 405m to 420m!  I'm pretty sure it's about right otherwise the 60s laps I see some of them running are even more impressive.  #tracktuesday here is a sight to behold as hundreds of runners descend to complete their workouts.  Some going as early as 7am to avoid the crowds and the dust cloud that inevitably whips up due to more runners lapping and the wind blowing off the Rift Valley picks up.

Sundays are for relaxing so we went to the viewpoint to check out the mighty Rift Valley

I've acclimatized enough to be able to get some decent sessions. In some ways I'm quite enjoying running and totally ignoring pace as I know it still counts, plus, if it's what the Kenyans do then it can't be all bad.  I'm now really looking forward to running a bit harder but at the same time I have to be careful to not overdo things so a bit of less is more should help. At least I can just chill out and relax most of the day which is a huge benefit.  Keep on running and until next time, safari njema!

Mile End Track Sessions

I've been asked about the track sessions held down at the Mile End track a number of times this year so figured it would be a good idea to get some info down to help others considering joining the #tracktuesday fun.  I've provided a very quick summary of what it's all about but there is plenty of detail further down below the map.

Where? Mile End Stadium
When? Every Tuesday 7:30pm
What? Track session focusing on vo2 max
How much? £3.20 track entrance fee (£26.45 for a quarterly pass)
Who? Anyone!
Why? Why not!



Whether you're a beginner looking to tap into some valuable speed work or a seasoned runner looking for a bit of company to help push your pace then track sessions are certainly a good way of achieving this.  The track sessions at Mile End stadium are held every Tuesday and are open to anyone regardless of ability or running club (or lack of as the case may be).  They are there so you can run fast with a group of like minded runners and with a large range in abilities it is likely you'll have someone to share the work with.

The entrance to the track is just off Rhodeswell Road.  Nearby transport includes the D7 and 277 buses, Mile End tube, and Westferry DLR and it's pretty central so very easy to run there as a warmup from Canary Wharf and even Central London.  The sessions start just after 7:30pm so you need to come warmed up ready to start or get there earlier to do whatever warmup you need and we congregate down the back straight just past the 1500m start. The track fee is £3.20 and there is an option to buy a 3 month track pass which costs £26.45 which is great value as going 8 out of 13 weeks is roughly the break even point.

The sessions are typical vo2 max sessions and in general you will run 7km-10km of volume made up from a range of reps ranging anywhere from 400m to 2000m.  The paces are typically 1500m/3000m pace for the shorter reps and getting up to 10km pace for the longer reps, so all the reps (7km-10km volume) are intended to be run at 10km pace or quicker. Obviously it is down to the individual as to how hard they push so even running slightly slower is still beneficial.

To give you an idea of what kind of session this all translates to I've given a few examples of some sessions we've done this year.  I prefer to jog the recovery to make the session that little bit harder but some people do a standing recovery or walk back to the start, up to you really!

4x800 4x400 4x800 all off 60s recovery
800s@5k pace 400s@3k pace

4x800 2x1600 2x400 all off 70s recovery
800s@5k pace 1600s@10k pace 400s@3k pace

4x(2000 400) off 70s recovery
2000s@10k pace 400s@3k pace

Regarding the actual running of the session, the man behind it is Peter McHugh from Run Fast. Peter is old school in his approach and loves running so we're really lucky he gives up his time to run the session and stand around in the cold calling out lap times week in week out! One of my favourite memories was during the great snow fall of January 2013 the hardy souls who turned up all had a good 30 minute workout before the session which consisted of removing the snow from lane 1 #TheShowMustGoOn. We always start at the 1500m line and Peter will blow a whistle once the first runners finish the rep which means everyone stops and makes their way back to the start line so everyone can start the next rep together. This means that if you are not right up the front then you won't be running the full distance of the rep, rather you will be running a time, so you don't have to be daunted by a 2000m rep as in reality you may only run 1600m, for example.

One last thing to note is that there is no pre published schedule for the sessions and we just turn up and find out on the night. This should still fit into most people's schedule as chances are you will have a vo2 component somewhere, and if not then you should really think about adding one as it will benefit you regardless of the distance you are training for. For me, it works well as I'm not particularly concerned with the makeup of the session, rather, I'm concerned that I know I'm getting in a really good vo2 max session. Besides, finding out the session 30 seconds before you start is way more fun!

Hopefully there's enough info there to entice a few more along. I know having not done track sessions before can make it intimidating but once you've got a couple under your belt you'll reap the rewards!

We look forward to seeing you on #tracktuesday...