Tuesday 31 December 2013

Frolicking through the Festive Season

As some of you may remember towards the end of my last blog entry (assuming any of you read that far) I mention I was planning a bit of a back-to-back running extravaganza between Christmas and New Year. I was going to wait until next year to tell you all about it but as I seem to have a few hours to kill until its time to open the champagne I thought I'd write about it now.

As I mention in the last blog the opening event was a three legged navigational event organised by one Mr Ian Brazier who I met on the Saltmarsh 75. Incidentally by three legged I mean it had three sections, not that it was like the horses my Father-in-law bets on. The sections were 12 miles, 12 miles and 6 miles - however being a navigational event these were the minimum mileages necessary to reach the checkpoints, if you wanted to go further (or did so involuntarily) that was up to you, this would become important later...

I was planning on doing at least the first two loops and possibly the third dependent on how I felt, bearing in mind I had another four 20 mile runs planned for the following days. It had rained a fair bit before the great day and more was predicted and so I dutifully turned up at the start  (which was at a local pub, always a popular venue to start and finish a run from) with a map, compass and snorkel. To be honest I had more idea what to do with the snorkel than the map or compass - something which would become very evident before the end of the day...

Ian welcomed me, signed me in and gave me a card with some numbers on it. The numbers were grid references, more of them than I expected, which I dutifully marked on my map. Just before 8 a.m. Ian gathered us all outside the pub, gave us our briefing, wished us luck and sent us on our way. I felt quite confident at the start as the first part of the route took me out over paths I know well. The first checkpoint was actually a footpath post I pass probably three or four times a week whilst running - so it would have helped if I hard marked its location correctly and not instead put my 'x' on a random piece of road a couple of hundred metres further on... I eventually realised my error and had to suffer the embarrassment of passing several of my fellow competitors going the other way as I doubled back to the signpost.

After this things improved and I found myself in the very agreeable company of (I think) Fran, Lloyd and Richard from Southend. We all agreed to run together for a while as they had a better map than me and I had local knowledge (I didn't mention checkpoint one to them). Frighteningly they even deferred to my navigational skills on a couple of occasions and only once did we have to cross a ditch to get back onto the right path. We found the aid station, a chap called Darren Coates - someone I was particularly keen to meet as it was rumoured his navigational skills were worse than mine. After orange squash and a biscuit we set off toward more checkpoints and race HQ (the pub).

As we ran back towards the A12 the issue of how to cross it arose. It was perfectly safe to cross the double mini roundabout at its junction with the road we were now running on but I decided to go back the the bridge (and checkpoint one, just to prove I could find it twice in one day) I crossed it on at the start. The others felt there should be an underpass on a footpath by the junction. I agreed there should but did point out I'd never found it. So we went our separate ways and I arrived back a few minutes before them as this was one of only two occasions I was right all day...

Ian welcomed me back and tried to hide his relief that I'd found my way back and gave me the card for the second loop. Strangely I was feeling confident now, especially as I definitely knew where the first three checkpoints were - even to the extent that I quizzed Ian on whether or not I would need my snorkel as one was by an underpass I knew had been completely flooded the week before. I was assured it was 'absolutely fine' and set off, confident that this time checkpoint one really was where I thought.

One horizontal hailstorm later I arrived at it and, whilst 'absolutely fine' was possibly going a bit far the underpass was passable. Checkpoint two was quickly found as was (apart from a small error involving the wrong side of a hedge) checkpoint three. At this point the numbers 'four' and 'five' became confused in my head and so as I left the gentlemen driving their Landrovers through the ford at checkpoint three I set off on a slightly less than optimal route to Danbury. Fortunately I realised on the way and readjusted my route to make sure I reached checkpoint four. This was important as this was the aid station and they would be waiting for me - wouldn't they?

