Uganda

First time in Uganda | I have for a long period been looking forward to be going on a training camp again. This time in Kapchorwa, Uganda. Cold and windy weather at home in Denmark, so it's great to be able to escape the winter for a bit. Early morning on the 4th of January I left for Uganda, where I will be for 4 weeks together with Ralph Street, Milos Nykodym and Tomas Krivda. They come from the UK and the Czech Republic. I know them from my time in orienteering and have run against them many times before. This is where we will be staying for the next 4 weeks.Long travelThe journey from door to door took us about 30 hours. First by train to Copenhagen and from here with Turkish Airlines to Entebbe/Kampala. En route with stopovers in Istanbul and Kigali. From Entebbe, a 400km drive awaited us. We could thus see a bit of Uganda on the way, but in reality quite tiring after almost a day on the road already, where we really most of all just wanted to get there and find a bed. During our stay we will stay at Home of Friends Guesthouse. Quite a nice place, where the 4 of us will live in a 5-man family hut. The place has a restaurant where we get breakfast and can buy dinner with a reasonably good standard (compared to what you can buy on the street in Kapchorwa). We have a small veranda facing the garden and a nice view of the countryside. Here we also have a gas stove for cooking.First impressions of the placeAfter arrival, we were able to go for a run in daylight. First impression of the area is that it is hilly around Kapchorwa! You can run many different loops, all of them are really cool. If you hate hills, Kapchorwa is not the place for you to go. If you want to run a 10km loop, it's hard to do with less than 250m of climbing. Which I'm quite fine with as my main goal this summer is the World Orienteering Championships in the Swiss Alps. Kapchorwa is located on Mt. Elgon which is 4321m high. Big extinct volcano. At the foot of the mountain there is a gigantic plateau at an altitude of approx. 1100m. We can see this plateau from our camp - not bad. Easy run with the group.Easy training to start the training campThe place is situated 1950m above sea level. So there is not much oxygen in the air for us. Which is also the reason why we have come here - to get some altitude effect. But also some heat. We have about 25-28 degrees a day here and no rain, as January is usually the dry season. The first few days we have taken it relatively easy and only being running at an easy effort to acclimatise to the altitude.I have travelled here with a small injury in one of my glutes. Most likely something muscular. One of the things that provokes the injury the most is high speed. So I found out quite early on in the altitude stay that dropping the faster training helps with the injury. So I will go for a lot of longer and hilly runs. Not something that makes me really fast, but luckily it's only January, and there is a long time until my season really starts. However, I do not think it is such a completely stupid way of training when I wanna gain some basic fitness, and this training helps me to able to tolerate the faster training to come. Watch this to get some impressions of the area around Kapchorwa.

Training with Joshua Cheptegei | After a few days of an easy start to the training camp and acclimatisation, it's finally time to do some more training. The hills around Kapchorwa have taken some time to get used to, but now it's starting to feel alright. Usually when I start training a lot on hills after a while without, it tends to settle in my muscles, especially in the front thighs. They have to get used to the slightly longer descents and the associated eccentric load.Some relaxation and chai tea with Joshua Cheptegei after a longer mountain run.MassageIn Kenya, I've been used to getting massages twice a week, so we've been working on getting something similar here. It's a bit more difficult here as they don't train people to give massages as much. Through some contacts we found a local runner who could give us a massage. Not the best massage, but definitely better than no massage. Luckily during the week, we got in touch with Joshua Cheptegei's (the guy who holds the world record on 5000m and 1000m as well as gold medals at the World Championships and Olympics) masseur. He is really good. He gives a massage for approx. 75min, and goes through most of the body. We do not have access to a massage table and do not plan to get some locals to build us one, as our masseur was perfectly fine giving us a massage on a mattress on the floor. We give him 45 DKK / 6.5 EUR per time, more than he asks for. Not exactly Danish prices here.Muyembe plateau32km from Kapchorwa there is a town called Muyembe. Muyembe is located at the foot of the mountain at about 1100m altitude and from here there are almost endless long tarmac and dirt roads and almost completely flat. This is where Uganda's biggest stars train their tempos and most long runs. We had to leave early, before 6 o'clock in the morning, as it otherwise becomes a freaking oven down at the plateau with well over 30 degrees.On the trip we had one of the town's bosses to drive us down there, and he even ran with us on our training session. Apparently everyone in Uganda can run. The same person is the one who helps us with contacts to whoever we want, and helps both NN (Cheptegei's