Scott Douglas Slate - Kenyans dress warm

strong xcrunner wrote:

there is nothing like primitive medical... u son of bitch,High altitude areas are free from mosquitoes. it is only in low lands, Am kenya was suprised to see homeless people in america during ma visit,f***! how many shifts do you work to pay rent or survive. how many times have u been kicked out by the land lord?i assume many. we all have shits in this world either big or small.

Can you read, little boy?

When it is a nice enough temperture for us local boys to wear shorts and a short sleave shirt, I've seen Kenyans (Tanzanian guys do the same thing too) dress up in warm clothing when they do their easy jogs?

Is it becasue they are cold or do they do it because of of its part of training they do?

they think it helps them lose weight, but they are quite wrong; it only serves to dehydrate the runner through extra sweat loss.

I have never heard a Kenyan say that they do it to lose any weight. They usually just get cold more easily. In Kenya, they also dress warm because they feel that it can help reduce the chances of them catching malaria (the same reason they won't run in the rain).

they do it to make them lose weight and "get in shape." they thing that when they sweat more, they are working a lot harder.

Weight loss was the reason I was always given. Here's the relevant excerpt from a Runner's World Daily article I did:

There are a few oddities on display. The no-talking-while-training thing would seem to lessen one's enjoyment, especially for so sociable a people. Even weirder, everyone in camp trains in a ridiculous amount of gear. On one run I did in t-shirt and shorts, my companion had on a t-shirt, rain jacket and wind pants over tights. "It is good to sweat to lose the weight so that you can run fast," explains steeplechaser Jackie Chirchir. "If you are heavy, you will not be able to keep up with someone who is slim." Yeah, but...oh, never mind.

Don't think it's the weight.

At 60 degrees in Kenya, I've seen these guys train in sweats under windpants, and t-shirt under sweatshirt under wind jacket. They really seem to believe that the hotter they are, the better the workout. Of course, they also wear parkas whenever it's below 50!

The malaria thing is very true, too.

Don't think it had much to do with weight loss -- they know damn well they're thin enough.

sort of helps to explain why they tend to do better in warm weather races. I've seen kenyans cooling down in full sweat outfits after races in some unpleasantly warm conditions (70+ w/ 80% humidity).

Not only are they wicked fit, but better heat acclimatized on a regular basis.

Exactly, there's a nice benefit in being ready to handle hot conditions in race as a result.

Scott, thanks for answering. I didn't expect that.

Scott

Can we expect a forth installment to that series? We here so much about the training styles of Kenya so it was good to hear how the culture ties in.

I remember an Henry Rono SI article by Kenny Moore from the late 70s. HR was all bundled up, despite the temperate morning, in order to, "Sweat out some of the beer we drank last night." That seems to indicate weight loss as a motivator.

Great stories in Slate! I'm looking forward to Thursday's. Are you working on a book?

If you don't mind me asking, what exactly did Brother O'Connell mean when he said he didn't spend time socially with the Kenyans because it would ruin him? It seemed weird to live in a country for so long and coach so many people and yet not want to have anything to do with them outside of training.

geography teacher wrote:

Scott

Can we expect a forth installment to that series? We here so much about the training styles of Kenya so it was good to hear how the culture ties in.

Despite what the tabs on Slate might lead you to believe, it was only a three-part series.

I thought that all the articles were great. Thanks Scott.

nk wrote:

they think it helps them lose weight, but they are quite wrong; it only serves to dehydrate the runner through extra sweat loss.

Actually that is not ture. While the majority of weight loss is due to dehydration. Your bodies attempts to cool itself takes energy, therefore each run burns more calories. The same would be true for being especially cold.

Thanks Scott for the article, I enjoyed it.

I have always thought wearing extra clothes for weight loss as stupid. But I have read this several times over the last few days that many of the best do it, weird. Maybe there is something to it? Maybe not for the weight loss that they think they are getting, but maybe the side benefit of extra tollerance to over heating that you would get late in a long race such as the Marathon.

There were a group of Kenyans a few years ago training in San Francisco, they were always in lot's of gear and my admittedly not-so-great memeory believes the explanation given was, "it's bloody freezing".

Surprised no one has raised the converse, does this necessarily mean you race (relatively) poorly in cold? Some rcent NCAA Cross meets would suggest yes.

And don't forget that Benji Durden used to train in sweat suits and rubber or plastic suits in the summer in Stone Mountain, GA. I believe he cited coursening and toughening, not weight loss, as a rationale.