Hot, Hot, Hot!

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....

Lessons Learned

Oscar Wilde apparently said "Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes." If this is the case then I have vast amounts of experience and seem to add to it almost weekly. He also said "Education is an admirable thing, but it is well to remember from time to time that nothing that is worth knowing can be taught." As far as the MdS is concerned I believe there are people out there that can certainly give one a bit of a leg-up by sharing their knowledge but to really learn one needs to have 'experience'. I've already had a day with Rory Coleman to get the benefit of his 10 MdS finishes and have also signed up for a couple of MdS seminar days.

What I would rather not do is collect experience on the MdS itself. Far better to get the mistakes over with before the event or I'll only have myself to blame for failure. Not surprisingly Wilde has views on this too - "There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves, we feel no one else has a right to blame us." Anyway enough of literary quotes and on with the blog...

Last weekend was hot, very hot - not Sahara hot but hot enough that I thought I should gain some experience of running in hot weather. My first plan was to run Saturday and Sunday, however for reasons that will be explained later only the Saturday run actually happened. The plan was quite simple, full MdS gear (apart from sand gaiters, many of the people I passed gave me that sort of look you give someone when you are considering whether or not to call the men in white coats - sand gaiters would probably have sealed the deal as far as they were concerned) and run about 20 miles off road in the sun and see what happened. It's this kind of attitude that has caused me to become so experienced...

Later analysis of my run revealed that I made my first mistake pretty much as soon as I started putting one foot in front on the other - I set off way too fast. The result of this was that I got slower and slower and had to walk more and more frequently once I got beyond about 15 miles. The main issue was that I hadn't sufficiently allowed for the effect of the heat. Sure I know it slows you down, its not the first time I've run in hot weather (Edinburgh Marathon 2010 was possibly the worst) but its the first time off road and with a pack. Pace management is going to be absolutely crucial to the MdS and is something I'll be working on quite extensively over the next 9 months.

The other thing that I had heard but hadn't really noticed before is how exercise can cause one to feel the cold a bit more than usual after exercise. I think I noticed this time because it was still scorchingly hot when I finally staggered home and showered and I found myself putting on more clothes than I had earlier in the day. This may raise some issues for the MdS in terms of clothing for the evening and sleeping bag ratings - no long sleeve top and a thin sleeping bag may be lightweight but will I need more even in the desert? This is another area for research - I can ask questions of past finishers but I suspect a lot of it is down to individual physiology.

One thing I am fairly happy with is my shoe and sock combination, which again worked perfectly. Less successful was my shorts/pants combination. Without wishing to describe my underwear in excessive and almost certainly unwanted detail, I believe the waistband of my shorts is pressing the stitching of the waistband of my pants into my skin around my waist. Add sweat and a rucksack and I'm getting a fair bit of chafing around my middle. New pants or no pants, that is the question - but possibly not one I'll put the answer to on my blog.

Most of the other experience I gained shouldn't be an issue for the MdS. Mountain bikes, tree roots and wet dogs are obstacles I'm not expecting to have to avoid too often. I'm also not expecting to be able to buy cans of Pepsi en route through the Sahara so I'm unlikely to have to cope with running whilst burping with bubbles coming down my nose. Another unlikely hazard is nearly falling in a river whilst being distracted by bikini clad women. Bikinis don't appear to be popular as Mds race kit and if I'm running beside a cool clear stream I'm probably very lost (or hallucinating).

I will admit I have tended to highlight the 'experiences' in this ramble, actually the run was tough but OK and very instructive - however if my blog was 'went for a run, it was a bit hot, I survived' it would be quite boring. Whilst I don't pretend to have the eloquence and wit of Oscar, I do feel I should at least try and make what I write interesting - I must be doing fairly well if you've read this far...wait, come back, I've nearly finished...

I did say earlier I would explain why the Sunday run didn't happen. There were a couple of reasons, firstly Saturday's run let me know that it takes more than a fortnight for my legs to recover from the Three Peaks. However the main reason was that on Saturday night I went to one of the best party's I've ever been invited to. No, it wasn't a hangover that stopped me running, it was the Beavers! (www.thebeaversonline.co.uk) Easily the best party band I've ever seen, I danced so much that on top of 20 miles of running even getting down stairs was a challenge by Sunday!

I'm on holiday for a couple of weeks so blog updates are unlikely. I've just done some measuring on Google maps and reckon one lap of the island I'm going to is about a mile - now has there ever been a Reethi Beach Marathon I wonder?....

Home Advantage

One of the areas of the MdS that I think is going to be most difficult to prepare for is the psychological challenge - how am I going to keep motivating myself to do it day after day? There are a few reasons why I'm talking about this now, partly to do with me and partly due to some of the recent sporting events. Starting with me, I haven't trained for a few days now due to slight health scare which fortunately turned out to be nothing serious. However it did mean I had to take my first sick days off work for well over 10 years! So what relevance does this have to the mental side of the MdS? Well it's all about what makes you feel good. Obviously feeling ill isn't great but the lift from the good wishes of my friends made me feel so much better.