group) and Rosa (Jacob Kiplimo's group) to get access to the various things they need. For example, access to the nearby grass track.Training with NN running teamOur masseur was our way into NN, as he also runs with the group, and we joined them on one of their easy runs from their camp. Their camp is located at 2500m altitude. A camp they had built last year; both to get a little more altitude but also a little more quiet than in Kapchorwa. A little further up the mountain there is an altitude centre - or at least soon. It has been in the works for more than 10 years, and finally it looks like it will soon be completed. This has made Cheptegei impatient, so directly from their camp they have built their own dirt track.On the way back to the camp after some strides.The easy Friday run ended up being around 7km at 4.31min/km. Not too much climb, about 155 metres in total, on an out-and-back route. From their camp there are not so many routes, and certainly not routes with only a little climb. On the trip we had Cheptegei himself, our masseur and 2 more senior runners (one of them Victor Kiplangat, who won the Commonwealth Games marathon last year) and some youth runners, most of them girls. They were maybe 12-16 years old, and were able to keep up for much of the run. Usually there are more runners on these trips, but currently there is a national team camp in the area. Cheptegei did not really want to join this camp, he prefers to train on his own or with his group.After the run we did some stretching on their dirt track followed by 4x100m strides. Very fun to run the strides alongside Cheptegei and feel what pace he runs them at. After our strides we thought it was over, but it turned out that we had to do some strength in the garden of the camp. Everyone laid down on the grass in a big circle and Dennis, their assistant coach, dictated the programme. The programme consisted of nothing with weights, and was a good mix of balance and core exercises. In addition, something for legs as well. The programme took about 50min. They do it twice a week and most of the year. Even here the last period up to the World Cross Country Champs which some of them are going to run. They don't train with weights at all - there is no gym nearby. Some of the programme's abdominal exercises were really hard and I had to take some cheat breaks along the way. All the while Cheptegei laughed at us - for him it looked way too easy, especially the exercises where he controlled the speed and could torment us as much as possible. Great experience, and a programme we will repeat twice a week during our camp to try something new. They believe the programme is important for injury prevention and after a month you will notice great progress on the exercises.It was all rounded off with them inviting us to Ugandan porridge in the garden (something they get as a recovery / snack after several of their workouts). Not something I have had before, so again fun to try something new. We got the recipe and have since tried to make it ourselves in our camp. We ended up sitting and talking for almost an hour, and exciting to get some insights. It can be mentioned, for example, that Cheptegei has never run with a heart rate monitor as much as once before and has never taken a single lactate measurement. He likes to run on feel and follow his coach's instructions. I had several long conversations with his coach Addy Ruiter, who was happy to share how he is training the group.Long run up the mountainWe were invited on a long trip from their camp on Sunday starting at 6.20 in the morning, so Tomas, Milos and I had to get up fairly early to be able to get up there by boda boda - the means of transport here, most locals are transported around on motorbikes. Maybe not the safest form of transport (especially when we, besides the driver, are 3 people on the back), but it's cheap.Here running behind Cheptegei on the way down the mountain.The run in details: 26.5k 2.15hours 5.08min/k 920m climb From the in 2500m up to the tree line at 3220m above sea level.We had to run through the large forest that is located in this high layer of the mountain, and it is a really cool forest. Ancient forest and which can probably best be described as jungle. Through the forest, which seems to be almost impenetrable, there was a trail we could follow, but which became smaller and smaller the higher we got. Eventually incredibly rocky, rutted, rooty and generally quite challenging. It helped having my orienteering background on the trip, I think many track and field runners would have been quite challenged. And that's why I was quite surprised that guys like Cheptegei run such places. But for him it really seemed like no problem.On the way down the jungle, last bit fo the mountain long run.Quite difficult to keep up at the end at over 3000m above sea level - not much oxygen left in the air for us, which was especially noticeable when it was only day 11 at altitude. Maybe not an impressive pace we kept for the run, but on those trails, above 3000m altitude and with a lot of climbing, we were certainly not keeping an easy intensity for the whole run. Afterwards I asked Cheptegei why he runs such trainings. He emphasised that they must be calm, as it is purely to train coordination. And at the same time probably also one of the reasons why they don't have to touch weights to gain strength.

