Rest is serious business....

I was chatting to Edwin about his girlfriend Marcy and asked him how often he saw her, he said normally just once a week as he was too busy training the rest of the time, as we train only two to three hours a day I thought this was a strange thing to say, but it made me realise that training is not just the running, its the whole lifestyle, the Kenyans take their rest very seriously, probably sleeping at least ten hours a day and not doing much else when they are not running, eating or sleeping.

Having now done a full weeks of training out here, my impressions of why the Kenyans are so good is as follows (in no particular order):

• Live at high altitude
• Train hard
• Most run includes lots of hills
• Eat very well and lots of it
• Get lots and lots of rest
• Run a lot
• No distractions
• Easy Runs very easy, hard runs very hard
• Enjoy running

No secret formula, just hard work, eat well and get lots of rest.

So Tuesday afternoon after the morning session I had a massage and OMG it was painful, the masseur asked if I would like it light or deep, I said deep, bad mistake!! Think it sorted my legs out though and as the saying goes: no pain, no gain! 40Mins easy in the afternoon where I learnt the swahili for left (kushoto) and right (kulia) so at least I know which way to go when someone shouts directions.

Bad nights sleep last night due to a fly persistently buzzing around my ear, Edwin is going to by some stuff to get rid of the flies as I think some were annoying him as well. Easy 50mins at 6.30 then after breakfast I decided on a little nap which I was rudely awakened from at about 10.15 and told we were going for a run, I thought they were joking but apparently not, so out for another easy 50mins at 10.30. Luckily this was training finished for the day, so I could enjoy some more napping and a walk into Iten with Edwin where we met some of his Church friends and his family. I am being introduced as Tom Kiprop now which amuses all the Kenyans although they say I don't pronounce it correctly, I guess not many Kenyans have an Essex twang to their accent! They also think it's highly amusing that I wear shorts as they all think its freezing if it goes under 20 DegC!!

We all squashed in mine and Edwins “house” in the evening for our daily dose of “In the name of love” the UK are missing out big time on this one, it is a classic!!

Two easy days to follow with the big race on Saturday, I will update my blog after the race.

p.s. I've got a few videos and pics that I will update next time I'm on a proper connection.