Some of the big sporting events over the weekend were the British Grand Prix and of course Wimbledon. Both events featured 'home' competitors. And lets not forget Brazil won the Confederations Cup in Brazil. So what is 'home advantage' and is it something I can tap into for the MdS? On the face of it, of course not, it's in Morocco - I've never even been to Morocco so I can't claim it as a 'home' event. However....

Lets look more closely at what factors come into play when you are at 'home'. For some sports there are very prosaic factors such as a knowledge of the nuances of the field of play or being acclimatised to the conditions - its probably not unreasonable to suggest that Mohamad Ahansal's MdS performances are down to the fact he is a superb athlete in an environment he knows very well.

One of the sports that seems to have a particular preoccupation with home and away is football. Its fair to say that all grounds are different and there is some variation allowed in the pitch size but is that such a significant factor? My belief is that psychological factors make a far bigger difference. When you at home you are in your environment, there are friendly faces around, you know where everything is and how it works. However I think the biggest factor is the support, when you are at home the majority of the people watching are urging you on to win. Andy Murray has commented on the importance of home support as he heads into the second week of Wimbledon.

However for the MdS there is no crowd roaring you on but there is something I hope will be almost as good - the daily emails. Technology allows competitors to make phone calls to family and friends during the event, although it is discouraged, but I want to stay true to the event and restrict my connection to the outside world to my daily email out (if I'm not too exhausted to send one!) and the daily emails sent by friends and family. For those that don't know anyone can send a message to a competitor via the MdS website, they are collated and handed out on a daily basis.

I want to feel that people at home are interested, that they care about how I do. If I want that I have to give something back - I want to feed off their energy but not drain them. That's what this blog tries to do, its why I talk about my preparations to anyone interested. I'm also planning a 50th Birthday/MdS Farewell party just before I go to try and further enthuse my friends and family. What will keep me going is those daily messages and imagining my friends and family tracking my performance on the MdS website and urging me on.

So yes, I do intend to gain 'home advantage' even if I'm a long way from home!

Taking care of business...

The MdS is probably the biggest thing in my life at this moment. Everything is considered from an MdS viewpoint. I want to know how many kcal per 100g in everything I eat, regardless of how likely it is to be used as an MdS foodstuff - olive oil isn't really something I want to drink and cheese would probably end badly after a few days of desert heat but I still want to know their calorific content. Holidays are starting to be planned around MdS training, for now life is the MdS.

However I still want to enjoy myself and do the things I want to do not just the things I have to. Over the last week a couple of events have come up related to work, both of which I've done whilst making them part of MdS preparation.

The first was quite straightforward. Every year a local firm of solicitors organises the 'Race 4 Business', a 3.3 mile run around Chelmsford for runners from local companies. As I've been using the Parkrun (3.1 miles) as my weekly tempo run and as I wouldn't be around for the one last Saturday it was easy to slot the 'Race 4 Business' in as my weekly tempo run.

The reason I wasn't doing Parkrun this week was that on Saturday (and a bit of Sunday!) I was part of a team of four (plus a driver) doing the Three Peaks Challenge, also organised through work. For those that don't know this involves climbing up (and down) the highest mountains in Scotland, England and Wales; Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon. The challenge is to do all three including travelling between them in under 24 hours. This isn't an event which appears to be part of most conventional training for the MdS but conventional is overrated anyway. 

Originally I was hoping to test a lot of my MdS gear on the challenge but due to the appalling (in other words British Summer) weather that was forecast I just used the socks, backpack with water bottles, GPS and head torch that I was planning on using for the MdS. I also decided to try some of the foodstuff I was planning on taking, i.e. savoury energy bars, Peperami and Nuun tablets.

Without going into a lot of boring detail I can report that the equipment was a success, especially the socks. Only one small blister under my big toe, which given that I had a lake in each boot for most of Scafell Pike and Snowdon, I thought was pretty good.

Nutritionally I was certainly left with food for thought. This was my first time with Nuun tablets and my first impressions were that Grape tasted much the same as Strawberry Lemonade and both tasted much like upmarket bathroom cleaners smell! However I had Nuun in one bottle and water in the other and found myself always drinking Nuun in preference to water so I'll continue with those a few more times before making a decision. Peperami and pizza flavoured bars were great after Ben Nevis, good after Scafell Pike and beginning to get a bit dull by Snowdon. I think more flavours of bar and perhaps beef jerky as an alternative to Peperami sometimes might help. I also found I had a bit of a craving for salted peanuts (which I stole off my wife) and so will add this to the food list.

