In my last post I mentioned I was going on holiday and that I might take the opportunity to see what running on sand in hot weather was like. Now as it happens due to the vagaries of the British weather I could have simply gone 20 miles down the road to Southend and had a run along the beach in thirty plus degree temperatures, however, as I'd already booked my flight to the Maldives, Southend would have to wait until another day.
After a 10 hour flight a quick lap or two of the island seemed the ideal way to try and get the knots out of my legs and hopefully stave off DVT for a while longer. The primary purpose of going to the Maldives was for the scuba diving but I reckoned a few sessions of eight to ten miles could be squeezed in....
After a single lap the enormity of running in thirty degree temperatures and eighty percent humidity over soft powdery sand hit me with all the force of a ripe coconut dropping from one of the palm trees providing some merciful shade around at least part of the lap. After a few sessions I quickly realised my pace was going to be little more than half that I could achieve in the UK - also recovery (or at least stopping sweating) after each run would take around half an hour.
As a result most of my runs were four laps round the island, a whopping five kilometres in total! The longest run I managed was eight laps, a little over ten kilometres. I drank about a litre and a half of water whilst running and a couple of litres after stopping. After that I started drinking beer for its well known pain relieving effects. That was the only run Sharon didn't accompany me on at least part of. I understood that well enough, what I didn't really understand was why she came with me on any of the runs as she had sufficient willpower to resist the allure of the MdS and hence was doing it purely 'for fun'...
The staff and other guests were by now giving us that worried smile I'm coming to know so well and, strangely, explaining what I was training for didn't seem to help. However as they were all trapped on the island with me they pretended to be very impressed and said nice things while backing away nervously...
Anyway this is supposed to be a blog about my MdS not my holiday so I won't bore you any further with details of my holiday but mantas, sharks, eagle rays, sting rays, moray eels, octopus and about a million fish just in case you were wondering what we saw diving. Did I add to my font of knowledge? Yes I did. My running shoes and socks performed perfectly over sand, no blisters or overheated feet. A litre and a half of water per ten kilometres (about the rate its dispensed on the MdS) should be enough, particularly as I'm hoping for lower humidity and slightly less sweating on the MdS. However the main thing I learned is that training has to move up several gears from here on in. Leg strength and endurance is going to be a big factor on the energy sapping sand, so hills, hills and more hills will have to figure heavily in my future - there must be some somewhere in Essex....
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