Food, glorious food...

Since my last post dozens of people... well one actually if I'm honest, have questioned me on my food choices. Now this is one of the areas I expect to change a few times before next April but I'll try and explain my current (what passes for) thinking on the matter.

The MdS rules state you have to carry food equivalent to 2000 calories per day as a minimum, now under normal circumstances I'd want to take enough food to equal my estimated calorie usage, however as most people don't seem to regard even entering the MdS as normal so....

On average the MdS covers about 150 miles. Running without a pack in UK temperatures I use around 110 calories/mile. The pack will add about 10 more calories and the temperature probably another 10, so lets say I'll burn 130 calories/mile (there is a point to all this maths honestly). So at that rate my calorie consumption for the MdS will be 19500 - except that that's on top of my Basal Metabolic Rate (which is basically a posh way of saying 'the amount of energy I'd use if I stayed in bed'). My BMR is 1550 calories/day (according to my high tech bathroom scales) so that's another 10850 calories, therefore the grand total of calories I'm likely to expend on the MdS is 30350 - I could have just told you that at the start but at school I was always taught to show my working.

If I chose my foods wisely I should be able to average 3.5 - 4 calories/gram of food so my 30350 calories of food would weigh at least 7.6kg. With my current thinking on all the non-food items this would mean I would start with a pack weighing around 11kg - which is far too heavy. So my current view is if I'm not going to carry enough food to meet my total requirement I might as well aim a lot nearer the minimum. According to the MdS website the top competitors take an average of 16000 calories with a total pack weight of 7.2kg. No I have no illusions that I'm going to be in the top 100 but if I want to compete according to my definition in a previous ramble then I need to at least consider adopting the strategy of the top runners.

If anyone is still reading, a quick word about my actual food choices. Many people take dehydrated meals - I'm not going to. Why not? Because if I do I'll have to take a stove and a kettle to boil water (and some fuel) and its more hassle at the end of the day before I can eat, and more weight to carry. If the event was in the UK in April then 1. wouldn't have entered and 2. I would want a hot meal each day, however in the Sahara I'm not sure it will be as necessary. Now an ice cream every day, that would be good... My current food choices are savoury energy bars, Peperami, muesli, nuts, recovery milk shakes and possibly a few energy gels and sweet energy bars.

Next weekend I'm doing the Three Peaks Challenge - i.e. climbing Ben Nevis, Scarfell Pike and Snowdon in a day. I'm planning on fuelling this with a diet not dissimilar to the one I've outlined so we'll see how I get on and if my plans change afterwards....