Mo Farah, one of the stars of Team GB, has been living and training in Kenya since early December. He even gave up his Christmas at home with his family to dedicate himself to his training in Kenya. Mo has been based at the Lornah Kiplagat’s High Altitude Training Centre in Iten, a tiny town of tin and wooden shacks perched on the edge of the Great Rift Valley. The locals call it the “University of Champions” as they have a track record of world beating athletes from this remote location. Kenya boasted 81 of the 100 fastest marathon runners in 2011, including all of the top 20. They won 17 medals in endurance events at the World Championships in South Korea in August 2011.
It’s a pretty simple, basic place but as it has produced many of the world’s top distance runners and Team GB is making the most of it. Farah is funded by the London Marathon and UK Athletics which has enabled him to stay here for so long in his build up to the London 2012 Olympics. The high altitude and thinner oxygen levels are a major bonus for training and will give Farah a huge advantage when racing back down at sea level in the UK. He is already the 5,000m world champion also winning in South Korea and the silver medallist at 10,000m. He is aiming to be the Olympic Champion at both this year in London and he says the Kenyan camp has inspired him mentally as well as physically.
Ian Stewart, who has overseen a series of successes in British distance running in his role as head of endurance at UK Athletics, was one of the first British distance runners to experiment with altitude training. So was Dave Bedford, the former 10,000m world record holder, now joint race director of the Virgin London Marathon. Both men are in Iten, at the high altitude training camp and pushing Team GB hard in preparation for the upcoming Olympics. These guys are tough. They chose the Iten camp after researching all the other high altitude running centres and chose it due to its fantastic combination of basic accommodation and remoteness. There are no luxuries and no distractions. It’s just day after day of early starts, long runs, gym sessions, basic physio and more running. It’s almost military in style but although it sounds harsh, Farah knows that the end results will be worth it. Good Luck to Mo and the rest of Team GB!
