Kenya’s calling

49:55

Boo-yah!

That’s the time it took me to do a 10K interval run yesterday – 1.2K warm-up, two minutes hard running followed by two minutes easy running,  then a (very) brief cool-down.

To put it in perspective, this time last year I’d have been psyched to run 10K in under an hour. And, it was only last July that I stopped Dr. Stevil in his tracks (literally) because I was so excited to see a 4-something pace appear as a blip on my Garmin. Before yesterday, I had never run 10K in under 50 minutes.  So to do it in a training run — albeit a hard one — leaves me somewhat astounded.

Turns out the hard work is paying off. I’m closer to Kenyan than I thought.

What’s more, marathoner extraordinaire, Reid Coolsaet, confirms it. In a recent Globe and Mail article Reid exposes running secrets picked up during a recent jaunt in Kenya.

Reid says Kenyans: Train hard, consistently and in groups.  They are also good at resting.

Me too!

Granted when Reid says train hard and consistently he means running two to three times a day with up to three speed sessions a week. When I say train hard and consistently it means pushing myself until I can taste my dinner again about four – five at a push – times a week. As for groups and resting, I’ve already talked about the bad-asses I run with and if you needed proof that I can rest amazingly well, check out this very recent picture of me lounging in the Caribbean:

Of course, there’s always room for improvement.  Reid also points out Kenyans:

– Run on soft surfaces – I guess if you count the mounds of snow I’ve trampled across this winter I can check this one off too. But somehow I don’t think that’s very Kenyan.

– Warm-up properly – I have to be honest; with young kids at home I’m either burning out the door to get away from them or trying to finish my work-out really quickly so I can get back to them.

– Eat well – Fruit Loops have the word “fruit” in them, and are whole grain. Does that count?

– Hakuna Matata. AKA – Don’t stress. What can I say? The King of the jungle and me, the Queen of my castle, seem to thrive on a wee bit of tension.

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