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A review by alisarae
Running with the Kenyans: Passion, Adventure, and the Secrets of the Fastest People on Earth by Adharanand Finn
This book was fine but not exceptionally compelling. One major takeaway for me was how simply even succesful Kenyan runners live. They train in very basic camps, they eat the same simple foods day in and day out, they don’t complain.
Today I was grumbling about not having a track to train on (the closest one available to me is an hour travel time just to arrive there). But then I thought about Kenyans. They don’t train on tracks. They run and they run fast. Their workouts are pretty straightforward— easy runs seem to build to negative splits or perhaps ladders, fartleks are 1’ on 1’ off and repeat for an hour, routes routinely include hills, and most don’t use a watch. The book mentions one runner who ran on an indoor track for the first time in his life at a European championship and he won. Another complains about using spikes. So the lesson here is that doing speedwork on a track won’t make you faster.... doing work will.
May their monastic dedication be a lesson to us all.
Today I was grumbling about not having a track to train on (the closest one available to me is an hour travel time just to arrive there). But then I thought about Kenyans. They don’t train on tracks. They run and they run fast. Their workouts are pretty straightforward— easy runs seem to build to negative splits or perhaps ladders, fartleks are 1’ on 1’ off and repeat for an hour, routes routinely include hills, and most don’t use a watch. The book mentions one runner who ran on an indoor track for the first time in his life at a European championship and he won. Another complains about using spikes. So the lesson here is that doing speedwork on a track won’t make you faster.... doing work will.
May their monastic dedication be a lesson to us all.