Dennis Irwin Crocodile hunter

Friday

after Thursdays session I was pretty tired so I just did a 40 minute run in the morning to the track to watch Karl, Nick,  Jake and Zane do a session. The session went pretty well for me as I just lied on the grass listening to music whilst watching all of them train hard. I think watching a session at altitude is more benificial than watching a session at sea level so overall I was quite pleased with myself. 

                                                 Big track session

I was also happy that Nick managed to run the right way round the track and the fact that his willing to train hard in order to loose much needed weight. Keep it up Nick, You're no pussy man!

Saturday


Me and Nick got up early to do a hill session so that In the afternoon we could go cliff Jumping like Sly Stallone in the film Cliffhanger. We did 15x100m hill sprints with hop down recovery, I struggled with the hopping after the 8th rep but Nick was going strong with all the previous hopping his been doing before I got here, he could tell I was struggling a little with the hopping but kept saying "aye man were no pussies man" I found this really motivating and managed to get through the next 7 hop recoveries quite well.
after we had our rice and beans for dinner we headed up to Kerio View so that we could practice our cliff rock jumping

                                   Jumping from cliff to cliff being lads

Before the cliff jumping began me and Nick had to decide what was the best footwear to use, we had to decide which had the best grip, what would take the most impact and most importantly what would make us look really stylish like David Dickinson or Trevor Mcdonald.
I choose to wear the Salomon Crossmax and Nick choose the Salomon Speedcross, after all of our jumping we knew we made the right choice as we managed to jump really well and most importantly we survived. Karl didn't take part as he didn't have the right footwear but he did do a good job of taking the photos.
Me and Nick decided after all the jumping that when we get back home we will concentrate on getting to the Krypton factor and winning it.

Sunday


Me Karl and Jake got up at 6am to do our long run so that we had plenty of time to go crocodile hunting like my childhood hero Dennis Irwin. The run went quite well, I managed 2 hours and felt that as each stride went on I was getting strong like I RON MaN.
We headed into town around 10 am and got a taxi to the lake. It took about 50 minutes to get there and was all downhill, it was ridiculously hot in the taxi and at times one of us would say " It's quite hot in here"
Like yesterday Me and Nick had to decide the correct footwear and yet again we both choose the Salomon, this yet again was the RIGHT decision.
When we arrived we walked along a steel girder bridge with a 100ft drop into the Croc infested water, only me and Nick did this as Karl didn't have the right footwear.

               Walking the steel bridge just like on Gladiators before the travelator

Soon as we both crossed we looked down into the water and we could see a Crocodile sunbathing, it looked like the crocodile who modelled for designer brand Lacoste

                                               The Lacoste model

One thing that worried me about this day is that Me and Nick would be challenging each other to do stupid things like see who could go into the water for the longest or wrestle one of them, luckily we didn't challenge each other to do anything and without saying anything we both started climbing down the cliff trying to get as close tho the Crocs, Karl stayed on top of the cliff and did a good job of taking the photos, this was mainly due to the fact he wasn't wearing Salomon footwear.

                                     Climbing the cliffs like Sly Stallone 

When we got to the bottom we waited for a couple of minutes to see if a Crocodile would come out to try and eat us, they didn't as they were being pussies man. We then had to cross the river and climb up the other cliff to see if we could get any Crocs to come out.

                            The Salomon footwear are built to tackle any terrain

I'm quite confident that after all of our climbing that we both have a good chance of making the Krypton factor final or being stuntmen in Cliffhanger 2. Luckily we both managed to survive probably due to the fact that we choose the right footwear Salomon. It's safe to say that me and Nick are like the Hall and Oates of Crocodile hunting/rock climbing.

                                                      Cliffhanger 2

Nothing much happened on Monday or Tuesday due to the fact we were recovering from the weekend and we were training hard like Rocky in Rocky 4, like when his training in the snow lifting trees up and big weights. The best thing that happened was Tuesday afternoon when we did a photo shoot with Tuskins Snr.

