In Iten now I'm ready for going for training. It's early in the morning, and I go in internet for few minutes. I see what I wrote yesterday as "quote of the day".
We can discuss about training, but I want to specify that I'm not the coach of Geoffrey. I don't want that somebody can think I'm the coach of every top Kenyan athlete winning inportant competitions.
The top athletes I directly follow are Wilson Kiprop (World HM Champion), Moses Mosop, Florence Kiplagat (World HM Champion), Sylvia Kibet.
But the training system of the athletes in Iten is influenced by the kind of training we used and we teached during 13 years in this area.
Geoffrey Mutai is a self coached athlete. He has his program, his group, his courses. Especially, he has a lot of motivation, and ability in recovering, under the mental point of view, very quickly after every competition.
Another top runner training in Iten using these type of training is Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich, winner in Frankfurt in 2:04:57, running the last 5 km in 14:02 !
All the athletes selected in the senior group live in the ray of 30 km, between Iten and Eldoret.
This is the demonstration that Iten is the most advanced area in the World, under the basic phylosophy of training for long distances, and this is the reason because every year some new manager wants to put new training camps there. Iten is a "running community" where everybody can "breath" athletic in every hour of the day.
Of course, I'm in touch with the most part of the groups, and I know very well what they do, but don't think I'm the coach of everybody, because it's not true. But, when I have to explain something I know, I do without any problem.
About the clean WR of today, I confirm my certainty :
ALL THE RECORD OF MIDDLE DISTANCE ARE CLEAN. If you want to search somebody drugged, go to see out of Kenya and Ethiopia, and especially out of the top 10-15 in the World. Now there are in Iten many European runners, one month ago there were runners from UK, and for example Clitheroe, 37y old, improved her PB in 3000m from 8'51" to 8'39" in Birmingham after a long period here. Can somebody think she started to get doping in Iten ? Or you think that the ambience and a different kind of training allowed her to run faster ?
The secret in Iten is that, when you see everybody running a lot of mileage, 400 athletes on track, very fast long runs, and you discover this is the normal life of these champions, that are very normal persons, you start to think it's possible running fast for you, too.
The secret is to make in your mind possible what was not possible before.
The secret is to make easy what was difficult, instead to make difficult what really is easy.