in the stay. With some testing done through the session the internal stress will therefore be the same as later in the stay (though the speed is slower) so quite controlled to ensure proper recovery after the travel..
We live only about 5 minutes jog from the grass fields and running paths in the area. Quite good location (something others have found out also, we live only 200 meters from Kelly Holmes house up here 🙂 ), you get a warm up down there before going hard either on the roads or the grass.
I had to spend the first run of the day looking for cinder roads to run on, as the rest of the Norwegian group here consists of throwers and sprinters. But having spent lots of time in Afria I had an idea on where to look : you always find nice, non-asphalt roads going parallell to the railroad tracks in Africa so I just look (and listen 🙂 ) for the railroad tracks and right there of course miles after miles with soft nice running surfaces.. a good change for tired legs having logged lots of asphalt miles back in Norway in between training stays now.
We are a group of six athlets from Norway here, the Olympic javelin champ Thorkildsen plus another 84 meters javelin thrower, a good discus thrower (65+ meters) plus two sprinters 20.40s 200/ 50,400 hurdles). So the whole “elite” team of the Norwegian federation (four athletes) are here. Plus some coaches of course to follow it all.
Then there are plenty of international top athletes here, especially middle distance runners and throwers. It has to be the perfect place for middle distance running : moderate altitude, nice temperature (25+), a mix of grass field tracks, regular tracks, cinder roads and huge grass fields. No wonder this has been a base of so many top runners the last years (Holmes, Mutola, Sepeng, Bucher etc.etc).. quite inspirational to be in such place, just like St Moritz is in the summer. You see others in your situation, working towards the summer with the goals and ambitions. A good way to break up the training winter.
The link below will be activated a bit later in the day. Just a few pictures from the first day here. We had an evening shower in the evening, other than that excellent training/resting temperature and sun..
From S-Africa –
Marius