Kenyan athletes and coaches arrive

Am settling into training nicely and getting used to running at altitude. Continued to do steady runs and some drills, sprints and easy strength exercises until the Kenyan athletes and coaches arrived on the evening of Monday 3rd January. A particular highlight was going past the Kip Keino High School on one of my runs. The school is only about a mile from the training centre. Last time I was here, in April 2009, the school was being built. It is now complete and looks fantastic. The work Kip Keino has done to help his local community is incredible. He has built an orphanage, primary school, senior school and training centre as well as numerous other facilities in the local community. He really is a great man.
On Monday evening the Kenyan athletes and coach Joesph arrived after their Christmas break. Coach Jimmy is from Mombasa which is the other side of the country and so is taking him longer to get here. The first session I do with the Kenyan athletes is a 50-60 minute run on Tuesday morning, starting at 6.15am! Any of you who know me know that I struggle to get out of bed before 10am, yet alone 6am to go training. The way in which Kenyan athletes train is so different to in the UK. The run starts at a very slow jog and stays slow for a considerable time. However without realising the pace is gradually increasing, and then at about the half hour point the pace massively increases and it is all I can do to stay within viewing distance of the leaders. I may be getting used to the altitude, but keeping up with the Kenyan athletes is not going to be easy!
On Wednesday morning training starts at 9am, a time I can cope with easier. We do a drill session, and having been spending a lot of time concentrating on technique and drills back in the UK, I am confident about this session. However I have never done such a continuous drills session, there is no breaks between each exercise, just a small jog if you are lucky, and by the end I am exhausted. Despite the tiredness, I can see that the training is fantastic, and if I can keep going till the end of the month I should be flying come the indoor season in February and March.
The re pour between the Kenyan athletes, Chiminda (the Sri Lankan international) and myself is building up nicely and it should be a fantastic (if very tiring) month