The end

I'm now back in the UK and it's been four days since I finished the Marathon des Sables.

Various memories start coming back, including the mild hallucinations I had during the night stage. Having had a very poor week of sleep (and sleep just doesn't really happen when in the bivouac) it was during the night of Stage 4 in the sand dunes that I saw a white Berber tent complete with guy ropes and folds in the cotton of the tent. I started moving softly and taking a wider berth around it, keen not to disturb its sleeping occupants . . . until my brain reinterpeted what I saw for what it really was: just a large collection of clumps of grass on top of a mound of sand. The lamb I saw also wasn't a lamb. There were other weird "sightings".

Back at the hotel it took an hour and 3 showers to get off a week's worth of sand and all the detritus of human existence but I felt amazing afterwards.

It had been over a week since I'd seen myself in a mirror and I was really surprised at what I saw after a good shower and a shave: there was very little body fat left on me, it having been consumed in place of calories from food that I didn't have.

On the morning I left the UK (4 April) I weighed in at bang-on 14st and this morning (18 April) I weighed in at 13st 12lb. Bearing in mind I've absolutely stuffed myself for the last 3 days (I and my tent mates were having 3 main meals and 3 breakfasts for the day or two after the MdS, and lots of snacks in between!) I'm guessing I must have lost between 7lb and a stone during the week. When my wife first showed me after the finish a picture of a runner on her camera I asked who it was, not recognising that in fact it was me.

Would I do the MdS again? After Stage 1 one of our tent mates, Tony, decided to abandon (he completed the MdS last year) with the ominous words "I know what's coming and I realise I'm just not motivated to do it a second time." We all gulped at that.

It's unlikely. Once the "toughest footrace on earth" has been completed I'm not sure what my personal motivation would be for trying to complete the MdS a second time.

But having said that we were shown a few videos of the event in the hotel the day after the finish at the British presentation ceremony (see gadget top right: MdS 2012 videos). The videos (there are more on YouTube) show lots of smiles, uplifting music, inspirational interviews . . . and the pain has all been forgotten by then. Was it really that bad and uncomfortable? Wouldn't it be great fun to come back and do it again? When I see these videos it brings a lump to my throat and I'm itching to get my cheque book out!!

To get a faster time might be a motivation but it wouldn't be enough for me as so many external factors beyond one's control can put paid to that.

What the MdS does do is break you down both physically and mentally and it's up to you to build it all back up again, or quit. I was very lucky to have been a part of Tent 78 during the MdS with the best tent mates you could hope for (Tony, Paul, Ashley, Mark, Richard, Dean and Wayne) and we all variously agreed that the MdS also teaches you what is most valuable in life: the simple things and family. The day we were told we were going to get a cold can of Coke, for example, we were all like giddy kippers, kids at Christmas! During the night stage I suddenly became overwhelmed with excitement at the idea of getting home to simply sit and read a few pages of my book; in the dark painful moments I covered a few hundred metres with memories of cuddling up with my wife watching TV, or of my nephew recently explaining to me over a pub lunch how his Lego toy and beer mat invention would help me defeat camel spiders and scorpions in the desert.

I've certainly got the bug back from my 4 year hiatus from keeping fit and doing mad events and this time I don't intend stopping. The world is full of other ultra-events that are similarly tough and I guess I'll aim for them (one or all of the 4 deserts? the Fire and Ice Ultra?) . . . and the goal of joining The 100 Marathon Club one day seems a good one to aim for.

So I'll crack on with that then for now: just another 83 to go!

14 April 2012 Stage 6 - MERDANI/MERZOUGA: 15,5km

The final stage: a short distance of 15.5km but with a sting in the tail. It's Dunes Day for the last day: cruel. 9km (just over 5.5 miles) of tough sand dunes (the Chebbi Erg dunes, the highest in Morocco) with the last one a couple of hundred metres from the finish.

Decided to push it harder for this last day.

Ran most of the first 6.5km to CP1, managing my water as none was being given out at CP1. Kept going through the CP. Took a 234 degree compass bearing per the road book and kept to it, mostly, passing dozens who'd decided instead to take what deceptively appeared to be an easier route.

Some of these dunes were steep enough to need me on all fours to get over them but my leg strength, surprisingly intact after 144 miles in the last 6 days, powered me up and over most of the dunes. I saw a lone Berber sat atop a high orange-yellow sand dune with the bright blue background of the sky making a great photo, and we came across a few Berber camps sat in the middle of the dunes. Amazing to see.

Finally I saw the white finish-line inflatables in the near distance at the outskirts of the town of Merzouga, signalling the end of my 153 mile journey. Here I knew my wife, Mum- and Dad-in-law were waiting and this gave me a terrific boost.

From where I've no idea but I summoned enough energy to run hard over the last few dunes, powering down the other side and across the sparse stony flats. At last I summited the last sandy dune and ran my heart out towards the finish line, various friends and families of other competitors and other spectators around me clapping and cheering this group of stinking, ragged runners stumbling towards the end.

I heard the final "Bleep" as my GPS transponder crossed the finish line and I was done, 246.5km or 153 miles and 7 days from the start. I could see my wife and family and I was beaming: no pain, no sickness. Just utter relief and joy that it was all finished and a tremendous amount of satisfaction at having completed the toughest footrace on earth.

