Running in Iten/How the elite Kenyans train

I will start with the last question because the answer affects the others. Strenght of the group is one of the advantages of Kenyan runners and runners in Iten. Every Kenyan is in a 'Sydney or the bush' situation. The motivation is that being successful will be life changing for the individual and their family. That can't be replicated in the mind of a relatively affluent westerner. It just can't. On top of that you have many many potentially world class runners competing for whatever spoils are available. The combination of the best, toughest, smartest runners will start to emerge. In one group at the track I saw there were 4 runners who had run < 60min for the half marathon. So it's the power of the group, many many, groups and many many world class groups. All that knowledge shared, evolving, the collective knowledge moving farther ahead of what can be achieved in sporadic small elite groups in other countries. That said, group running is massive, people should seek out and/or form groups of similar standard runners to them.

There is a famous fartlek in Iten on the red roads (not paved) every Thursday. While hundreds of runners run this at extraordinary paces the entire session is lead by one runner. The elites with teams (Nike, Asics etc.) are elsewhere. This makes sense in that they would have certain prescribed sessions to do. Maybe they tag along when regaining fitness, but generally they are not there. I saw this Fartlek and as a hill runner I was astounded by the speed they were hurtling down a rough road, a defacto trail. I think it may include runners trying to show form or catch the eye of an agent etc. Real elites are elsewhere.

Easy day for a marathoner is 20k in am and 10k pm. They run every step of every run relaxed. A major mistake of western running, amateur running atleast, is to force parts of runs including early stages of an easy run. These runs will start snails pace and feel very easy and increase in a natural relaxed manner. Pace won't be pushed. Sometimes they may run the last 4k of these runs at a steady clip, but not a step will be run in a manner that is not relaxed. That is the biggest lesson I think I took from my trip. The 10k pm is always very easy. Kenyans are religious so Sunday is generally a day of rest.

Any more Qs arising from those fire away.

(1) Hills seem to be in 2 ways (that I saw). CP hill sprints. All out hill sprints, min 8s, talking full 2.5 mins recovery to replenish Creatine Phosphate supplies so that a maximum sprint can be repeated. A full set of drills occurs before these. (high knees, butt kicks, fast feet etc.) each drill followed by a jog, bound walk.

Second are longer hill sprints of 12s+. These have jog down recovery and are run slightly more relaxed than the previous, focusing on good technique. If session is just hill sprints then drills before. Otherwise they can be inserted for strenght endurance etc during other sessions.

(2) I was told that 80% of adaption occurs after 3 days and that felt about right. First run was rough, hills very hard. Now all these easy runs are on hilly rough roads. Iten is on top of a hill as well as being in the 'highlands' (Rift Valley escarpment). So HR was getting an extra kick up. I did a session after a week on Moiben road (famous long run venue) and I was good. Kenyans can run within 10s a km of their lowland Lt (from memory) up high. Westerners will start about 40s slower but can get down to 15s. (another advantage for Kenyans there). Hills and efforts kill because recovery is so hard in the rare air. I did a session after 11 days on the track, 20 x 300m with 1 min recovery. The recovery was really really tough even then. It takes a full month to really start to get benefits. You will get plenty after the two weeks: I feel it now. Recovery is amazing for me since.

(3) There are professional Asics, Adidas groups etc. They are shod accordingly. The Asics supershoe is next after Nike from observation. I saw some wazungos (westerners) wearing the saucony pros on the track but that was all. Vaporflies and Nike trainers mainly.

(4) Had a good chat with him. We discussed mainly all things Ireland. The U23 lads were staying at Lornah Kiplagats and he was telling me he was going to meet them. I gave him the bad news that half or all had already left. I posited the question would Daire McIlheny be best to go straight to marathon. He opined that the talent was so vast in road running that it could be disheartening and he may be better to get established on the track although he agreed that the times there are so good that medium term a move up might be the may to go. Other than that we were chatting about general stuff. He knew Emmett D, from my county who was over many times etc.

The legend of Iten started when Brother Colm started scouting for talent for St Patricks school. That may be his genius, as scout more than coach. Iten then became a centre of running and the rest is history. Its down to him.

(5) I was advised that Canova liked Brother Colm so to mention I was Irish. Unfortunately I was wearing a mask as I shouted "I know Brother Colm" at him so I think He didnt understand and I scared him. After he recovered he told me he was writing a couple of books, one on 'Methodology" the other autobiographical (but every one in it). Jan who has better manner than me got him to come out for the photo. (he offerred to coach her). I then decided a new strategy and dropped that I was out on the Moiben Road the last Saturday. He replied instantly "You weren't the fastest, there, no?". "only cause I'm old, Renato" I replied through tears but he had moved on.

(6) Breakfast: Mendazzi ...oh mendazzi....doughnut tasting pita bread things. Heaven. Or crepe like things, or pancakes. Fruit, veggies.

