Tempo Run

I did a 40 mins tempo run today. Not much seems to have changed speedwise. My weight has upped a little.
Yesterday I discovered someone who is 47 and having the same goals as me: to become the fastest I can be before I grow old.
Swamped with work.
Cheers.
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22K LSR

I did a 22K LSR today, crossing the 20K barrier for the first time this year. I intend to keep it that way for the rest of the year most sundays if not all.

My shins feel better. I did a 40mins run today. I would like to drop to 84Kgs by the end of this week.

Speed runs and mo miles, here I come.

I got a stationery bike yesterday so there is no stopping now. My baby at 21 weeks and the mother, my sweet wife.

 

Ana 40 mins - Tired

I did ana 40 mins then iced my feet. Yes, the dirt is good for my legs. I am tired and it has "overtraining" written all over it.

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40 Mins Easy - on Pitch

On Sunday, having cleaned my clock, GK remarked that the dusty patch of earth near where I live is ideal for running because it is, well, dusty and therefore cushioning for the feet. He said he wished he had something like that near where he stays.

Today I decided to divert from my normal route and try that dusty patch that is normally packed with dozens of kids playing football every evening. Its normally a frenzy of dusty, sweat streaked football activities. About four matches at a time spanning various age groups. But the fields are not connected and have stones and gulleys between them so I picked the widest and the most even one.

At 5:30 am the lights from Kibera and nearby buildings are like moonlight on that patch and so I started running round it with that not-so-good visibility. By about 5:40am a footballer arrived and was doing some exercises in the middle of the field. I ran on as he busied himself with his ball.

I ran for 40 mins and it was good. Even my feet felt happy to take a break away from the concrete and tarmac. This is probably my ticket out of the quagmire of the splintered shins that has been killing me every fuckin day.

Of course, the thing about it is that its a relatively flat surface and also because its not that well lit so I cant risk running too fast. What I can do is  take the next two weeks as healing weeks and just run and see how my shins handle it.

I am starting to run 5X a week this week and I plan to buy a stationery bike over the weekend for cross training. If my shins heal I will be doing speed-work twice a week: once on the field and once on the hill and then on Sunday, Long Distance Runs.

It is time to add mileage and to grow faster and stronger and leaner. I am all over this shit. Believe me when I tell ya. War on the guys that handed me my ass on a platter.
Todays eye candy is a moment during this year's Boston Marathon.

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40 Mins Tempo Intervals

It was supposed to be a run with 5mins tempo intervals but I was going too fast and ended up doing 3mins ones. Which is not very helpful.
 At any rate, I will be focusing on speed and mileage in the next several months. And yes, weight loss.
RIP Samuel Wanjiru.

Handed my Ass

Those who didn't turn up, I am happy for you because it was a fast, gruelling race. I don't know how you would have fared but considering I was back-pedalling in the 15k run in order not to leave the team too far behind, it would have been something akin to gazelles running with Buffaloes. At any rate, my weaknesses showed and I didn't fare very well even though that is the best run I have had this year because it pushed me. I was tested immediately the run started. And before halfway, it was clear I had fallen short of the glory I thought I deserved.

Gachanja was at the assembly area early, kitu 5:30am. GK arrived at about 5:50am. We stretched and chatted a little. Gachanja was saying we shouldn't leave him behind because he has not been training for a while and I was thinking baby-sitting is not what we want to do today but I told him he is the one who will probably leave us behind. Of course I didnt mean this. This was my route. I had ran that distance twice. I owned this route.

At any rate, at about 6am, we were off. We hung on together for about 800 metres then GK started floating away with his feather touch gait that I usually see in elite runners. I didn't want to push too hard, lest poor Gacho gasses out so we stuck together behind GK and let him be the pacemaker. I sped up a little and Gach hang on with me. By 2.5K it was clear GK was not going to babysit us and Gach could hold his own quite well. So I sped up and Gach sped up. The gloves were off and GK was within sight but going and going and not looking back to check on how his babies were faring. Between 4 and 6Kms, we sped up and kept GK within sight. I tried using a fast tempo and couldn't shake Gach off so I used surges. I was not closing the distance between GK and myself and Gach was now ahead. I had been systematically dragged out from my comfort zone and now I was in a strange territory and I didn't know what would happened next. Would my lungs and throat overheat? Would lactic acid accumulate in my muscles faster than my body could clear them?

And I was clearly running faster than I have ever run this year. Much much faster. I watched the trees and buildings rush past. I let my feet go.