                                          Serious faced Tuskins Snr

We're hoping that we can get Tuskins snr a movie career, our dream would be for him to play the dog sidekick in I am Ladgend 2 starring our favourite movie actor/singer of all time Will Smith

                                                Zombie Tuskins Snr

Tuskins Snr is like the dog version of Hollywood movie mega Star Johnny Depp, he can play various roles like comedy + action but his main speciality is horror, particularly Zombie movies.


Eldoret to get the last of our food shopping and to book Nick's flight back to Narobi. We went to one of the main supermarkets Nakurmart, soon as we walked in me and Nick spotted the two most stunning things you could ever lay your eyes on.
3 Litre chrome flasks

                            The thought of having 3 litres of tea made us happy

after the shopping before heading back to Iten we decided to have dinner in Eldoret, Karl had chips and beef burger and me and Nick choose the ultimate lads dinner. Ugali Matumbo which is intestines and a Malta Guinness. This dinner set me up for the big battle the next day.

                                           The ultimate lads dinner

Thursday


Yet again this was another group fartlek session but this time Karl joined me for battle and Nick came along on the warm up for team motivational speaker. During our warm up three Germans passed us who were on the way to the start of fartlek. Me and Karl both looked at each other and nodded as if into say let battle commence.

                                            Just before the big battle

We arrived at the start of the fartlek and as usual there were around 200 Kenyans waiting to tow the line for the battle with me Karl and the Germans all at the back. Few words were spoken we looked at each other like when Rocky looked at Tommy Gunn in Rocky 5 before they had a big street fight.
The session was 2 minutes off 1 minute, I did 12 and Karl did 10. The Germans were quite away off us and Victory was ours.
I make that two world wars, one world cup and to add to that one fartlek.

JT

Fartleks, Tempo's and Boybands

So I've got my daily routine down to a tee down, my alarm goes off at 7.30 I get up and stuff my face with bread (3 slices) then I get back into bed, sometimes If I'm tired I go back to sleep but most of the time I read a book or do my tiger drawing.

                                                         My tiger


I usually run at about 10am get back do some core whilst listening to Will smith and then I have a cold shower and head into town for some rice and beans. Whilst walking into town we discovered a new place called California Hotel, here you can get Rice & beans 2 cups of tea and 3 Chapatis for about 80p, I know the price is quite expensive but it all goes to the upkeep of the building.

                                                  New food place


Thursday
I started the day off as I usually do but today was a session day, I met Nick biscuit chin Swinburn outside my house and we both ran to the hill we call Steven Seagal after the famous Hollywood actor mega movie star man, we call this hill Steven Seagal because it's big and you wouldn't mess with it. 
We did 3 minute 2 minute 1 minute off jog down recovery, before we started Nick said "aye man I'm not doing them hard like as I'm doing a session in the evening like" we ended up racing every rep, after the 3 minute effort I felt sick, after the 2 minute I could breathe and after the 1 minute we felt really fast like a super market sweep contestant. We were both happy with this session as we got to progress through to the next round.
Rather than relaxing in the afternoon we played a game of keep'y up's and Nick got what was coming to him after shooting at Victor.

                                       Zane shooting at Nick and Jake


I got roped into doing a 9K tempo in the evening with Zane Nick Karl and 4 other Kenyan's, I only ended up doing it because Nick said "aye man don't be a pussy" with only 10 minutes left to go and get ready for the session I ran to my house and put on my running uniform. I'm no pussy man.
Zane set off ridiculously fast with the 4 Kenyan's closely behind followed by Nick Karl then me. I was still tired from the morning session so struggled to keep up, after 4k I caught 3 of the Kenyan's with Zane leading from Kenyan alex the 26 year old World Junior hopeful then Nick Karl and me. It stayed in that order till the end and I ended up finishing in 30 minutes which was enough to help me progress to the next round.


We were pretty restricted on what we could do at the weekend as we all wanted to watch the World indoors. Friday evening me Zane, Jake, Karl and Nick went to watch the 3000m heats at The Lornah Kipligat centre. Whilst there I noticed it was full of foreigners looking really miserable not talking to one another sat staring at their laptops, us on the other hand were all laughing having a good time. It's a nice place but for £30 a night that Is what you would expect, I'm quite happy paying £1 a night for my house with a cold shower and mattress on the floor.
When leaving I was thinking of what it reminded me of, then it came to me. It was like the film Titanic, there all on the top deck dressing up smartly pretending to be enjoying themselves where as where on the bottom deck having the times of our lives dancing on top of the tables.


