Hi friends!
It’s been one month since I’ve
landed in Kenya and co-op is in full swing. Before I get into the projects I’ve
been working on, let’s get a training update. Over the last month, I’ve been
running 100+km every week. I haven’t ran this kind of mileage in a long time
and I was afraid I might not adapt to the training program here. However, with
lots of rest and recovery in between sessions, my legs are feeling better than
ever. Here’s what a typical week of training looks like for me at the moment:
-Monday: Hill work (10am) and an easy 30 minutes (5pm).
-Tuesday: Track workout (10am) and an easy 30 minutes
(5pm).
-Wednesday: 60-70 minutes (6am) and an easy 30 minutes
(5pm).
-Thursday: Track workout (10am) and an easy 30 minutes
(5pm).
-Friday: 60-70 minutes (6am) and an easy 30 minutes
(5pm).
-Saturday: Track workout (10am) and an easy 30 minutes
(5pm).
-Sunday: 60 minutes (6am).
I know most of the guys in my
training group are running three times most days but I’m ok with limiting
myself to two runs a day. I’ve tried three runs in one day a couple of times
but I find it’s a little ambitious for me right now. I’m really happy with the
progress I’m making.
Enough about training now.
Here’s the work update. Now that John (my supervisor) and the others have
arrived, the big projects are starting to progress. Around the camp, our wind
turbine has been repaired and is ready to be supplying power, we’re in the
process of opening a small bike shop to get Buffalo Bicycles (these bikes are
basically mini tanks) into the community, we almost have all the parts to start
building a bio-gas plant, and some games have been set up for our entertainment
(darts, ping pong, badminton, etc.). Outside of the camp, preparations are
progressing to drill wells in a couple of weeks. We have also started
collecting video footage of Kenyan runners for a research study conducted by
Francois Prince from the University of Montreal. We’ll be analyzing the footage
to see if we can obtain an answer as to why Kenyan runners are so dominant.
Many studies have looked at physiological differences, nutrition, the effects
of altitude, etc., but have not found the “secret” that every runner wants to
know. We’ll be focusing on the running economy of the Kenyans for this study.
I’m really looking forward to seeing these projects completed before my
departure.
Unfortunately, I had one of my
return flights cancelled and had to arrange new travel plans for the trip home.
So now I’ll be leaving my home in Mosoriot on March 30th and flying
to Nairobi that day. From there, I’ll spend one night in the Kenyan capital and
catch an early morning flight to London on March 31st. Leaving Kenya
one day earlier isn’t the end of the world. The good news is I will have one
extra day to spend with my girlfriend (who is on a term abroad) in England on my way home. I’ve never been to England (or
anywhere in Europe for that matter) so I’m excited to visit a new country and experience it all with her. It
will be nice to spend a week together after being apart since the Christmas
break. Only 29 days left as of today when this post is published. I’m not 100% sure what the plans are for touring while I’m there but I
think we’ll mainly spend our time in Liverpool and London. It’s unfortunate
that we're missing the London Marathon by a couple of weeks. We went to go watch the women's Pan-Am marathon back in the summer, so it would have been cool to watch a marathon major together. There's always a lot of excitement around these big races. But that pretty much sums up everything
that’s been going on the last month or so.
As always, thanks for reading!
Daniel
Ps. I met Asbel Kiprop at a
track meet this past weekend! If you don’t know who he is, I would suggest
looking up his results.