Yet Gach was ahead and GK was disappearing from sight. Is this for real?

But then I thought, well, slow down. This is 19K, not 10K and not 15K. We still have a distance to battle it out. So I relaxed and these guys slowly drifted out of sight and I ran after them. I sped up after TMall and by the time I reached HighRise, we were 10 mins faster than we were at the speed we did the 15K run. I took the High Rise hill slowly and just after I had cleared it, while approaching the Mbagathi junction flyover, I saw GK and Gach at the opposite side of the road coming back!

And I was like 1Kms from the turning point!

Okay, so then it dawned on me that I was the underdog and these guys were handing me my ass. Royally and without ceremony. On a bright Sunday morning. Clear as daylight. And there was no card I could pull from any hat to alter this outcome.
So I slowed down and adopted my slow pace. I reached the turning point at the bridge in Ngumo at 55 mins, which is ten mins faster than my training pace.

I wished I had a stitch or an injury to use as an excuse for being outclassed. No. In fact, I was feeling strong. I was just a slow runner. And, yes, heavy. And Gachanja had successfully pulled what Nderitu tried to pull on me and Sikuku in 2007. Nderitu of course, failed. In retrospect, when Gach said he had been off training for a while, he probably meant off for two days.

Gachanja's tank was empty after about 15Kms but I was too far behind to catch up so, even though he walked and I didn't, he still cleared 10 mins ahead. So GK cleared in 1:37, Gach in 1:45 and I in 1:55.
And that was that. We stretched, swapped stories, did a post-moterm of the race and had breakfast.

That was a fabulous run and it has made me a better runner. I consider myself tested. I am more motivated to work harder and to improve my speed. I learnt quite a bit from GK. Thanks Gach and GK. Now we need to plan for the next run. 12th June 2011. Any proposals for other routes? Joram? Gachanja? Sikuku unahama ama auhami?
Cheers.
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Ana 48 mins run

Yesterday and today I also ran. I dont know whether its because I am wearing sports shoes the whole day but the tarmac seems to be kinder to my legs. Shins still ache but its manageable. Today I went back to the Tuesday hill after doing a not-that-hilly route yesterday. And Rwanda is kind to me. Yesterday and today, it started raining just after I had come from my run.
At any rate, I am faster, stronger and better. my position has improved. Lets see how today rolls. Cheers.

46Mins on Hilly town

I went for an easy run today. Easy because this place, Kigali, is concrete on the pavement and I dont want to kill my feet. But man, oh man, hills! There are hills here. I have not been disciplined dietwise in the past 2 days but from kesho I need to watch it. Below, I am taking it easy. As much as a guy in a shirt and shoes can. Cheers.

19K LSR

I went for a 19K LSR on Sunday. I made it faster than last weeks LSR. It has been raining so I didnt run in the dirt paths as much as I would have liked to but oh well, runners find ways. Right? So I did. Man, cant wait to see the 3mins long highrise hill kill my running buddies. It took me 2:06mins.
It went well. I am learning to touch the ground swiftly and softly with my feet and also learning to concentrate on faster strides, quicker steps as opposed to longer strides for speed.
The position of my shins is ambiguous but I think it is better. I just hope it heals by end of May coz I am raring to speed up.
I am in Rwanda now and tomorrow I will go for a morning run. Hilly place here. I just measured my resting heart rate It is 58 bpm and topend spots rates this as the heart rate found in athletes. Great!

40 mins Hard - better

Today I woke up with my mind in mint condition. Instead of attacking the first hills with blind fury and fighting through the first 1.8K and getting gassed out early, I decided to be tentative and tactful. So I started slowly and picked the pace after about 600m. And I concentrated on leg turnover as opposed to stride length.
At any rate, I was faster and I am now approaching 8K for 40mins. So my position has improved.
 As I build my mileage, cut weight and improve technique, I know I will get faster. I am traveling to Rwanda next week. While there, I will ease up on speed a little and concentrate on mileage. Then after 16th May, I revert to working on speed. Here is US sprinter Alyson Felix.

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Easy 40 Mins

Yeah. Tadey. Shins aching so al prolly rest tomorrow.

2:04 Mins LSR

I did a 18K LSR on hills on Sunday. It went quite well and I took about two hours, two mins. I avoided the tarmac as much as I could and added another tough hill on my path. I decided to take it slow and easy since I was doing that route for the first time. It went quite well and today I returned with a hard 40 mins. My speed has improved and I will keep pushing.
Is my position worse or improved? My position is improved because my shins are aching less and I am increasing my mileage.
Here is Mark Hominick's face afterv the fight with Jose Aldo in UFC 129 on Saturday.