We ended up watching the World's at Sylvia Kibets house on Sunday, it was pretty strange as she was competing in the women's 3000m final. Pretty much all of her family and friends where there watching, roughly about 30 people. It was tense on the last lap as she narrowly missed out on a medal, after we watched this we went back to Nick's and had a brew with Big Denzil who has somehow managed to get a gunshot wound and is now leaking, I'm sure he will pull through and will still provide us with our daily brews.


The most exciting thing that happened on Monday was going to the water tank and filling up 20, 10 litre water bottles so that we could wash our dishes and make food with it.

                                                 Collecting water like


Nick wasn't helping as he was to busy stuffing his face with Spaghetti.

                                          Nick doing what he does best


I've been having my usual weird altitude dreams again, I think Wednesday's Nights dream topped them all off.
I dreamed that Duncan from Blue rang me up asking me if I wanted to join a reformed Blue that Consisted of him Anthony Costa and Bradley from S club, I was a bit taken back as I'm more of a dancer than a singer. Before I knew it I was performing on stage in front of a packed out arena, I was quite nervous as I knew I couldn't sing and I didn't want to let the fan's down. 2 minutes into the song and I was struggling to sing and really letting the band down, all of a sudden Duncan stopped the song and mistook my singing for Bradley from S club, luckily I was off the hook.
I'm not to sure if I should be worry about having strange dreams like this or if I should feel honoured that Duncan picked me out of millions of other people to join a reformed Blue.
Not sure why I dreamed


Early this morning I jogged 20 minutes down the road from my apartment to join one of the fartlek sessions. When I arrived there was about 200+ Kenyans hanging around waiting for the session to start. I felt that I really stood out as I was the only person there wearing green trainers.
The session was 1 minute on 1 minute off, I started at the back as I wasn't to sure which direction we were heading, we all jogged for 1 minute and started the reps. 4 reps in and I was still feeling good, I could still see a few women in front of me but wasn't to worried as it was still early on. after the 6th rep I went past all of the women and as Karl would say I showed them the way to the kitchen!
The only thing I struggled with was the recovery as it's tough to breathe at altitude after running fast, I was in front of a lot of people after the 10th rep but the leaders were quite a way in front. I'm pretty sure a lot of the people at the front are tempo running it as they didn't seem to be slowing down. I ended up doing 16 reps in total and was quite pleased with the session, I feel that after doing this session I'm on the road to discovering who I am as a person. When I finished the last rep I decided to do a long cool down but ended up getting lost, I cooled down for 53 minutes and it was safe to say I was the most cooled down I have ever been!


I'm looking forward to this weekend as me Nick and Karl are going Crocodile fishing at one of the lakes about 30 miles from where we live, we plan on going to the butchers and getting some bait. I'm sure I will be fine as I used to watch Dennis Irwin Crocodile hunter when I was young so my knowledge on Crocodile fishing is pretty good!


JT

High altitude eating

Big session day!

I started Saturday off with a morning session at  10am, my alarm goes off at 7.30 so I can eat some breakfast which is just 3 slices of bread. I lie in bed for another hour psyching myself up by listening to some Will Smith.

So I'm out the door at 9.45am and do a 20 min warm up with Karl and Nick who are both going to the track. My session was a 9k tempo starting across the road from my house, when I set off I felt like I was the bus in Speed starring Keanu Reeves. If I dropped below 6 minute miling I would blow up or just have a rubbish session which is the most realistic of the two.

I managed to do the loop in 31 minutes which meant I didn't drop below 6 minute miling, I really feel that Keanu Reeve's would be proud of me!
In the afternoon we watched Zane's brother Jake on the Internet compete in the Olympic trials in Melbourne in the 5000m, he ran 13.28 just missing out on the Olympic standard. Whilst we watched this one of the Kenyan's Alex told us how his hoping to qualify for the world juniors this year, he was laughing as he told us this as his real age is 26!
The second session of the day happened in the evening. The chapatis challenge. The competition was between me Zane, Karl and big Nick Swinburn, we got Victor who helps out around the village to go into town on a bike and pick up 80 chapatis and 3 ndengu which is a sort of lentil based soup. He arrived back about 40 minutes later with the food and the competition was underway. Karl went for the single eating with ketchup on technique, Zane cut his up and put it into the ndengu, I tried folding mine up and eating 10 at once

                                                 The 10 technique

 but after 2 bites I realised this was a bad technique, as usual Nick was stuffing his face as fast as he could, which he does on a regular basis.