Road race at altitude | The start of week 3 marks just over the halfway point of the training camp. The time goes by quickly. While I am down here I have my work with me on my computer, which I spend about 30 hours a week on. Not bad with a flexible job, as it makes trips to Uganda like this possible. I have worked over 4 years at Holdsport and hope for many more years there.Tempo session with Tomas and Milos from Muyembe. The foot of Mr. Elgon can be seen in the background.Trails everywhereRarely have I experienced a place with as many trails as here! By trails I don't mean dirt roads, but small paths that weave their way between fields, banana tree plantations, around slopes, from mud house to mud house. So if you really wanted to, you could run different routes daily from Kapchorwa for months - but that assumes that you are not afraid of a little but of climbing. A 10km long loop around Kapchorwa on dirt roads will have at least 200m of climbing. If you stick to trails only, it might be at least 350m of climbing. No maps on the web, even on Strava, show many trails and potential running routes here. I would guess that less than 5% of the paths/dirt roads/trails in the area are mapped, so we really had to go exploring to find all the cool places to run.A trail runners paradise.Intensifying the trainingIt is slowly starting to get better with my glute injury, so I have gradually stepped up the intensity. So good that I have been able to participate in the Discovery Uganda 10km race, which was held in the town. Read more about the competition here.I also did some interval training on some of the area's tracks. There are 5 different tracks in the area: High altitude training center. This track opens soon and has been about 10 years in the making. The area's only tarten track, otherwise you have to go to Kampala. It is located at an altitude of 2600m. Cheptegei's own dirt track at 2500m altitude. Located next to their camp, and was built when they could not wait for the other one to be finished. You can't train on this one unless you have connections to the group. Dirt track in Kapchorwa. Not the best track in the world. Quite rocky and especially in the afternoon it's quite crowded as football and volleyball are played on the grass area with a large number of spectators. Cheptegei does not like this track, but I have seen Kiplimo use it. 8km from Kapchorwa at Sebei Collage School. Actually just a lawn with a single track around it that is 400m. Here NN do most of their speedwork. No access to this track without contacts. 21km from Kapchorwa at Chemwania Primary School. This is a pretty nice dirt track. Here NN's junior team belongs to. Relatively flat track. Located at 2050m altitude.On the way home from one of the trainings on boda boda.One of the days we went out for a easy morning jog, we saw Jakob Kiplimo and his group running intervals on the gravel track in town. It's no joke when they train. Got a picture of his splits from that workout - see bottom of page. Not a session I was going to copy here at altitude on the same track. Also got to meet Kiplimo's coach Iacopo. Really nice guy. He is an Italian at about my age and I had some good talks with him. Even went for a run with him, as he is quite a skilled runner himself.

