It’s week three here now at STRIVE Peru and things are falling into place. After several thorough planning sessions, we developed our first service project for the summer. We decided to bring back the STRIVE Center to Pisac after an unfortunate situation last fall abruptly ended the project. This after school program for local Peruvian children will consist of classes in English, P.E., and environmental education as well. Other events of note from this week included Skype chats with the two of Tyler’s fellow Hoka One One athletes, Olympic silver medalist Leo Manzano and NAZ Elite member Ben Bruce.

 

Following our long trek on Sunday, we needed every one of the 12 hours of sleep to get back in the swing of the busy daily schedule. The day began as most do here—with a nice run through the Sacred Valley of course! Albeit, a slow, sore one for Tyler and I. A great way to start the day nonetheless and a nice primer for our much anticipated talk with the famous Leo Manzano. Among the many takeaways he provided,it was clear that Leo is a down to earth guy that just loves the sport of running as much as we all do too. In his interesting story, we learned about his approach to training, secrets to his impressive longevity as a professional runner, and and even his plan to be on a Mexican reality TV show this fall. One of his proudest accomplishments is being top 3 in the U.S. 1500 for 10 straight years! Although winning an Olympic silver medal stands out more than a long successful U.S. steeple career, Ben Bruce’s career also embodies longevity.

 

As a member of NAZ Elite stationed in Flagstaff AZ, it was neat to talk to Ben specifically about altitude training. The group trains at over 7,000 feet which is still not quite as high as Pisac, which is around 9,500 feet. Regardless, there were a few notable pieces of advice from Ben. He explained how altitude training can be humbling in that workouts are going to be more difficult and run at slower paces. However, this means you have to stay positive and avoid worrying about your true fitness. His race experience at sea level backs this up as he trusts his ability to perform when the oxygen levels increase. Another important facet of his training approach is to have a long term focus and not get caught up in a bad workout or what your garmin says sometimes. He believes in running by feel. This advice is applicable to the STRIVE Peru gang, as we’ve all had to be held back in training by Tyler’s some point to avoid the pitfall of overworking yourself. Like Leo, Ben is another good human being that we loved talking to and benefitted hearing from.

 

Lastly, we got the STRIVE center back in motion on Thursday with our first English class. Each intern pair had a table of a few Peruvian kids aged 6-16. This introductory lesson went well, as everyone actively participated and seemed to enjoy the experience. We concluded with a circle game that gave all the kids an opportunity to practice the phrases they had just learned. The next day, we had our first P.E. Class with most of the same students as the day before. We taught them some running warm up drills before getting into a variety of relay races and a game of tag. Another busy yet productive week in Peru concludes with a trip to Lima Saturday morning for our Sunday 7k race! We all look forward to surplus of oxygen available for our starved lungs at sea level. Time to fly.