                                        It's rare you see Nick without food

 3 Hours later and the competition was over, Zane was the quickest and managed 18, Karl ate 11.5 and I managed 11.85. It took me about 1 hour to eat half a chapatis, it wasn't so much the amount it was more the taste of the oil and watching Nick eat them barely even chewing the chapatis.

                                         after the competition in a bad way

 He managed 20 so was joint winner with Zane, I'm a little disappointed with my performance but I put it down to the altitude and not being as fat as Nick who is kind of like the Neville Southall of running.

                                                       Nick in action

Sunday morning me and Karl went for a 90 minute run starting from our house to the rainforest and back, it's kind of weird when your in the rainforest as it doesn't feel like Kenya it sort of feels like being in Borneo Malaysia or the forest from the film Predator starring Ron Schzanheider. Once we had finished the run me Karl and Nick went to Kerio view  to watch the Newcastle vs Sunderland game, which is about the Geordies vs the strange breed of people the Mackems. Near the end of the game we where joined by Myles Edwards who arrived out here for a second stint on Monday, during the Man United vs Tottenham game we sat down and stuffed our faces at the buffet, me Karl and Myles went up twice and Nick went up 3 times due to his eating problem.

Monday was another session day for me, I did a 15x30 seconds off 30 seconds hill session. It was pretty good doing the session as there were a few Kenyan's doing longer hill reps so I had people to pass, when I was passing the Kenyan's i felt really strong like Don Cheadle or Anthea Turner. On my last effort to spur me on I pretended that I was at the bottom of the travelator  on the 90's hit TV programme Gladiators, when I  finished the rep I got hold of the rope and jumped through the barrier, after I jumped through the barrier I did a interview with John Fashunu who told me well done and see you in the next round. Overall I was pleased with this session.
Later in the evening me Nick, Karl and Victor played headers and volleys, after a few games we decided to play keepy up's and if you dropped the ball 3 times you had to line up against the wall and the other players got a free shot at you. Nick seen this as a perfect opportunity to get revenge on Victor ( 13 years old ) who had accidentally broke our flask on Saturday.

                                            Nick getting his revenge

Nick kept trying to set Victor up so he dropped the ball so that he could kick the ball at him, when Victor lined up against the wall with his back turned, Nick rather than kick the ball he picked it up and threw it narrowly  missing his head. Me being the nice guy I am purposely missed so that I had to join him against the wall.

                                           Karl chose to shoot at Victor

 The good news is out of all this I purchased a new flask and named it Denzil after Hollywood super mega movie star Denzil Washington.

                                                        Big Denzil

Nothing much happened on Tuesday apart from going for a run early morning for 60 minutes, a trip into town for some beans and rice and some sunbathing training, after the sunbathing training we found a dog wandering outside the house, it has red eyes and runs at you with it's mouth open with it's mangled teeth, it sort of looks like it's going to attack you but it's probably the most friendly dog you will ever come across. I sort of see it like a Ian Dowie of the dog world, it's pretty ugly but means no harm and if it bites you more than likely you will get a disease.

                                                     Tuskin snr
 Later in the evening me and Nick teamed up on the cooking kind of like Will Smith and Martin Lawrence did in Bad boys and Bad boys 2 apart from they where fighting crime and we where chopping onions and tomatoes. Overall the meal was pretty good and no doubt there will be a sequel to our cooking.

