News

19th June 2011 Kenyan Experience 2, Rain, motorbikes and cattle!

Second report from Greg Roberts

A few more sessions done here and plenty of miles banked and i adjusted to the food greatly by now (ugali is rotten!). the weather has, however been complete cat for the the last 4 days: the morning time generally is quite good but the last few evenings have been severely hampered by torrential downpours, i have never seen rain so bad when it comes down here, and the locals say that they have never experienced this type of rain ever at this time of year, they have now been resorted to getting volunteers to dig big trenches at either side of the main road through iten for drainage for if the rain continues they fear it could badly reduced the space for the make shifts markets that are the base of economy here. thankfully today looks good and the skies are clear again.

rain has also affected the training regime of the kenyans - they never train in the rain for fear that it will bring sickness. further to that the trails that they train on are a total washout, if you try to run on them your shoes clog up so much with clay that when you hit a hill, you will most certainly be reduced to a walk due to the weight your legs will be carrying. and the tracks are just as bad, on tue morning the kenyans waited outside the track for 90 mins for it to dry up a bit before eventually giving up and going home to leave the workout to later in the day and to be done on road.

after the accidental long run last week i went to shake my legs out with some strides at the track in a place called Tambach which is a bit lower in altitude (1800m). the road down to Tambach is basically straight down the side of a mountain - if you imagine the quary hill back home, then its basically that for about 6-7mile! if you get a taxi you have fantasitc views of the rift valley, however on this occasion the taxis were taking a bit long to fill up to leave so we decided on a motorbike ride!
this turned out to be nothing less than a white knuckle ride, the best rollcoaster in alton towers couldnt compare to it, firstly; helmets are not for passengers, secondly; the faster and most economical the driver goes down the quicker he gets his next fare. and third; kenyans love to talk!!!!
the fella who took me down the mountain had a helmet for himself which he took off every so often, while at high speed! at one point i looked at the speedometer when we were easily hitting 100mph - and it was showing 0mph - he had the engine turned off and we were freewheeling down the mountain!! and to top it off he wanted to tell me, that just below in the valley, there are 'very dangerous animals' etc while turning around to look at me were it could simply only answer by saying, 'watch the bend', or 'mind the bus' until it my answer was plead to 'please keep your eyes on the road!'
no warmup for a session would have been required after that ride as the heart was well and truly pumping hahaha.

well i've had to abandon the second track session due to the afore mentioned weather and state of track, so it was to the road for a pyramid session - gauging the distance that i completed was difficult but i was well and truly working hard - after each rep i was gasping for air and by end i was on my hands and knees. my tempo runs were completed on the track the first i averaged 5.28s which completed at 2100m calculates to around 5 min miles if not slightly faster so i should be in good shape, the second tempo was completed at 1800m and averaged 5.27s which again calculates to roughly the same however this particular tempo session was hindered by the fact that i had to dodge cows that were crossing over into the infield to graze every so often!!

this week weekend should be another lung opener workout wise, shall update soon on that

over and out
greg