Kenyan tea: Our tea, made by heating with milk and water and adding ginger. Delicious.

Lunch: More veggies, sweet potatoes, more fruit.

Evening: Rice, veggie curry, lentils etc etc. Others took photos of every meal, ill get a better reply for you.

Great question and it comes down to accommodation and social life in Iten.

I haven't been inside the camps (Canova and the other coaches have camps sponsored by the likes of Nike etc.)

These are in the form of compounds so outside gate with rooms, sleeping facilities, kitchen and all that inside.

Within them I assume the camraderie continues.

Outside that it is not so easy as accommodation is very basic. Outside of running the pros don't do much beyond rest and eat.

For groups in this situation I would not see them meeting up daily outside of running. Socializing for them would be a chat right after a run. There is a good chance their neighbours might be runners so there would be a bit of socializing there.

We had lunch in one of the guys houses (Josea). It was small: one room he had kind of nicely partitioned with curtains although kitchen was in a small ante room. He had a shower with warm water which he said he didn't have before. (To be fair, he was getting support fropm the coach which allowed this). He lives next door to Bernard Koech a 2:07 guy who is Julian Wanders training partner

He would see Bernard regularly between runs. He wouldnt run with Bernard, but his own training partner Paul is in a different part of Iten. He'd see Paul twice a day for runs, have some craic there and chat with Bernard otherwise. That's all the insight I have. But it's very different to here. There wouldn't be a common area for people to meet. Not for athletes to meet anyway. Money would be conserved. I gave the two lads a new pack of cards each for a bit of a change between runs, but it may be solitaire unfortunately.

Just to add that within the camps ie Adidas they are very very tight. Very close knit groups. You could for example stay a night there (eg Adidas) for 7 quid but you may not be able to break into a group and it would be a potentially cold atmosphere (suspicious of outsiders).

Brother Colm himself is employed with Adidas and would be the main man/agent etc for Adidas in Iten.

I should have mentioned before the murder of Agnes Tirop was hanging like a cloud over Iten and Eldoret. We watched the Kenyan National XC in Eldoret and a massive International XC was being organised on that course in her honour.

Agnes was apparently slain by her husband who had been living apart with another women but became jealous when he believed she was seeing someone. Domestic violence is a huge problem in Kenya and some malign influence of husbands on some of the elite women should be noted.

When we were there we were getting lifts around the place with the compound owner (super woman!) and her son. Before that for previous groups it had been Agnes and the husband.

Next update will be the XC champs.

Just to clarify here because it's important. After 72 hrs at altitude we were told that 80% of the adaption at cellular leval had occurred. The adaption slows out then to weeks. My own subjective experience was a marked improvement at around that mark.

Very little. There are so many hills there that most strenght work is taken care of by the terrain. I believe Kipchoge's group has a physio guy who does S+C but that's just for injury prevention not to build strenght as a tool to aid performance.

Canova was only joking and it was funny. For me the eye opener was how relaxed they run. Every step (bar 100% hill sprints) is relaxed.

Stay relaxed, progress into runs and indeed sessiosn relaxed. If it means a few seconds slower earlier on so be it. No wasted motion, no wasted effort. The rewards for running economically in races and in the second half of races are obvious. The method: start to run the entirety of every run in a relaxed manner. Run every stride relaxed, run every rep relaxed, run every tempo relaxed.

The second for now might be the group running. Seek out a group for some runs. Bigger the better. Makes everything easier.

Edit:

For us midpackers: Don't fret, enjoy it. Have the fun when it's going. We were a group (albeit with one elite female runner, rest mid packers) learning about Kenyan ways, but Kenyans are chilled and fun. We enjoyed our running, and their/our own company. We don't have these huge motivations of the world class runners. But having fun/loving running is a huge motivator also. Don't be afraid to adapt the scenery/circumstances to bias towards the enjoyment of the whole thing. In fact I'd actively pursue this end.

Going to post later about a talk given to us about elite training from a previous winner of Seville who now coaches with the main German agency.

In the meantime had a few more thoughts on the above.

I mentioned running every step relaxed and running in groups.

--They also run their main run first thing in the morning. Nearly always.

--HILLS!!! Nearly every run is very hilly off-tarmac terrain. So the best in the world spend very little time on tarmac. To picture these roads the VERY BEST would be same quality as a forest fire road we have here. All of the roads have ruts either side from the motorbikes. Some have worn down to where there are many protruding stones, rocks. Lesser roads have less motorbike ruts but these are basically roacky trails or grass, and hilly, always hilly, steep things. They are accustomed to this, this is easy running. In truth, we had almost 'flattenned' those hills before we left. The famous Iten Fartlek is run on such terrain.

Lesson? Based on this (if hills are available) start to make runs hillier a with a view to making most/all hilly save those you need to run fast on a flat surface. A runner who does 50 miles on hilly ground is stronger than a runner who runs 50 miles on flat ground.