Athlete Matters

Athlete Matters News & Events

Thursday 5 May 2011

Spring news from athlete matters

Take a look at all the latest news from Athlete Matters from our Spring News Letter

www.athletematters.com/newsletter/may11_newsletter.html

Duncan's Kenya report

In February this year I was asked by UK Athletics to work in Kenya to support a Virgin London marathon altitude camp for 2 weeks. Having been granted permission to attend by Salford University and more importantly my wife Jackie I headed off to Africa for the first time in my life.

I felt a mixture of excitement and trepidation as I arrived in Nairobi at 10pm and was relieved to see a sign saying ‘UK Athlete’ scrawled on part of a cardboard box I greeted my driver who dropped me off at a hotel on the outskirts of the city which was apparently overlooking a reserve. As my driver picked me up again from the hotel early the next morning, I never got to breakfast with giraffes but was nevertheless impressed with the hotel. As we drove to the airport I could not believe the number of people swarming around thousands going about their business and it wasn’t even 7 am. I was dropped at domestic flights and now was time for the next stage of my journey to Eldoret.

The flight was around an hour again my driver Ken was waiting for me to take me on the final leg up to Lorna Kiplagats high altitude camp in Iten. We drove past hundreds of road side small businesses named after Western idols- such as ‘Jordan’s’ beauty palour, ‘Drogba’ butchers and ‘Ronaldo’ mango stall! Finally we arrived an hour later in Iten, which is possibly the middle distance running capital of the World home to amongst others David Rushida 800m World record holder, St Patricks school, Iten alone has produced several Olympic Champions and World record holders on its role of honour. Iten is on the edge of the rift valley where spectacular views are had from Kerio view hotel (recommended).

On arrival at 2400m and settling in I set about catching up with three athletes with whom I was to work. For the following thirteen days I worked with them and their personal coaches to ensure that they were optimally recovered from hard training and in peak physical condition to undertake the training they had planned. I also worked with the coaches to develop strength and conditioning and specific drills work to enhance performance and prevent injury.

Whilst there I even managed to do some training, sometimes twice a day overall completing over 100miles during my stay. Often I was running hard to keep up with the athletes on their slow recovery runs. I think I adapted well to altitude and have certainly been fitter on my return. Running uphill at 2400m is hard work and there were certainly lots of hills around Iten.

On Tuesdays in Iten all the Kenyan athletes gather down at the track, which was 440yds long (slightly over 400m) cinder, with a narrow furrow in lane one which you are drawn into, the top bend also includes a crater. To seeing up to 80+ Kenyans smashing out 64-68 second laps, in their various sessions, was awesome. Training in big groups is definitely the way forwards!

Kenya to my surprise was very green with lots of crops growing in its rich soil. The food was great and altitude centre relatively comfortable with a fully equipped gym and 25m swimming pool (if you think running at 2400m is hard you should try swimming!). The locals were very positive even though they lived in extreme poverty the most sophisticated toy I saw the children play with was an old bicycle tyre. The children would also run alongside calling out ‘Musungu’ (white man) or ‘how are you?’ to which the standard reply was ‘fine’.

I would recommend a visit to Iten to any runner, regardless of level or ability, who wants to improve their fitness and experience a community steeped in running tradition. http://www.lornah.com I feel very privileged to have had this experience and await with interest the results of the athletes I worked with out there.

The ‘musungu tortoise’