Don’t you see the time flashin’ by

Kenya update #7

Only 5 days left in Kenya before I head to Luxembourg for a 10km XC race.  Europe is really cold right now and I can expect snow on the XC course.  It will be interesting to see if being Canadian is still an advantage on snow even though I haven’t run on the white stuff since last year.

This week I had a good tempo run on Monday and another fartlek session on Thursday.  This time it was 30 X 1 min / 1 min rest, probably my best fartlek session here.  I did my last long-run (30km) of the training camp today with Primos and Anton (Slovenian marathoners) and Pieter Desmet (long-time friend and Belgian steepler).

During the long-run there was a big tractor pulling an open wagon filled with a ton of Kenyans waving at us.  To me it reminded me of a safari vehicle and I started to narrate what a guide would be saying. “Here we see four mzungus, and judging by their hats and sunscreen, are clearly out of their natural habitat… the one with the red hair is a different species altogether and is often teased by the other mzungus for being a ‘ginger’… everyone wave…” Ok, maybe it’s only funny 20km into a long-run when  you see the tractor.

I saw this quote from Alberto Salazar on the front page of letsrun.com and thought I’d share it.

“A lot of what we see in athletes that just train all the time and never give themselves adequate recovery is often portrayed as toughness. What I’ve realized over the years is it really is a weakness. It’s an insecurity that you’re not good enough to recover like other athletes: I’m not good enough to do that; I need to keep training; I can’t take time off; I can’t take easy days.”

This quote really hits home because I often think that I’m relatively less talented than the guys I compete with and I need to do more, but at the end of the day I need to train smart to get the most out of my ability.  Even though I think I need to hit it hard all the time to make-up for lack of talent at the end of the day all I can do is maximize my own training, which means recovering properly.

Runnersfeed interview I did a couple of days ago.