For anyone still reading we completed the challenge in 21 hours and 52 minutes, got thoroughly drenched and I'm typing this whilst wearing compression shorts and calf guards today in order to try and regain some semblance of movement. We also had a great time and were the fastest team of the weekend! In terms of the MdS I feel I learned some things about my equipment and food, also walking around 26 miles and climbing over 3000 metres gave me at least as good a workout as any ultramarathon would have given me at this stage in my training. So there you go, the MdS and life do not have to be mutually exclusive - the next 'crossover' is going to be some nice warm holidays for heat training!

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....

Decisions, decisions, decisions...

Whenever I've run in the past I've never had to make too many decisions, maybe decide which top to wear based on the temperature and a bit of a thought about what pace I'm going to go for. However for the MdS there are a whole range of decisions to be made, all of which could have a significant impact on my finishing position and more importantly how much I enjoy the race.

As I mentioned in a previous post I think I've decided my target finishing position and therefore I have a fair idea of the pace I'll be aiming for. However that's only the start....

What to wear? Actually I'm fairly comfortable with that - I think. Loose top, compression shorts, road trainers, trail socks and Raidlight gaiters are the current thinking. However pants are still a bit TBD and I'm not sure whether to wear calf guards - the plus side is I'll need less suntan lotion  so I'll probably take them, I can always bin them if I change my mind.

Apparently Colin Chapman's philosophy for  creating fast cars was 'simplify then add lightness'. I intend to follow this philosophy with the contents of my all-important MdS backpack. On the one hand its got to contain everything I'm going to eat, sleep on or change into for a week and on the other hand it needs to be as light as possible as I've got to carry it 150ish miles. This leads to all sorts of decisions, food being a main one. I'll probably do a separate post on food at some point but for now the decisions are 'how much?' and 'to cook or not to cook?'. So far the answers are '2000 calories/day', the minimum allowed for the MdS and 'no'.

Sleeping decisions, a sleeping bag is mandatory and actually doesn't present too many questions - or so I think at the moment. The trickier decision is to take a sleeping mat or not, does the comfort justify the weight? At the moment the back pad of my backpack is a thin sleeping mat so I'm mostly dodging that question for now - depends if I think I can find a patch of nice soft stones to lie in I suppose.

Clothes to change into are another difficult area - it would be nice to take off my sweaty, salt encrusted running clothes at the end of the day but a change of clothes is more weight. So far I've allowed for a long sleeve top in my weight calculations but I'm not sure whether to ditch that or add some leggings or something.

On top of this there are 'luxury' items to consider, a camera, an MP3 player, GPS - all need batteries, all add weight.....

My first round of 'decisions' has left me with 7.8kg on my back according to my spreadsheet - I think I'm going to need a few spreadsheets for the MdS. Watch this space to see how this evolves and whether it gets nearer to the magical 6.5kg minimum or whether a love of comfort prevails....

To compete or complete - what is the question?

One of the questions that seems to keep cropping up in relation to the MdS was 'Competer or Completer?'I must admit its not a phrase I particularly like as it seems too much like one of those glib pieces of 'management-speak' that actually has very little meaning when you break it down. After all I think it would be fair to assume that everyone that enters the MdS would like to complete it, so does that make us all 'completers'?

The more interesting part of the question relates to how we define a 'competer'. For a very elite few the answer is simple, they are the ones trying to win the MdS. For the rest of us we know we can't win and we know it would be stupid to try. If I tried to run at the pace of 2013 winner Mohamad Ahansal I wouldn't last the first day. However...

This is where I say something slightly controversial - most people could complete the MdS. There, I've said it - can I justify it? Obviously I think I can, the average pace of the slowest competitor on the MdS is about 3km/hour or slightly under 2mph for those of us that haven't gone decimal yet. 10% of the entrants walk the whole course. I believe that most people in reasonably good physical health could get to a standard where they could carry an 8kg rucksack 150 miles over 6 days even in 50+ degree temperatures - with some training. Whether most people would want to is a different matter...

I should stress here that I'm not trying to belittle the achievement of those that walk the event - although I believe it is within most peoples physical capability, the mental strength required is enormous, to keep getting up day after day and trudge across the desert in searing temperatures requires much more than physical ability and I believe that every single person that has done that has accomplished something amazing and something I haven't yet!

Having rambled on for a bit I'll try and get back to the point just in case anyone is still reading. My view of 'competing' is not to aim to win but to set myself a target and to try and meet it. for some simply finishing will be a sufficiently challenging target, others may try for top 50, top half, first person from their country, whatever. So yes, I obviously want to be a 'completer' but I'm competing as well. The target I've always set myself as my 'minimum standard' for previous events has been to take less than twice as long as the winner. Last year that would have put me 367th. Rory Coleman reckoned that for me top a top 300 finish would be mean I'd had a 'bloody good MdS'. So at the moment my competers target is a time of less than twice the winners with a 'stretch' target of 'inside the top 300'. However I reserve the right to reassess this as my knowledge of the MdS and my likely performance increases over the next few months!