 For the record, I haven't seen anything YET to convince me Osama is dead.
Cheers.
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40 Mins - Hard

After taking the day off yesterday, and patiently icing my shins as I ruminated on this nagging shin injury, I decided to go for a hard tempo run today. I am exercising so there is no problem in experimenting with starting hard, or so I thought. If I burn out, it doesnt matter: its just this week's me racing against last week's me. I carefully warmed up my calves and shin muscles (my problem areas) and sedately ensured my back, waist and knees are warmed up and stretched. All this while, as I did this, I started a fire in my head and stoked it with every warm up move. Then I blew this flame into a conflagration that seeped into my entire system. I was fired up baby!

By the time I stepped out of the house at about 5:30 in the AM, there was Dante's raging inferno in my eyes and my heart was tightly coiled, ready to explode. Mortals were lucky not to be prowling around at that time because making eye-contact with the red hot embers that were my eyes would have resulted in instant death for any unlucky mortal too slow to avert their curious eyes. After surveying the next dozen yards and seeing no obstacle in my path, I tapped my watch and exploded from the house like a canon aiming for cataclysmic destruction at a distant object.

Both gates were open and I flew past them into the chilly dawn. I decided to stay active and attack the hills like someone in a fight. Fight through each second no autopilot drifting. And so I went, air rushing in a loud torrent in and out of my lungs through my nostrils like a bull pulling a plough. By the time 9 minutes had elapsed, I knew I would go farther than I have ever gone in 20 minutes this year. And I did. In fact, I was so satisfied, I turned back after 19:33.

It started raining after 27 Minutes and I got pretty well rained on by the time it was 40 mins. I had to skip lunges and one session of heel-toe walksbecause of the rain.
Tomorrow I rest. Sunday I go for a Two hour long slow run then next week I work myself up into an insane rage and attack the hills again like something from hell.

Btw, we have UFC 129: St-Pierre vs. Shields this weekend. I fucking simply can't wait.

Here is Devila Desiree of USA, she was second in Boston this year. Kara was 5th or something. Quietly note her concentration, focus and composure as she plays pacesetter to the raging gazelles surging and lurching behind her.

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40 Mins Easy

I did an easy 40 mins today. Shins ached so I iced them. Will see how I fare in the course of the day and decide how to handle tomorrow. Here is Hall again, having fun while setting the pace in Boston. This guy is getting to be quite good if he can gleefully volunteer to set the pace for giants he is competing with. The fear is gone. Beyond fear, the sky is the limit. Its time he kicked some black Kenyan ass.

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15k group run and ana 40 mins

On Sunday, as planned, we went for a group run. Kirer woke me up at five-twenty-something even before my 5:30 alarm time. There was five of us. We were to start at 6 in the AM but delayed while waiting for Masinde. We further delayed because after running about 800 metres, we met Borura and had to go back, have him park his car and then start again. By then, it must have been about 6:20am.

At, any rate, the psyche was high. With Kirer and Borura, we joined Mutwiri about 1Km ahead. The route we chose has an incline for the first 1.8Kms. Then it flattens for about 900 metres then downhill for about 4Kms and another flat for 800 metres. So we took it easy for the first 1.8K and at the flat area, picked up the pace. We were setting the pace with Kirer and we got it going quite well and caught up with Masinde after 4K and we cruised untill the 5th K mark (Rafikis) where we slowed down and regrouped at Sunshine (6K) then we went down with Mutwiri beset with stitches till Highrise and we turned back. At turning back, Kirer and Masinde decided to let Borura to set the pace and I followed and we picked quite well past TMall and Thomas Barbnados. Then at Wilson, pacesetter hit the wall and did what people who hit the wall often do. So I encouraged him and backpedalled and we moved on until we lost sight of the rest of the team. We cleared with Borura after about 93 minutes and the rest came after about 102 minutes.

We stretched a little (I noticed this team was not very keen on stretching, which speaks volumes about their experience - they just wanted to get their breath back, rest and soak in the self-torture they had just put themselves through).

Then we walked down and had a serious breakfast. Guys were in such a big hurry they didn't eat much but they ate kiasi. It simply proved they had not done much (15.4Ks is very little). I remember after clearing 27K, we used to fagia anything Sikuku placed in front of us, uji, chai, soda, mkate, maji, mandazi, ndizi...anything.  We gave new meaning to the term "clearing and forwarding". Hawa walikuwa wanaringaringa na chakula kama wasichana. Anyways...

