KENYAN SECRETS

If you LIVE like a Kenyan, TRAIN like a Kenyan, EAT like a Kenyan, SLEEP like a Kenyan, and REST like a KENYAN will you RUN like a Kenyan? Running fitness' Andy Barber spent a week with some of their finest athletes to find out.

Easy. That was what life with some of the world's greatest athletes was like. Yep, easy. There were hours spent in front of the TV, a flask of tea in the lounge meant you didn't even have to walk to the kitchen for a drink, naps were taken left right and centre, each night was an early night, and even walking to the Tesco store half a mile away was done at low speed. All in all an unbelievably easy life. Hardly what you'd expect when living at the house where many of the world's top athletes base themselves for European racing.

But yes it was incredibly easy. Oh, except for the training that is. There was just one run a day, true. But it was a lung searing, leg sapping, gut wrenching, remorseless burn that started at 8 min mile pace but within 20 minutes saw me running at absolute, everything-at-it, flat out pace and still being dropped by the rest of the group in the way you'd expect Gebrselassie to see off a sumo wrestler.

Dog walkers and the local 'get-your-knees-up' hecklers looked on in sympathy as I was blasted out of sight with consummate ease by a couple of blokes who looked dressed more for a stint of Carol singing than clocking sub-five minute miles around Bushy Park, Teddington.

Perhaps my suffering was understandable. Let's face it Thomas Nyariki has clocked a 12min 55sec 5K and I remembered watching Evans Rutto finishing a close second to Haile Gebrselassie in the 5K at the Nuremburg Grand Prix. Bung into the equation up and coming talent in the form of George Okworo and it was obvious I stood no chance in this training group.

Fortunately I always had a full day to recover from my exertions before repeating the efforts all over again. Each day I got up in time to do some stretching before heading out of the door with my training partners at around 8.20am. The one thing that did swing matters slightly in my favour was the fact the Kenyans do not like the cold and wet - particularly when the constant rain has made the ground soaking wet and slippery. But after we had walked to the park (they do not run on roads to help steer clear of injury) and started on our run it was quickly clear that this did very little to eat into the huge gulf in standard between myself and Evans, Thomas and George.

After our first run I was fortunate enough to be introduced to Moses Kiptanui - a 5K and 3K steeplechase world record holder and all time distance running great.

He coaches a large squad of Kenyan athletes and also bases himself close to Bushy Park when in Europe. He asked me how I was coping with the runs. I was honest. "It is about here," Moses said, tapping his head. "Do not let them get away from you. Run with them and concentrate hard. And keep working hard all the time."

Moses was quite sure of this and, true enough, remembering his words meant that the next day the gang disappeared over the horizon at a slightly slower rate than before. This concentration and pain certainly made a difference but in all honesty I don't think my legs can concentrate as fast as a 12min 55sec man's can.

So while the others started their stretching and post run drills looking fresh as a daisy each day, I was left gasping for air. Then I would join in with the Kenyan style drills and stretching before walking back to the house with them. Rather than fighting to be first to the shower, the Kenyans would first of all head for the lounge to continue with their stretching and also to do a routine of sit-ups, medicine ball work and even light weights before disappearing off for a shower. This extra work still formed part of their routine even though they were on a much easier training regime to back in Kenya.

In Eldoret they had been training three times a day made up by a run of up to 15K early in the morning. A brutal speed session in the late morning and a 30 minute very gentle run in the afternoon. This routine would also be the one followed in the UK during the summer when the Kenyan athletes come over for the European track races.

But in the English winter the cold and wet weather and the fact they are racing each weekend makes for a lighter training load. After all they are only staying at their European base for a couple of weeks at a time and as I learned they rate rest very highly. Afternoon runs and fartleks are done in the English winter. But for the week I was with them there was just one 45 minute burn up a day. One thing that is the same all year round though is that they take a rest day on a Sunday. The athletes are Christians and unless they are racing they go to church on a Sunday.

For my week the post run breakfast was made up of a couple of slices of bread and butter and some Kenyan tea. The tea was made by heating milk and tea leaves on the hob and then adding lots of sugar. And after post training showers the tea drinking continued in front of the TV.

TV. Now there's something there was a lot of during the week. The day often started with some CNN to help us keep on top of world affairs.

