iten - high altitude training

in iten, nr Eldoret, at high altitude north of the rift valley in kenya.

training at high altitude is fun i suppose... you reach your lactate limit more quickly, and little hills takes their tole on your lungs very quickly. i've been running here for 8 days and doing mostly doubles.

starting to get more confident and find kenyan fellas to tag along with. going for early run tomorrow followed by my first track workout. eating very well. have far too much spare time on my hands outside of running, and this entire trip only makes sense when i am running. and you can't run all day unfortunately.

there's about 500 (so they tell me - i only see 200 at max out on the dirt red trails and dusty red roads) elite kenyan guys out running every morning just after 6, and a bunch run again at 10 on the trails or the track and some again in the afternoon. and there are no fun runners here. just guys trying to be professional or making a living. long distance runners just out doing their job. and doing it either really slowly first thing in the morning in hats and rain jackets and full tights - when it's warm enough for me to be in shorts and t-shirt - or at the track doing intervals like 10X1000 in 2:51's 2:52's... about 150 of the fastest people i've ever seen all doing intervals at the same time on the same dusty dirt track. tomorrow i'm going to join in.