Lake Baringo and cross country race

I have soon been three weeks in Kenya and are enjoying the life. Last Friday we hired a car with driver and went 150 km north east to Lake Baringo. It is a beautiful place, and during a two hour long boat ride we where able to see hippos, crocodiles and several birds. Some of us took also the chance to take a swim in the middle of the lake. On the way home we stopped some places where it was a nice view.

Yesterday it was arranged a cross country race a few kilometres from where we stay in Eldoret. I decided to run in the junior class since they only had 8 km long course and the start was earlier then the 12 km for seniors (so we should be back to our accommodation before our lunch). The start ended up being 30 minutes before the time schedule, so I was only able to warm up a few minutes, but it was not a big problem since I had been running one hour before breakfast.

It was around 500 runners on the start line and everybody started really fast so I was one last one in the field in the beginning. But after less than 1 km I started to pass several runners. Many runners quit the race after they had been running 2 – 6 km, either because they had opened to fast, of because they normally compete on shorter distances and just wanted a good training in relevant speed.

I managed to keep a quite steady speed the whole race, and my time was 27.30 for the 8 km long course. I have not seen any results from the race, but guess I could have finished approximately as number 250 of the 300 runners finish the race, 3 – 4 min behind the winner (that is African champion).

My picture gallery is now updated 80 new photos from the last days.

The second week in Kenya

The time is going fast in Kenya, and we are exploring interesting things every day, even if the training has the main focus.

Last Friday we took matatu to the centre of Eldoret, and went to the marked. Matatu is a mini bus you can get a lift with if you just give a sign when it passes you along the main roads. Home a car with the same size would have had around 10 seats. Here it is 15 seats, but they easily squeeze in 20 people, and sometimes people are also hanging outside the car. The price for the 4 km ride to the city centre is approximately 20 cent.

Sunday we went to Iten, 30 km north of Eldoret, were we visited some friends in the Swedish national team in long distance running. The plan was to join Mo Farah for the first part of his long run. He was going to warm up for 30 minutes and then run 30 km in the speed 3.30 min/km. But our taxi went out of fuel 2 km before we arrived, so we had to walk the last part and came too late. In Iten we had an easy long run on paths. It was nice since the terrain there is hillier than in Eldoret.

On the track Tuesday we met David Rudisha, World Champion and World record holder in the 800 m. He was running 300 meters in 36 - 37 second, so it was difficult to follow him for long time.

The training has continued going well, and last week I managed to run 200 km. Normally we are waking up at 6 am, and going straight out running 45 – 75 minutes before breakfast. The next session is at 10 am, and could be a longer run or track intervals. Then we have finished two trainings before lunch, and can take it easy the rest of the day. But we have also quite often some training in the evening, and then maybe skip one of the trainings in the morning, if we not have three trainings that day.

Yesterday I felt tired, maybe not so strange after having run 25 – 35 km almost every day for two weeks. So I decided to not run much that day and went to the gym, where I did some warm up on cross trainer and bike before I did strength exercises and stretching. Today I had my forth sessions with track intervals, and it went really well, so it was probably smart to take it easy yesterday.

My picture gallery is now updated with more than 100 new photos from the last week.

Kakamega rainforest and track intervals

Tuesday we had an easier training day, and after the morning run we hired a old car and drove a few hours to the Kakamega National Park, one of the last rainforests in Kenya.

The first hours we walked around in the rainforest with our guide. We saw some apes, birds and other small animals, but it was difficult to take good pictures of them with my compact camera.

At the end of the trip we walked to the top of the highest point in the area, where it was a great view over the whole rainforest. We visited also a bat cave, and you can see a bat flying to the left of Anders on the picture to the left.

When we were going home the car would not start, but we where luckily able to start the engine with pushing the car.

Today I was running my second intensive session, and again I joined Isabellah for her track intervals. This time we where running 2 series of 800 – 1000 – 1200 – 1000 meter, with an average speed of 3.10 min/km. The breaks were around 2 minutes, a bit longer that I normally have because you need longer time to recover at high altitude.

My picture gallery is now updated with photos from the last days.

The first week in Kenya

The first week in Eldoret in Kenya has been nice. I am staying together with Anders Carlsson and Elin Carlsson from my club Lidingö, Erik Liljequist and Niklas Serrander from Södertälje and Oscar Vångell from Ärla. The Swedish runner Henry Gross is also staying in the same house as us.

The training has gone well, and the first days we started with easy runs on 40 – 90 minutes two times a day to acclimatise to the high altitude, 2150 m.a.s.l. In addition I did some running exercises, strength training and stretching.

The longest session so far is the morning run on Saturday, which ended up being 3 hours (and 36 km) long. We started at 6 pm and the plan was to run 75 min before breakfast. But on the way home I and Oscar ran in the wrong direction, and after more then two hours we finally came out on the main road 12 km south of Eldoret.

Sunday some other Swedish runners (and also orienteer’s, among them Jerker Lysell and Erik and Kalle Johansson) who are staying in Iten joined us for a long run. Iten is a popular training place for runners, 40 km from Eldoret, and we will go there to visit them later this week.

Today I had the first intensive session, when I joined Isabellah Andersson for her track intervals. We were running 5 series of 7 x 200 meter on 35 – 36 seconds (a speed just under 3.00 min/km). The break between each 200 m was 18 seconds. The session was perfect as the first with higher intensity, since it was not too tough, and it was nice to get some speed after a week with only easy running.

In total I have been running 190 km the first week, and it now feels easy to run on the speed 4.30 – 5.00 min/km. I have updated my picture gallery with photos from the last days.

Tomorrow we are having an easy training day, and are going to the Kakamega rainforest. We have also planed some other places we want to visit the coming weeks.

January in Kenya

After spending the Christmas in Trondheim with a lot of skiing, I made a big change when I on the New Years day was flying to Kenya. Together with five orienteering friends from the Stockholm area I will spend almost the whole month at high altitude in Eldoret.

Several of the world best long distance runners are from this area, and if you take a morning run you have a good chance to meet a former World Champion. We are staying in the guest house of Isabellah Andersson. Isabellah is one of the best marathon runners in the world, with 2.23 as PB. She is originally Kenyan, but now competing for Sweden since she is married with the Swede Lars Andersson.

The first days we have been doing only easy training, to acclimatise to the high altitude, 2150 m.a.s.l. The runs have been 40 – 90 minutes, and in addition we have done some running exercises, strength training and stretching.

We have now got a stable internet connection, so I will try my best to update the blog from Kenya. So far I have uploaded 50 photos. Before I travelled to Kenya orientering.no made an interview with me about my thought for the trip: Øystein satser på mer spesifikk trening

At last I want to wish you all a happy new year!