Lessons learnt.

1. Make sure you have everyone's CORRECT number, especially the organizers number before race day.

2. Confirm or disconfirm your participation. Only GK, Kirer and Mutwiri did this. I had to follow the rest.

3. Register. Damnit. Commit yourself so that your self-doubt and fear dont take over. Even Phantom injuries will creep up on you and convince you not to go for the run. Kirer knows this now.

4. We are too slow and we are too nice to ourselves. We need to push ourselves hard. There is nothing as pleasurable as aching muscles and feeling dead-tired after a tough run. If we want to feel nice, we should pick something else, like choir practice or watching EPL football matches for fun, not running. Remember, running can't kill you because before you die, you will pass out. Plus, hard work doesn't kill people. People die of worrying na shida za maisha, not running.

5. Due to 4, and due to large public demand and the absence of Sikuku, GK and Gach, we will do the same route again but add 4K to it, making it 18K on 15th May 2011 we will call it Exodus because with it, we are leaving the land of Amateurs behind and getting serious. After this, we must do a 22K on June 5th hosted by Sikuku. That we shall call Destruction. It will destroy any weakness or fear of the distance still lingering. From then on, the sky is the limit.

Au sio?


Today I did a 40mins run. I am faster. And glad. The splintered shin is still peeping at me from around the corner. Here is Ryan Hall, a veritable Pacemaker at this year's Boston M.

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Ouch!

I tried some "new shoes" today. I took it easy and did just about 5K then stretched thoroughly, did lunges, heel-toe-walks, pushups, planks, crunches, toe raises, calf raises and iced my right leg which was in sub-zero temperatures as I took breakfast. My shins are killing me.
I have decided to take it easy tomorrow then run again on Friday. Gotta be kind to my suffering legs.
Here is Hall. He served as a good pacemaker in Boston this year.

40 Mins, Boston Destruction

I did 40 mins. The usual. I am trying to improve my form and speed. Gotta get these shins sorted out man.
Meanwhile, yesterday, Kenya's Geoffrey Mutai ran the fastest marathon in history to win the 115th Boston Marathon men's title on Monday while compatriot Caroline Kilel took the women's crown.
Mutai won in an official time of two hours, three minutes and two seconds to defeat countryman Moses Mosop by four seconds and beat the marathon world-record time of 2:03:59 run in 2008 at Berlin by Haile Gebrselassie of Ethiopia.
Kenyan Geoffrey Mutai had fans screaming on Boyleston Street as he won a two-man sprint by four seconds over Marathon debutant and compatriot Moses Mosop in the unlikely time of 2:03:02, fully 57 seconds under Haile Gebrselassie's World record of 2:03:59.  Mutai, 29, who makes his own training programs and is self-coached, won't be credited with a new World record, however.  Even without the tail wind, the Boston course has more than three times the elevation drop permitted for record-setting, and the start and finish have too great a separation.

Nonetheless, that a man could average 2:55 per kilometre (4:42 per mile), over the full Marathon distance of 42.195 km (26 miles, 385 yards) under any circumstances is astounding.

 "It was at our back," Mutai said matter of factly about the wind.  "But it wasn't such a big wind."

Instead, Mutai partially credited American Ryan Hall for his fast performance today.  Hall, the USA Half-Marathon record holder, was the prime mover in the early kilometres and reinvigorated the pace nearly every time the race slowed on the hilly course from Hopkinton to Boston.  Hall saw the lead pack through 5 km in 14:47, then 10 km in 29:05.  By that time, the men had already banked a full minute against the 30:08 10-K split by course record holder Robert Kiprono Cheruiyot, the defending champion.

Cheers.
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104 Minutes LSR

Ok, it wasn't really a LSR coz there are places I sped up a little. I covered about 16K with hills. My body feels kinda wrecked. The good thing is its not just one part: back, shoulders, shins and ankles. It went well though and all indications are that my shins may soon leave me the F alone so that I can run without worrying about them.
I have a feeling this will be a fast week.

Meanwhile, in yesterday's London Marathon, Kenyans destroyed the field with Mutai taking the first place in 2:04. Iaaf says, "Mutai smashed the course record with a dominating performance that left the defending champion Tsegaye Kebede floundering in his wake, while Keitany won the women’s race in a time only World record holder Paula Radcliffe has ever beaten on the London course...Kebede had looked superbly confident early on, grinning and waving to the crowd at the start line. He tucked in behind the pacemakers as the runners set off in near perfect conditions – 10 degrees, light clouds and virtually no wind.