JT

I don't see nothing wrong with a little beans and rice

My journey off self discovery in Kenya began on Sunday, leaving from Heathrow airport after a good weekend of dancing in London. My flight arrived early Monday morning in Nairobi and it was from there I had to make the journey up to Iten by Matutu, as usual this was quite dangerous weaving in and out of cars with lorries coming towards us. Luckily me and Karl arrived in Iten about 6 hours later and was greeted by Nick Swinburn who at the time was walking his dog Roger whilst eating some custard creams.
Soon as we arrived he showed us to our crib and off we went for a 30 minute run, during the run I found out that this was his 5th run of the day, when he told me I laughed at him but he just replied " I'm no pussy man"

                                                         Our crib

Them four simple words " I'm no pussy man" kind of make sense just like the words of such greats as Martin Luther King " I have a dream" Bruce Forsyth " Nice to see you, to see you nice" and finally Shaggy " It wasn't me" them four simple words describe what Nick is all about, His no pussy man!
Nothing exciting happened on Tuesday, Me Karl and Nick did 60 minutes in the morning with Nick doing squat thrust star jumps every 10 minutes ( approximately 10 ) once the run was finished I had a cold shower and headed into town for some food so that we could cook in the evening. I quite enjoy cooking in the evening as it passes time and I feel the celebrity TV chef Ainsley Ramsey.

On Wednesday me Nick, Karl Josephat and Zane Robertson did a long run , which was pretty long and quite runnish, as the run was nearing to the end and the pace picked up me and Karl slowly dropped off the pace. Overall I was quite pleased as it was my first long run at altitude and I didn't feel too bad, I know that with a  few more of these runs I will become strong like the Gladiator Saracen or even Don Cheadle in the film Ironman 2.
Yet again this was followed by a cold shower, a trip into town for some beans and rice and mid afternoon tea at Nicks apartment. We decided to take a flask full of tea up to Kerio view which overlooks the rift valley, after me and Nick drank the tea we walked along the cliff tops.

                                                Looking at Rift valley 

 Here we spotted to big cliff rocks and Nick decided to jump from each rock with a 1000ft drop lurching below, I joined him on the rock equipped with my Salomon Crossmax which I would say helped me out a lot as it withstood 80% more absorption than any other leading sports brands. We both decided to step down from the rocks as the next jump Nick was planning was way out of his jump range and would probably be the end of him ( it took about 5 minutes for him to realise he wouldn't make it)

                                      Me and Nick jumping from cliff rocks

Thursday was my first session which was just 6x40 secs off 40secs included in my 60 min morning run, it went quite well as it was only short and didn't tire me out for what lay ahead in the afternoon. So another cold shower a walk into town and more beans and rice, after the food we went to the chemist to buy 20 litres of water each ( 2 bottles ) Nick decided that he didn't want to pay 20p to have all of the 6 bottles took to our apartment so challenged me and Karl to carry 20 litres home, I was against it until Nick said " don't be a pussy man" that was it I thought I'm no pussy man so I put the two 10 litre bottles on my sun burnt shoulders and started the 23 minute walk from town to our apartment. Me and Nick managed to get back to the apartment only stopping twice, we had to wait on our second stop for Karl who was accompanied by a random Kenyan who had to help him carry a bottle, after Karl met us at the second checkpoint the random Kenyan left the other bottle with him and off we went again, with only 800 meter's left I took both of my bottles back to our apartment and then had to head back to Karl who had only managed to take them 200 meter's.
Me being the hero I am I took both of the bottles off Karl and finished the final 600 meter's of the journey to our apartment, when I put them down my shoulders where sore but the feeling of being a hero just like Steven Seagal in the film Under Siege helped ease the pain.

                                   Being a hero and carrying Karl's bottles back

I went to Nick's crib after dropping off our bottles where he said " aye that's canny good training we will have to do that every week" in all fairness his probably right as his no pussy man. So every week we will be doing the water challenge which is sure to make us all strong like the band Cleopatra.
Haven't really done much today apart from a 60 minute run in the morning, beans and rice for dinner and went for a evening run with Karl and some random Kenyan who promised to make me a household name just like Les Battersby. Karl's currently in the kitchen chopping tomatoes and onions ( probably for the first time ever ). By the time this trip is over Karl is going to be a top chef like Gordon Oliver and will no doubt get the girl he deserves!

                                   Karl becoming a chef like Gordon Oliver


Tomorrow is my first big session so hopefully I will survive that so I can keep you posted on my journey of self discovery like!
JT