Road race in Kapchorwa | A month ago it was announced by Rosa Associati Management that a 10k road race would be organized in Kapchorwa. The first version of the "Nike Discovery Uganda", supported by Jacob Kiplimo with the partnership of Nike and the Uganda Athletics Federation. Since we are already here in town at the same time, it is a race we must participate in and test ourselves against the locals. The total prize pool was 25 million UGX. Probably not something we'll get our hands on.The day before the race we had to register ourselves for the race in Rosa's camp, which is located somewhere in Kapchorwa. We could not find any information about the address, so we had to ask around a bit before we found the location of the camp. At the registration we were told that the race would start at 8am the next morning, from the town's sports ground. Before the start of the race we had to pick up our race number.On my way out on the 5th and last lap of the race.We arrive about an hour before the start of the competition, and we meet a huge chaos of people wanting their race number. Queuing culture is not something that exists here. It wasn't long before the organizers decided that they would call out the names one by one. I couldn't wait to hear how they pronounce my last name Dewett.Apparently there were several races to be held. It turned out that there would be a total of 6 classes that would start one after the other. Men and women separately in the U16, juniors and seniors classes. No one really knew what order it should be held in, so we had to hang around not to miss the start of our race. Some said seniors would be starting first, others said juniors first. A few minutes before the start at 8 am, fully warmed up, it turned out to be U16 women first. From here we did not know how the races will be run, so we tried to hang around the arena as much as possible.In Rosas camp with Milos to registrer ourselves for the race.The raceAfter the third warm-up, it was finally our turn. Race start for senior men was at 10.15. In direct sunshine and 26-27 degrees we had to run the 10k. The route consisted of 5 laps of 2km. The first km went slightly downhill to a narrow u-turn; not very nice in my Nike Alphafly 2. Then an easy climb before there was a steep climb up towards the end of the lap. About 20m of climb in total per lap. So close to 100m of climb for the whole race, which is something you feel at altitude with high intensity.We were being called up to the front of the starting field, not sure why, maybe the organizers think it's interesting with mzungus in the starting field (Milos and I were the only ones). In any case, they took some pictures. I ran the first k in 2.50min, and I'm already behind the field - it's crazy. The front runners ran well under 2.35min on the first 1k.Here together with Milos shortly after the finish of the race.During the race I see many people dropping out, and especially in the last half I start to overtake several runners who where slowing down. I end up running 32.34min, while the winner runs 28.37. My final position was #42. So I'm 3.57min behind, which I'm pretty happy with in heavy training only on day 16 at altitude. At the finish I met Iacopo (Kiplimo's coach), and he told me that he has wheel measured the route. The atmosphere during the race was one of the wildest I have experienced for a long time. The spectators were standing in layers all the way around the course. I would guess there were several thousand who came to watch, all locals in the area. Was constantly shouted "mzungu" all the way around. If I get the opportunity again, I will definitely prioritize running the race again!Top 10.

My longest run ever | Time to make the most of the training camp. At least until a few days before the return journey home. I'm taking it easy the last few days, so I don't travel while I'm too tired, to reduce the risk of illness. The last week has offered some exciting training sessions. One of them was a 1000m threshold session with a couple of Norwegians who have also found their way to Kapchorwa. Senay Fissehatsion and Sondre Nordstrand who both have run under 29min on 10k before. We ran the session on the dirt track in town.Intervals on Chemwania track.A few days later I ran the Kapchorwa Hill Challenge. The same route used for the Ugandan Mountain Champs in 2022. I ran from the big junction in town to the HATC. It is 10.6k with 680m of climbing and goes from 1930m to 2570m altitude. The climb has a couple of short descents and varies a lot in gradient and has sections as steep as 13-15%. Impossible climb to get a good rhythm on. I ran it in 49.22min with an average pace of 4:42min/km. Would be great to see others try the climb one day.Later that day we went to the most popular place in the area. Sipi Falls. Also here other tourists are to be found. An area with some beautiful waterfalls and some caves. A cool place to go for a run for a bit of a change.Waterfall at Sipi Falls.The next day we went to the top of Mt. Elgon. Rough trip that ended up being 43km long. I've never run longer than 35km before, so it was pretty cool to push that limit a bit. It didn't make it any easier that there was also almost 3000m of climbing on the whole trip. Read more about that trip here.That made it three weeks in a row with just over 170km.On the way home where we ran into a bit of trouble.The last couple of days I took it easy. Actually not particularly tired after the mountain long, which I was a little surprised about. But maybe it sits a little more in the body than I just feel right now and here.Now the trip goes to Denmark, where the training continues towards the spring competitions.The trip in totals: Totals Average Nights at altitude 28 nights Total time runnning 53:34 hours 13:22 hr/week Total distance 619.9 k 155 k/week Climb 16020 m 4005 m Intens sessions 10 sessions 2.5 sessions/week Runs over80min or 20k 10 sessions 2.5 sessions/week Strength sessions 5 sessions 1.2 sessions/week Check this out to see a video of the whole Uganda trip.