A line of pacemakers took them through mile one in 4:50. The leaders had asked for 2:04 pace, so this was a steady start. A 10-strong bunch soon opened a slight gap on the rest and the race began to take shape. Among them were five Kenyans – Mutai, Lel, Makau, James Kwambai, and World champion Abel Kirui, plus Moroccan Abderrahim Bouramdane and two-times New York winner Marilson Gomes dos Santos of Brazil.

The pace picked up through mile three and then they passed 5km in 14:34, six seconds quicker than at this stage in 2010, but still a tad down on their target; 10km in 29:25; and 15k in 44:27.

By the time they passed 10 miles, in 47:42, Mo Trafeh had paid for his early enthusiasm and disappeared off the back. They strode over the river at Tower Bridge and through half way in 1:02:45, now outside the World record target but still on course for Wanjiru’s 2:05:10 mark.

The last pacemaker fell away at 30k and Kebede began to make a move as they wound through Docklands and under Canary Wharf. By the time they emerged the group was down to six, Kebede shadowed by Mutai, Lel, Kwambai and Makau.

Last year only Kirui had stayed with the Ethiopian and he paid for his lone assault. This time Mutai and Lel unleashed a two-pronged attack and the reigning champion felt his crown begin to slip.

Mutai unleashed a 4:29 mile, the quickest of the race so far, and immediately opened a 100m lead, leaving Makau and Lel to fight for the lesser spoils. Now in bright sun, he forged on alone, recording a 5k split from 30 to 35km of 14:16.

He strode out along the Embankment without a single opponent in sight and by the time he rounded the final bend in front of Buckingham Palace he had time to enjoy the welcoming crowd. Mutai sprinted for the line to become the ninth man in history to break 2:05."

And today, we are attacking Boston. Cant wait.
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Soldiering On

I have run 4X this week and I am still doing 7K for 40 mins. Room for improvement is huge as hell which is good coz I have about 4 more Kms to cram into that time. My weight is dropping well and I feel good. Today speed came to me and I opened the door for it in form of fartleks.
My position is better. But my right shin is still painful. I have had to revert back to my old mantra: pain is weakness leaving the body, plus, so long as my knees are kosher, every other muscle or bodypart can suck it.
So tomorrow I rest and Sunday I go for 110mins LSR.
Meanwhile the London Marathon is up for grabs this Sunday and the strong runner Kebede (pictured below) will be seeking to break the WR in it. IAAF says: ....the men’s race features three of the top five from the Beijing Olympics and all three medallists from the 2009 Berlin World Championships; the three 2010 European Championships medallists; the fastest man in the world last year; the third and fourth fastest men of all time; and no fewer than seven athletes who have run 26.2 miles quicker than two hours six minutes.

Throw into the mix eight of the top 10 finishers from London last year, and an intriguing return from injury for Martin Lel, the three-times London winner who’s been out of action for two years, and you have quite a race. Indeed, the only name missing from Sunday’s line-up will be that of the Olympic champion Sammy Wanjiru, who withdrew three weeks ago with a knee injury.

Enjoy.

40 Mins Better - Almost Free

I am almost free from the shin splint problem. I was up early and I wrapped bandages around my shins. The left shin is healed and did not really need the shin support but then again it doesn't hurt. Since I wasn't encumbered by the pain from the injury, I decided to improve my distance within 40 minutes. I made it a hard tempo run. I decided to employ Shaq O'Neal's mantra GO HARD OR GO HOME. So I pushed and pushed and struggled uphill and allowed myself to cruise downhill without applying breaks because I knew my shins could take it. And I improved my distance by about one minute from Tuesday's distance. Now, for those who dont know, one minute is huge. I am still pretty slow but once I am free of injury, I plan to push myself and fight every second for 40 minutes until I can cram about 10K in the 40 minutes. I will just be fighting, attacking hills, sprinting downhill and speeding up in flat areas, muscles taut, teeth grating, jaws clenched, everything full blast. Just fight, dig deep, stay active, search for speed until I burn up more fat, and muscle and get leaner and faster. The plan is to be very strong. My knees are already strong and my shins are following then my ankles and my torso (back and abs).
The good news is that my left shin is healed 100%. Right one is about 80%. Tomorrow I give it another push then I rest for 4 days and let it recover in peace. Next week I will ramp it up to 5X a week with more need for speed. War Jack! War!
Today, eye candy is Hulk's face, his pure anger manifested sometimes fuels me to dig deep and to attack my boundaries and shatter them as I explode into new frontiers. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

 Or sometimes I let it explode in a scream. Never underestimate the power of a fictional creature to fire up a man. After all, most people use God.

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Ana 40 mins - Better

I have a cold so I took some NSAIDs and some Cetrizet last night so the pain wasn't so bad though I wasn't exactly sparkling and sharp. At any rate, I went further in my first 20 mins and I pushed. I will continue pushing as we proceed. I am better.
I have two funerals to attend this weekend and I may have to travel out of town so this puts the group run in jeopardy. Here is Eddie Alvarez (white trunks) vs. Pat Curran

96Mins LSR

I did 96 mins LSR yesterday. It was rather easy and I did 96 as opposed to 100mins because by the time I had done 45mins and was approaching my u-turn point, I decided it was enough of an increase in mileage compared to last week.
Shins are better. Has my position improved or worsened?
My position has improved. But I have some sort of cold.
No matter. The war continues tomorrow.
Meanwhile, iaaf says that in Brunssum, The Netherlands - Micah Kogo of Kenya and Irina Mikitenko of Germany were the winners of the Parelloop (Pearl Run) 10Km in the southern Dutch town of Brunssum on Sunday.

Kogo stopped the clock in 27:15, the fastest in the world this year. He was eleven seconds ahead of compatriot Mike Kigen, who finished second.

Cheers.
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Ana 40 mins

I was up early. I wrapped my shins and stepped outside. As usual, there was this group of about five people doing something on the tarmac just before I exited the main gate. I noticed my gait wasnt good because I was leaning forward too much and was bent forward at the waist. I followed Tupacs advice, kept my head up and let my legs do the running. I ended up faster. I increased the distance. I did stretches, pushups, lunges, crunches, heel-toe walks, toe curls and toe raises and iced my feet. I rest tomorrow. Phew! My body kinda felt stiff and I am looking forward to resting kesho. Sato its 100mins run. Need to maintain proper form, its probably bad form thats screwing my shins.
Here is a runners group ready for a group sprint. Our group is growing. 7 potential members so far.

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And ana 38 - Rained on

New problem: my weight has stagnated at a point I dont want it to stagnate. I have been okay everyday for the first 12 houre everyday then at dinner time that is when my efforts are eroded.
So what can I do to change this:
1. When am not running the next morning, try and have something very light for dinner, like a fruit.
2. Take two glasses of water before dinner.
3. Cut back dinner quantities even further.

If it is weight, I will lose it. Come fire come water.

Today i was up earlier and was off by 5:20 but affer 20 mins, it started to rain. Lets just say I was rained on pretty well. I did stretches and other exercises in my living room, iced my shins and tied both of them. Tomorrow I will go for another 6K. Here is Chael Sonnen. Guts and grit.

Cheers.

38mins

I went for another 38 mins run. I have improved my speed but its far from fast. My shins still ache but my position is better compared to last week. As we say in MMA and chess, whenever you act, ask yourself whether your actions have improved your position. The answer is that my position has improved. Despite the pain.
Eye candy today is Junior Dos Santos and er, well, have a look and decide for yourself.

Keep working.
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82 Mins LSR

I went for a 82 Minutes Long Slow Run. My shins are better, particularly the right one. The left one seems to be waking up to the injury. I met several runners including GK. My speed is still nothing to write home about. I just want to get the injuries out of the way then I start speeding up and cutting more weight.
I have managed to be disciplined with my diet so the weight is dropping well.

Next Sunday, I plan to go for 100mins LSR. So far, so good. Just the pesky problem of splintered shins.

Meanwhile, in Milan, Italy - Kenyan Matthew Kisorio took the win improving his PB by seven seconds with 60:03 at today’s Stramilano Half Marathon which celebrated its 40th edition on a cloudy morning but otherwise with ideal weather conditions.
Kisorio, fourth at last week’s IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, beat his 18-year-old compatriot Eric Ndiema who finished second in 60:20 ahead of Dereje Deme Hailegiorgis, third in 60:25.

Cheers.
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38Mins - Courage and Spunk

I ran yesterday and today. My knees are out of any danger because I do the lunges faithfully. My shins are another matter altogether. They are splintered and even though I faithfully do heel-toe walks and toe raises, the pain persists. And today when I set out on the road, instead of telling myself "Just keep going", I found Paula Radcliffe's mantra "Tarmac Meet Courage" more appropriate because I was in some sort of pain. And the tarmac lay in front of me, daring me to run all over it.
My shoes are rather new so I know they are not the problem my weight is not making it any easier but that too, I will grind down with persistence and consistency and watching what I eat. I clenched my teeth and ran on. After all, I am experienced enough to know the kind of pain or injury I can run through and the type that I cannot run through.
It reminds me of 2008 when my shins gave me plenty of hell and I became friends with bandages and shin support but I was so determined and full of stubbornness I gritted my teeth and ran until the shin pain went away.
Only to be replaced by knee pain. But thats another matter.
So tomorrow I will give them a break as I strengthen my compartment muscles. My weight is behaving well and I expect to shed some more in the coming weeks especially if my shins get better and I pump up the volume.
Here is Jones, taking the UFH LHW belt from Shogun, by force and brutality in UFC 128.

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The Loliondo Wonder, er, Manure

 The Loliondo Wonder - The Jury is In 

24 March 2011

I probably shouldn't be posting this because it was my own fault. And now I am about to waste your time too. It was my own fault that I allowed myself to spend 25 minutes watching an NTV video on YouTube. And this stuff is so bad for the brain and such a waste of bandwidth that people should be banned from watching it. I should have known better. Now I have lost some 25 minutes I will never get back.

If it is any consolation, this post will save you your 20 minutes and you can feel free to use me as a cautionary tale. 

Anyways, I was told yesterday that NTV aired a story about people being healed in TZ. I usually watch Citizen so I missed that and I thought that was the end of it. But today, when I was settling on my desk I was asked again whether I watched it and I said No. And I was told guys are getting healed in TZ from some water from a tree and even Helicopters are taking people there to be healed and the drug costs 20/=. I said TZ has low literacy levels and lots of poverty so from the demographic alone, it is no wonder that buggers are getting fleeced by some equally illiterate guy. "You want to tell us that even those people with big cars are illiterate and poor?" I was challenged."Those hundreds of people can’t be wrong."

I said I was dubious about the story but okay, let me check it out so I can comment meaningfully.

So I made a cup of tea and got to YouTube and found two videos titled The Loliondo Wonder with parts I and II each is about ten minutes long.

It is a product of investigative Jounalsim by John Allan Namu of NTV.

The Loliondo Wonder is a story about a faith healer called Ambilikile whose base is a place in Tanzania called Loliondo near the Kenyan Magadi border. He has become famous recently because people believe that he can cure incurable diseases. He is very categorical that he deals only with AIDs, Cancer, Diabetes, Epilepsy and Asthma. He advises people to go to hospital for other diseases. But when he realizes that can close business from other potential customers, like this barren woman wanting a baby, he says if u take the medicine and pray, you can get a baby/be fertile.

Ambilikile says that one day God revealed to him the medicine in a tree, plus the dosage to dole out and the number of days. He makes a drug from allegedly boiling the roots of a tree called "mgamriaga" or whose scientific name, Allan says, is antaraya intoxicana and which is known to be poisonus. There is no such name as antaraya intoxicana in Botanical dictionaries or encyclopaedias but that is another story for another day.

People are making pilgrimages to Loliondo and paying 25/- for a cup of the brown liquid. 10/= allegedly goes to the Lutheran church. 5/= to Ambilikila himself. 5/= for paying his workers. Of course no accounting records are offered, no receipts Lutheran Church minister to acknowledge or deny. There is a 7-12Km traffic jam of people queuing to see this wondrous healer. Some o those stuck in the jam have children who are not sick but have brought them to prevent future diseases. They believe they will be cured in the name of Jesus.

Ok, who has he cured? There is a guy who is holding a defaced, altered and unclear Hospital card (presumably) who claims he had Glaucoma and got cured. He doesn’t say whether he got drugs from hospital or did not or whether he relied on Ambilikile’s drug alone. Who else? Well, there was once a throat cancer patient. They never confirmed whether he got cured. Okay. What do doctors think? Can he cure diabetes? They bring a Dr. Richard Ole Nkapi. A confused man who preaches about God instead of giving a medical opinion. Alright. What else? Well, dispensaries are closing due to lack of business and there is a guy who says he suffered from diabetes mellitus and his blood sugar level has normalized since he visited the faith healer. They don’t tell us about what other treatment he chose, his activity level, his diet etc so we really can’t nail his reduction of blood sugar to specifics and whether he indeed even had Diabetes in the first place. And there is an old woman suspected of having lung cancer. She believes she can be cured of hereditary diseases. 

