Zanzibar

My last five days in Africa I decided to spend on Zanzibar, where my friend Mårten Boström is working as a GIS and Database Professional Officer for one year. Sine Zanzibar in only a one hour flight from Nairobi I found this a good chance to visit him and get some nice days there at the end of my trip. Zanzibar is a Tanzanian island at the east coast of Africa, and is known for being a holiday paradise with nice beaches. Mårten is aiming to qualify for the Finish team to the marathon in this summer’s Olympic Games in London, so I was also guaranteed a good training mate.

I travelled together with Niklas Serrander and we arrived late Tuesday after spending most of the day on safari in Nakuru. We were lucky and were able to find his penthouse apartment, even if we showed up one day too early and didn’t have his exact address or locale mobile number. Since it is hot and high air density on Zanzibar Mårten is having his first training at 6 am when the sun is coming up, exactly as we had in Kenya. The second training is normal starting 5 – 6 pm, so he has finished before it gets dark 7 pm.

Wednesday we spent some hours in the old city, Stone Town, which is on the UNESCO’s World Heritage list. It was a challenge to find all the food we wanted for barbequing in the evening, and we ended up with scampi and a lot of vegetables and fruits. I was also running two times 50 minutes with Mårten from his place. In the morning on paths in a forest and in the evening along the beach.

Thursday started with a 10 000 m on track before breakfast. I helped Mårten keeping the right speed, and took a break two times so I ended up running 5000 + 2000 + 2000 m. After the training we went to dolphin safari, where we were able to snorkel just a few meters from the dolphins.

Friday started with a 24 km long progressive run before breakfast. After a short warm up we started running 4.20 min/km, and ended with the pace 3.35. The rest of the day Niklas and I spent on spice safari, where we learned about all the different spices and fruits growing on Zanzibar, before we visited a nice beach. In the evening we got massage before we were eating dinner in Stone Town.

Saturday started with a morning run on the beach, and after breakfast Niklas and I was running a middle distance course from the Zanzibar O-day held in connection with a trip organized by Janne Salmi two weeks earlier. Because the tide was higher then drawn on the map we were running with water high up on our legs more then half the course. (Unfortunately I did not bring my camera during the training since I wanted to keep focus on the orienteering.) After lunch we drove to the east coast of the island and went snorkelling for a few hours. It was very cool, even if we did not see as many fish’s as expected. The day ended with a run along the beach and dinner on an Ethiopian restaurant in Stone Town.

Sunday started with sprint orienteering in Stone Town, which was a nice challenge with all the narrow streets full of people, bikes and mopeds. I was running 3 different sprint courses, with a few minutes break between each. The map Mårten had made held really high quality. After breakfast Niklas and I went on a boat trip to Prison Island, where they had turtles and some nice beaches. The day was ended with barbequing, but unfortunately I got fever so I took an early night and the travel home the following day was a bit tough.

As you can see in my picture gallery it was some really nice days on Zanzibar, filled with a lot of different activities, and I would like to thank Mårten and his wife Matleena for the hospitality and all help during the stay.

The last week in Kenya and safari in Nakuru

After training on high altitude in Eldoret in Kenya a bit more then 3 weeks I left the place to spend the last days of January on Zanzibar. (More about the days on Zanzibar will come later.)

On the way from Eldoret to Nairobi Niklas Serrander and I stopped in Nakuru, and went on safari in the Lake Nakuru National Park for about five hours.

It was exciting to see the animals on close hold out in the nature, and we were able to see buffalo, monkey, zebra, rhino, giraffe, antilope, pelicans and many other birds and smaller animals.

I have made a new picture gallery with 65 photos from the safari.

I was really satisfied with my training during the 3 weeks I stayed I Eldoret, and was able to run much more than I have ever done before; 193 + 204 + 180 km. The last week I started to be tired, and had to take a day with only one running session after some of the intensive sessions. Anyway I felt strong during the whole period, but think 3 week was enough if I should be able to train with the quality and quantity I did during my stay in Eldoret.

Before I went to Kenya I had hoped to be able to climb a big mountain. To Mt. Kenya (5199 m.a.s.l.), the second highest peak in Africa, it would take at least 7 hours drive each way, plus 2 – 4 days to climb the mountain. Mt. Elgon (4321 m.a.s.l.) was just a few hours drive from Eldoret, but since it was not any huts close to the peak we would have needed to bring a tent if we did not managed to take the whole trip in one day. I decided it would be to though or take to many days to climb a mountain this time, but guess I will try to climb Mt. Kenya in the end of my stay next time I am coming back to Kenya.

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!