I joined the queue to receive my medal, hug and kiss from the Directeur Patrick Bauer, the creator of this event, and then funneled through to give my wife the biggest hug!

Too shortly later I was on the bus with my packed lunch for the 5 hour trip back to Ouarzazate and the comforts of real food, a shower and cotton towels, bedsheets and pillows, a journey that began in 2009 now almost over.

And believe me, that bus really stank!

13 April 2012 Stage 5 - JEBEL EL MRAIER/MERDANI: 42.2km

After a day's rest feel OK. Not fully recovered though from collapse and IV drip: can't get fully hydrated on rationed water so have to manage effort and water intake. Sore chest and bloody nose: shot-blasted from too many sandstorms.

A marathon today. After the 51 mile long stage we all feel like we've cracked it but today still has to be treated with respect. [It was later confirmed a number of people still dropped out today, including a leading competitor who suffered a heart attack out on the course and has been put into a medically-induced coma].

Mix of stony tracks, sand dunes and dried river beds. Seem to be getting stronger as each day passes but the sandy tracks and seemingly endless sand dunes just absorb all energy. Passed old abandoned village near end and started running more. Incredibly hot. Decided to put on iPod: tapping screen but couldn't see what was on it as too bright in the sun. Ended up in "Shuffle" mode: sad music saw me blubbing like a baby in my pained state; more uplifting music saw me smiling and bounding along seconds later. Decided to switch off iPod and play uplifting music to myself in my head.

Powered past dozens of people to finish feeling nauseous in a reasonable 7h2m for the marathon.

The organisers have flown in the Paris Opera for our evening entertainment! Classical music and opera under the stars: magical atmosphere.

11 & 12 April 2012 Stage 4 - EL MAHARCH / JEBEL EL MRAÏER : 81,5 Km

An ultra-marathon of just under 51 miles. This was the tough bit. Huge amount of sand. Included a hard mountain climb and steep sandy descent, then miles upon miles of soft sand: completely draining on legs. Miles of high sand dunes before Checkpoint 4.

Got to Checkpoint 4 just after dark and had a meal: headtorch on and fluorescent stick on back of rucksack. Intended to plough on through night to the finish. Complete darkness now so took 70deg compass bearing to follow dim light sticks and laser beam in sky to next checkpoint. Got my second wind. Pressed on hard for last 30km and passed dozens resting. Felt completely free of pain after 12 hours; had problems but felt I was gliding along. Runner's high!

Finished at about 3am Thursday morning and crashed into rucksack. Because I've ploughed on through the night I get a rest day (Thurs 12 April).

Rest day: sandstorm. Dust everywhere in everything. Then thunder and hail storm. Then scorching again! Feel good. Rumour: cold can Coke for all later!

10 April 2012 Stage 3 - TAOURIRT MOUCHANNE / EL MAHARCH : 35 Km

Made it to the start line! Felt better as day progressed. Very hot between 12 noon and 2pm when ascending hill and descending into sand plain: like running into an oven.
5km to finish: don't know what happened! Felt fantastic. Managed to overtake another 25 places in 5km. Huge smile to finish: ready for tomorrow's 51 miles!
Bad sand storms continually filling the lungs and have sandblasted my nostrils!

9 April 2012 Stage 2 - OUED EL AATCHANA / TAOURIRT MOUCHANNE : 38,5 Km

Tony from our bivouac abandoned today. Hard terrain to start with sand dunes. Huge salt flat: ran across for 6.25 miles in worst heat of day:52C. This was followed by an oasis full of wild camels which stank. Wheels fell off at 25km:no energy at all;hard to put one foot in front of the other.

Long way to reach 38km finish. Crossed line. Vomited lots; keeled over.

Next thing I knew I was being carried by Berber and medic to tent for stats, then jeep to medic tent. Given water with salts: vomited lots again. Put onto another bed and strung up for IV drip: 5 bags x 500ml. 2 hour penalty.

Wondered what's that flashing? Found myself surrounded by 3 photographers and videographer. Annoying. After 4 hours felt much better.

Back to our bivouac tent, but I had diarrhoea late into the night. Tried to sleep. Decided to abandon.

8 April 2012 Stage 1 - AMMOUGUER/OUED EL AATCHANA: 33,8km

French organisers wake us up at 5.30 driving around in Land Rover with speaker blaring sound of cockerel crowing. Funny.

3 minutes before we set off to the rhythm of AC/DC's Highway to Hell (doubly funny) a competitor passed out and was dragged off. Don't know if he started. 32C at 9am according to tent mate Wayne's watch.

Finally got running. Sand and dried river beds. Steep climb up a jebel for 200m with 15% gradient: rucksack feels heavy. People wobbling all over the place. At bottom of descent wave of heat very noticeable. [Later learnt temperature hit 48C today.]

Passed French competitor projectile vomiting at side of track. Looked in a bad way. "Ca va?" I asked. He nodded at me with hamster-like full cheeks and concern in his eyes . . . and projectile vomited everywhere again. Further up the track another competitor was in a bad way being overseen by Doc Trotters who'd arrived in their Land Rover.

Through CP2. Ahead started 1.3km sandy track to top of Tibert Jebel. Steep. Ensured I stopped every few steps once heart rate hit 160. Incredibly hot in the windless cover of the jebel. Finally saw finish bivouac 4.5km away. Took an absolute age to get there.

Back at bivouac heard rumour of an old desert well few 100 metres away. