Some things a Kenyan runner told me part three...

Listening to these guys it became clear that they all truly believe in themselves. Whilst they are much quicker than the rest of us mere mortals all of these guys seem to believe that they can and will win their races and all of them believe that they will be the one to break a world record.

So the thing I took away from this was that we should none of us choose to limit ourselves and talk ourselves out of things but instead get out there and discover our limits rather than guess or have someone guess for us. Whatever your dream is, make it big and then see what happens. It doesn't have to be running that you only apply this ideal to either. It strikes me that this can be applied to life in general.

They never complain about anything. It's an unwritten rule within the group. One of the guys said to me that if you do complain your mind will become weak and as the body is controlled by the mind this is dangerous when racing. This is useful when living in the red as it were on an efforts session or in a race but he felt that in order to get the most out of your mind you have to have this outlook across everything. Interesting outlook. Is it that simple?

These guys don't eat processed food at all. This didn't surprise me but what did was how much of an interest they take in their food intake. I had imagined someone preparing food to be consumed and dealing with all of the dynamics involved in that, and to be fair at training camp this is what happens. Outside of these environments however they look after themselves and it is always local seasonal veg and locally produced meat if as an individual they eat it. You won't find any of them in a supermarket. You will find all of them at the market.

Next week will be the last part of this little set of notes on my conversations and I've saved the best until last as it's all about workouts.