Suspected? Yes just suspected. Meaning we don’t even know what she is suffering from. She is probably just old. And oh, there is another story of a neighbour whose kid had epilepsy-like symptoms and got cured and stopped taking drugs. Non-verifiable. No names, no hospitals. No medical records. Convulsions can be caused by all manner of medical conditions, not epilepsy alone. Duh.

A helicopter hovers overhead. Even though it has not landed and we don’t know where it is going, they talk about its occupants being more patients headed there. Okay. What else? The faith healer is guarded by armed forces and transport companies allegedly donate one van out of every ten to ferry people to Loliondo. At the same time, people pay 6K per seat for the trucks.

And Oh, I forgot. The alleged drug does not work outside Loliondo. So you are given and you gulp it down there and then. If you need 7 days of daily intake, you either camp there or make seven trips. What? Yes of course people in nearby townships are opening hotels, selling water to thirsty pilgrims and hotels are making booming business. As we ponder all this, a chronically fatigued guy takes the drink. He is hopeful. As the night falls, some people are settling to sleep on the ground. It is said that some politicians allegedly take their constituents to Loliondo to gain popularity. 

What about other doctors? Dr. Julius Mbuya, a Gynacologist and another Doctor say that some of their patients have been to Loliondo and not cured. Diabetic and HIV patients. And they say the Tanzanian govt knows this and has not intervened. At the end of the story, Allan Namu says he can't decide whether it is gullibility, blind faith or just the need for hope that is driving people to Loliondo. But he knows it is not about being healed. 

So, the upshot of it is that we have claims of healing from some faith healer in TZ and buggers are trudging there in carloads like that is the new Mecca for miracles. And tour operators don’t hesitate to publicize the story and make it sound real so that they get more pilgrims and make roaring business. And I am so mad that I have wasted time on this utterly inane story. 

What is plastered all over that wasteland are images of faith, not cure. His story sells to the gullible and mostly Christian patients because it has a foundation in actual Christian belief. Jesus is said to have healed miraculously and Moses picked a snake and it became a staff. People will always want to believe in the mystical because it makes life so much more interesting. But, sadly, it is all humbug. 

30,000 people cannot be wrong as my friend asks? Well, Galileo Galilei said the world was not flat and the millions of people who disagreed with him, excommunicated him from the Church. Appeal to numbers is a logical fallacy. Only facts matter. And the fact is that diabetes is an insulin/hormonal problem and epilepsy is a neurological problem and AIDS is caused by a virus and cancer is caused by cells that are screwed up. And there is no chance in hell that you can find one drug that can cure all these diseases at the same time. That would be like finding a snake that is human, a virus, a web browser and a tree at the same time. That is the degree of breathtaking inanity that this manure of a story is. Pure unadulterated, Grade A, Prime crap.

This ignorant TZ old man is neither the first nor the last faith healer. They are all frauds. You don’t even need to examine his methods, take his fingerprints or his mental health. History is littered with them from Africa to Asia to Europe to the Americas. And it is because faith healers don’t deliver and have never delivered that we rely on Western Medicine. Those who don’t understand how nature works, how disease is cured and who don’t understand human nature and the desire to believe in miracles are likely to lend credence to the claims made by the pilgrims heading to Loliondo.

Darrel Bristow-Bovey said in his book I moved Your Cheese that "The world is awash with guff, with humbug and bushwash and just plain dumbness, and it is a full-time job to wade through it all without becoming so tired that you just want to lie down and let it roll over you and become one with the dumbness." And that story is plain dumbness walking on two feet and moving in plain sight. And I had the misfortune of being embraced by it for 25 minutes.

The Loliondo scene is a throwback to the dark ages when mankind believed only magic could address problems that they had no immediate answer for. And it is a shame it is happening in 2011 when mankind has made so much progress. Poor Africa.

Next time I wont waste time over such manure.

The Loliondo Wonder  Part I  

The Loliondo Wonder  Part II

Aliet

36Mins - 15K groupe run planned for 10th April

I went for a run on a new route. A much better route. My shins still painful but better. We have planned a 15K run on 10th April. Here is da map. Wanna join us?

1 Hour Run

I discovered a better route and did a one hour run on it. Its got hills baby! Shins are not so bad after the 63mins run. About 9.5Kms. Next Sunday I will do 75 mins.
Meanwhile Vivian Cheruiyot won the women's IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain leaving the 2nd place to Linet Masai.

The Men's race was won by Ethiopia's Imana Merga. Paul Kipngetich Tanui (KEN) and Vincent Kiprop Chepkok (KEN) followed him.

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