As I reached the location I saw a large truck with a sign in the window. 'Aid Station'? - no, 'For Sale'. A solitary car in a nearby car park, surely that was it? No, it was just a car. The pub car park? Yes (the second time I was right this day), except that due to a slight miscommunication race HQ thought I'd gone through and as I was running (a long way) last the aid station had packed up and gone. This bothered Ian a lot more than it bothered me when I phoned to enquire exactly where said aid station was. So long as no-one was looking for me I was fine as I had enough water to last until the finish (and beyond) and even if I hadn't I was in Danbury, its not a place I know well (as became clear on my journey Back to race HQ) but I'm fairly sure I could have obtained food and water if I had needed it. Mistakes happen, overall the organisation and effort that went into the Frolic was excellent and an errant aid station in no way impacted my safety or affected my enjoyment - actually I was quite relieved that no-one was having to wait for me to find my way through Essex...

Predictably things still weren't quite going to plan. Fortunately I allowed the compass to override my in-built sense of direction or I would be in South Woodham Ferrers now waiting for the 2014 Saltmarsh 75 to start. A slightly hidden footpath and a map that was  about 14 years out of date caused some back-tracking. I knew exactly where the checkpoint was, it had masqueraded as checkpoint two several hours earlier, I just didn't know how to get there directly. 

A final run in from Great Baddow to Galleywood saw me arrive 6 minutes past cut off, not bad as a 12 mile loop had taken me 15.9 miles to complete! Add to that my bonus miles running round checkpoint one in the morning and I had covered over 29 miles. Ian generously offered to allow me to go out for the third loop as he blamed my over-time on the missing aid station (it really wasn't) however I felt the aim of the day had been to have a good time and run about 30 miles so mission accomplished and... hey, I'm in a pub, my £6 entry fee included a £2 drink token, so time for a beer!

Many thanks to Ian, Darren, Bob and anyone else that helped with the Frolic. Apart from possibly one moment somewhere outside Danbury when I had no idea where I was, it was raining and my map was disintegrating, I enjoyed every minute of it and hope to take part in the Frolic 2014!

The rest of my long runs were no where near as exciting. Saturday saw me doing 20 miles round Hylands park as I had a family commitment in the afternoon and so didn't want to risk getting lost. The highlight was Sharon joining me for one of my laps and so alleviating some of the boredom. Sunday I relived loop 2 of the Frolic. Having spent the previous evening studying (an up to date) map I found most of my bonus miles, although I did seem to climb more of Danbury Hill than appeared strictly necessary. By now I had had enough of mud, the weather was getting worse and a few niggles were making themselves felt so the last two days simply consisted of road laps with my house as the checkpoint (even I can find that). Sharon accompanied me on the last lap of each day once again alleviating my boredom. I have to say the support she has given me has been amazing - even I'm starting think I'm becoming a pain in the backside with all the running but she is bearing it with no complaints - yet!

So there you have it, 111 miles over 5 days, no day less than 20 miles of running. hopefully that will stand me in good stead for the next big event, The Pilgrims' Challenge. However before then there is just time for me to wish you all a very Happy New Year and hope that you will continue to follow my (mis)adventures through the first part of 2014 to the Marathon des Sables!

Monday 9 December 2013

Trying to Excel

As anyone that reads my blog regularly (Hi Sam) will know I try to have a vague theme for each of my posts. Something that has started to figure more and more in my preparation is spreadsheets, hence the blog title (if you are viewing this on an iPad or if you use Open Office it may have been lost on you - sorry, its a Microsoft thing). I will say very quickly thisisn'tanarticleaboutspreadsheets. hopefully that was quickly enough to avoid losing readers - I don't have enough of you to lose any this early in the ramble. However my training, my body weight and my equipment list - including food - is now all on various spreadsheets.