Evans' knowledge on subjects from finer details of the US residential Election saga through to the World Rally leaderboard led me to believe that he would not do so badly on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire if the cash from cracking out world class cross country runs and road races ever dries up. But if any of the gang ever went on Mastermind I know what the specialist subject would be - US talk shows. Jerry Springer, Montel Jordan, Maury, Jenny Jones, Ricki Lake, Mother Love. You name them, we watched them. Lots. The doses of "Your modelling dream makes me want to scream,"You show too much chest girl" or "Marriages that are breaking up before they have begun" were punctuated by Bill Murray or Arnold Schwarzenegger movies and an evening of World War II films. When TV got too much I'd do a spot of reading. By the end of the week I had even read the Italian Athletics review of 1999 despite hardly speaking a word of Italian. The pictures meant I could tell roughly what was going on and that was all that was needed when the alternative was mothers who look like their daughters being given a make over.

It was the simple life for us. The Kenyans were a very easy going group. They were laughing and joking all the time and didn't seem to get nervous or stressed about anything. Every now and again there would be a video pulled out of a cross country race which everyone would watch. And the sight of athletes struggling up huge hills or quicksandeseque mud always brought one reaction. Laughter. In fact the only thing that worried them was the English weather. One day we headed out the door to find it was windy and raining heavily. There was an about turn and the run was delayed until the weather had brightened up.

In the early afternoon we'd pull ourselves away from the TV for long enough to get some lunch. This consisted of a bowl of potatoes, boiled with some tomatoes, and rice. Other days there were some baked beans too. Detect a theme on the eating front? You've got it. There was carbohydrate galore. The theme did not change for the evening meal. More carbs. This time in the form of heaps of ugali eaten with boiled cabbage and chicken boiled with some tomatoes. Ugali? Now there's a thing. Evans claims that Kenyans never run as well if they have not been able to eat it before racing. And before heading off to hand a class field in Switzerland a good thrashing in a 7.2K road race the last thing Thomas did was share a big plate of ugali with me. That tied in nicely with the first thing I did when I arrived - share a plate of ugali with Thomas. It seemed to be seen as a way of testing whether I really did want to eat like a Kenyan during my time with them. Fortunately Ricky, from the company that looks after the Kenyans, had already warned me to drink plenty of milk with the stuff to avoid complete lock up in my gut and his advice was duly followed.

As far as your digestive system is concerned ugali is pure unadulterated rocket fuel - with some cement bunged in for good measure. To make it you boil a pan of water - the bigger the better. And once the water is boiling you start adding maize flour and stirring. Once the mix is pure stodge you add more maize flour and continue to stir. This is continued until the mix is virtually solid and you are working hard with both hands to keep stirring it. Then just turn the pan upside down and drop the ugali on to a plate. Cut it into pieces, it is quite solid, and eat.

On the Tuesday the aforementioned multi-world record holder and Kenyan distance running icon Moses Kiptanui came round for ugali. And he revealed what he considers the secret of Kenyan distance runners:

"Rest. That is the secret no-one knows. No-one realises how much rest they get. It is why Kenyans train so hard."

I certainly wasn't the first to see how they do take life easy between training. But certainly with all the talk of their advantages of being born and living at altitude, genetic factors, drinking cows blood and ridiculously hard sessions it does seem to get overlooked.

By the end of the week it became clear that it is the resting that sets the Kenyans apart from the British distance runners. Walking to the supermarket for more bread, milk, cabbage and chicken was done at an incredibly leisurely pace. And even if there was a lot of sitting around watching TV people still felt the need for naps. Cyclist Graeme Obree once said you can only train as hard as you can recover and boy do the Kenyans recover.

I would have predicted that my legs would feel fully recovered each day given all the sitting around, stretching and healthy eating I did. But bizarrely I found that walking upstairs to bed each night my legs still felt tired. That goes to show just how hard I was working on those morning runs and how much recovery I needed to train that hard.

Leaving the house after a week I was quite sure I had learned the secrets of distance running success. Unfortunately simply drinking cows blood would not make the difference. A regime of eating lots of complex carbohydrates, training very hard, including plyometrics and weights work, doing plenty of stretching, never doing anything that could lead to injury (such as wearing worn out shoes or doing much running on hard surfaces) and getting as much rest as possible to allow yourself to train incredibly hard are all you need. Oh, and a bit of natural ability. Probably.

Key points to Kenyan living.

• Start runs very slowly but accelerate until at the end you are running very, very hard.
• Run sessions very, very hard.
• Follow runs with a full range of stretching, drills, sit ups and medicine work.
• Watch TV at all times between training except when eating or reading.
• Take a nap if there is nothing on TV.
• Eat ugali as much as possible. Does your sweat carry the feint smell of maize? If not eat more ugali.
• When you walk, walk slowly. Very slowly.
• Run only on grass or tracks. Walk to the park rather than running there. Remember to walk slowly.
• Make your tea using milk instead of water and add sugar in the kind of quantity you would normally add milk.
• Do not train in the rain unless absolutely necessary.