Once more, no more

As always, time flies in Item. Run, eat, sleep, eat, run, eat, sleep. Repeat. Makes experience of time in Iten as something highly transient and visits ephemeral. Feeling, just arrived but the calender says fly home. More than five weeks passed. The repetetive pattern of every day life here makes the elastic memory play tricks on your mind. Something already experienced does not have to be registered again and the lesser "writes" to your memory needed, the faster time seem to pass.

Rooms at HATC (High Altitude Training Camp)

My half of the room

Fruit for sale outside camp - big avocado 2 SEK and mango 1-2 SEK

Coming here before Christmas, I had two goals - 1) don't train too much or too hard, sub-twohundred k and 2) do the ab-wheel from standing position. The first goal due to the fact that 2018 was a bad year and I'm in too bad shape to take much beating. In 2017 I spent four weeks in Iten, ran 1000k, flew home and got ill. In 2018  I spent five weeks here still recovering from the last part of the season, ran 200k+ every week, flew home and got injured. This time I want to fly home and benefit from the weeks spent  in high altitude. The second goal, since I'm not a fan of gym work, I needed a challenge that makes me go to the gym. 

The view from Iten over Rift Valley

Old plastic bottles become toys

The children of Iten thinks mzungus is something very interesting

Mzungu! What is your name? How are you?...heard them all a thousand times

Small farms everywhere around Iten

Sometimes I get the feeling that Iten is somewhat mistaken for only being a destination for high altitude training. That running in Iten is something "ordinary"  but with a touch of high altitude. Have been to St Moritz, high altitude but quite ordinary unless going mountain trails. Not been to Font-Romeu, Flagstaff or Dullstroom, other popular high altitude destinations but i get feeling that they are all quite ordinary. Iten is so much more than ordinary. It is a very rough place for training that, if you embrace and love, makes you stronger both in mind and body. If you can make it here, you can make it anywhere. There are nowhere as an easy run. High altitude. Uneven dirt roads. Endless rolling hills. More hills. Head wind. Always uphill into the wind coming back on every run. A perfect combination to make running hard and training great. You hear non-kenyans complain about the hills. You see non-kenyans run on the tarmac towards Eldoret. All while, Kenyans run dirt roads, hills or no hills. Goes hard to get first. To be seen. A never-ending struggle reaching for the limelight. If Iten was an ordinary training ground, it would not produce so many great runners. If you want to improve or become better than  the next runner, you must train harder and train smart. Iten is the perfect place for hard and harder. If can take it like the Kenyans, you'll grow. If you can't, you probably don't come back. 

After being ill for a week, two great weeks of base training followed with a slight increase of volume the second week. Beginning of third training week was tiring and I got more tired as the week passed. Saturday's long run re-scheduled to Sunday, a loop around Singore passing through the valley below. So exhausting it felt like I was crawling back. Slight increase of volume. 180k in the log.

Nice trails in the forest to run

Tired runners just finished fartlek 5'/2'

When something goes down in Iten, it will shourtly bounce back up

Early morning run

Fifth week and fourth week of training. The final week including a longer long run, some tempo and some hills. Tiredness gone after an easy Monday. Early Saturday morning, long run. Starting Post Office Iten to turnaround Post Office Eldoret and back. The first hour, the air was nice and cool. Breakfast on the go, bananas and water followed by a small snack every half hour. More banana. Two and a half hours plus. Halfway and 33k plus. Energy refill, peanuts and soft drinks. More bananas into the running vest. Clear sky. Hot. Windy. Turning my face towards Iten, three hours uphill into the wind awaited. Short break after four hours for some potato crisps. Leg muscles a bit tender but got fresh again when the energy from the crisps kicked in. Drinks later at Moiben road. Legs still fine. Hips and back fine. Feet a bit tender and mind in a tired mode. Counting 6.6k intervals. Eight down, two to go. Well known territory. At this point, mentally doing 1k at a time counting down towards only 10k left. Done. Only one Swedish "mil" left. Kept on. Reached  the cross-section at the turn-off for the lake loop. 3.4k to camp, divided into three short sections - to the track, top of the hill and finally camp before the 1.5k bonus part to the post office. It felt like I was done even though there was still almost thirty minutes to go. Same feeling as the last hour of a long race. Did it! Lean back, relax a bit and enjoy. 

Outside Iten Post Office, early start of the last long run

The youngest runners in Eldoret Discovery XC

Winner and runner up seniors at Eldoret Discovery XC

Got a little too close to "too much" so Sunday off watching the Discovery XC races in Eldoret. Races for runner from age "just learnt how to walk" to senior races. Full day. A big event where talents can get discovered and established runner gets good competetion. Brother Colm, Canova, Kipchoge here  to watch and greet. One of Brother Colm adepts Rhono Kipruto won, Edward Zakayo second. Kipruto recently became senior and already done 26:46 10k on road.

Week and mission completed. I behaved. 192k with a good feeling. Base training almost done. 

Goal number two

Until next time...bye Iten