Kenya!

So it is now the end of January, and I am back in snowy Sweden, but I spent 4 fantastic weeks in Iten, Kenya. I did some great training, I met some amazing people, and it was a top experience. I would highly recommend Iten and the HATC for any athlete as a training venue.

Pictures can say more than words, so here are a small selection of my pictures from the trip.

 The edge of the Rift Valley

 Local wildlife

 Christmas day

 Eldoret Market

 Safety in Kenya

 Relaxed seat-belt laws....

 How a you? How a you?

 'The' track

 Shoe4Africa prizegiving

 Christmas dinner

 Exactly what it says on the tin

 Sorry, where?

 Hitting the trails

Hitting the track

And finally a movie - one minute on the track in Iten, count the runners! (all training at 3 mins/km or faster - ish)

Iten, Kenya - University of Champions

At least, that is what it says on the gate! Just arrived in Iten for a 4 week altitude training camp run by Lornah Kiplagat and her Dutch husband Pieter Langerhorst.

Here are some pictures of the centre, which is 2,400m above sea level, just on the edge of Iten, a town of about 4,000 people (of the Kalenjin tribe) in the Great Rift Valley which runs through Kenya. Iten is about 45 minutes drive from Eldoret, which is quite a big city, 45 minute flight from Nairobi.

Iten is a big centre for training for Kenyan athletes, with many of the best Kenyan runners living and training here on the plethora of dirt roads and 2 (dirt) athletics tracks. The HATC itself has a swimming pool and a gym, and lots of athletes from all over the world staying at any one time.

After a long journey without much sleep, we went out for a 30 minute jog to explore the town yesterday, and this morning I ran 50 minutes. You can really feel the altitude on these first runs - even small hills feel like crazy hard work...

I am looking forward to the next month!

Brutal!

Before heading off to Kenya, I took part in a race called the Brutal 10km at Bordon Heath. It was advertised as the toughest off road 10km in the country, and I guess it probably was. 10km of hills, waist deep marshes and swamps, mud, icy tank wallows, sand and tussocks. All in all pretty good fun for an orienteer! There was some fast running too, as transport between the tough sections.
I went off fairly hard, but had Harold 'Warwick' Wyber for company for the first 8km before slowly getting away at the end for the win. Really good fun, and can highly recommend the series which continues in January.

Website here with loads of pictures and movies from the race.

Smålandskavlen

Smålandskavlen 2011 2nd place

It was always going to be tough to match winning Smålandskavlen last year, but we came pretty close, finishing second to the mighty Kalevan Rasti. I ran the second leg, my first night race for a while, and I did a decent race, pulling SNO up to 2nd place overnight. I had company for a lot of the race, mostly from Jonas Gvildys and Thomas Carlsson, and in the end Topi Anjala. We quite often had different gaffles, but always came back together. Jonas had the fastest leg time, and I was second.

The terrain was tough, not unlike some Scottish areas, and hilly and stony. Nice way to finish a successful year for SNO, although it would be nice to start turning the top 5s, top 3s and top 2s into wins!


Results here

Swedish Champion! 2011 round-up

So it has been an interesting couple of months. Firstly, I am now Swedish Champion! Rehns BK were disqualified from the Swedish Relay Championships, elevating SNO to the gold medal. You can read about the disqualification here and see the updated results here. I don't really have anything to say about the disqualification other than that rules are rules, even if they are stupid, and that I am happy to be the champion!

Since SM relay, I went to Berlin to watch my girlfriend run in the marathon, and I went to Switzerland for a WOC 2012 training camp followed by the World Cup final. Unfortunately I strained my calf muscle training in Berlin, and then continued to run on it during the training camp, and the tough racing at the WC final was too much for it, so I could hardly run since then, and in fact I have had almost 3 weeks now without any running. I also had some stomach problems at the WC final weekend, meaning that I had pretty poor results, but as always they were some excellent races.

I have now been selected for the GB performance group for 2012, and I am about to start my winter training in build up to the 2012 Championships. I am always quite motivated at this time of year to start base training, and put into practise all the ideas I have been noting down during the year.

It is also time to look back at what I have achieved (or not achieved) during 2011.

Positives

Joining SNO, getting a really nice job and place to live in Södertälje with my beautiful girlfriend!

4th - World Championships sprint distance
11th - World Champs middle distance

3rd - Tiomila
5th - Jukola

Gold - Swedish relay champs
Gold - British middle distance champs
Silver - British sprint distance champs
5th - Swedish sprint distance champs
6th - Swedish middle distance champs

5km personal best (15:02)
10km second best time (31:54)
Gold - Bellmanstafetten

Negatives

Major foot injury in January, and consequent knee problems for much of the spring
I missed many Swedish races, British long distance and student championships due to injury
Poor World Cups including NORT and WC final in Switzerland