My main preoccupation at the moment is weight - mine and my pack's. Why am I interested in weight? Well as I may have mentioned in a previous blog (or I may not - can't remember) the rule of thumb is 1 kcal/km/kg of body weight. We have been told that this years MdS will be over 224 km of Saharan splendour ( also we've been told - 'the first stages will be surprising in terms of difficulty and distance' but we'll worry about that later). So every kilo I'm overweight is 224 kcal more I'm going to need. I think its fair to assume the same applies to my pack weight so every kilo I pack over the maximum is another 224 kcal I'm going to consume. If we look at it the other way round it gets even worse. My target calorific density for my food is a minimum of 3.5 kcal/g. This will make each days food weight 571 g. At 3.5 kcal/g every kg I carry in excess flab or unnecessary kit could be 3500 kcal of food - that's a a lot of food!

While we are talking about food, my food plans are probably the least formed part of my preparation. I've tried the original plan of a 'Peperami and cereal bar' diet and I've come to the conclusion (which everyone probably arrived at when I first suggested it) that, whilst I could survive on it, the lack of variety would probably seriously curtail my appetite and lead to a rapid decline and possibly a DNF. DNF (Did Not Finish, if you were wondering) is not an option and so food plans are changing. I still don't want to take a stove but I have been told that freeze dried (not dehydrated) food can be rehydrated in lukewarm water and heated in the sun. As I often eat food when its lukewarm (or even cold the following morning) I think this may be more palatable than processed meat and compressed rabbit food. However I will admit that the two freeze dried meals I've bought to experiment with remain unopened in the cupboard...

Apart from food and weights I also have a spreadsheet with my training plan on it. So far I haven't really had a plan as such, just some vague idea that doing a bit of running was a good idea. The reason for a plan is two fold, firstly it allows me to keep track of the amount and type of training I'm doing each week. This should help avoid over-training and (more likely) stop me from slacking off too much. For each week I have the planned activity and the actual. I don't really mind if they don't match day to day but it keeps track of the amount and type of training each week and the total mileage. My current 'plan' has two 'effort' sessions per week - one tempo run and one hill session, two long runs - with rucksack, on consecutive days, and a couple of easy runs. This gives me one day off per week. Every third week is similar but the long runs are shorter, possibly have two days off, and the total mileage is less. A 'standard' week is aiming for around 60-70 miles, down to 30-40 on an 'easy' week. The second reason for having a plan over Christmas is that I can rearrange it to fit in Christmas events while still making sure I do the required training.

Now its time to worry about 'the first stages will be surprising in terms of difficulty and distance'. I've done a few long runs with around 6 kg of pack weight and its hard - its also over 2 kg less than my pack is likely to be on the start line (6.5 kg minimum pack weight, 1.5 kg of water and a flare). In the past the first stage of the MdS has often been a relatively (compared to later stages anyway) gentle introduction to the Desert. Earlier in the blog I suggested I'd have something over 500g of food per day so by Day 2 my pack weight will already be reduced. If its going to be 'surprising' from Day 1 I really don't want to be carrying any excess weight, either on me or the pack. The only exception is the camera - sorry all you ultra-minimalists but I want photos!

My method of weighing my pack is to weigh myself with and without the pack and work out the difference. The reason for doing it this way is that it avoids trying to balance the pack on the bathroom scales. It also showed me that with a 6 kg pack at the end of my run I was 70 kg. Its only a few years ago since I was running at that body weight so why is it so much harder with a pack? I guess the reason is that when its body weight you 'train' with it all day every day, whereas the pack is an occasional addition and hence my muscles aren't used to it - maybe I should put on 8 kilos and then crash diet just before the MdS - although that may be the worst training plan ever invented... 

Speaking of madcap training ideas - another one of Rory Coleman's suggestions at the Druids' Challenge was to do a mini-MdS of 5 consecutive 20 mile days over the Christmas break. A truly ludicrous idea - so why have I entered 'The Festive Frolic' a 30 mile navigational extravaganza on the 27th of December with four 20 mile days pencilled in afterwards on my training plan?... Spreadsheets, nothing but trouble...

Anyway in case this is my last blog entry before Christmas I would like to wish you all a very, very happy Christmas and hope you will rejoin my adventures in a few weeks time as the Big Day draws ever closer...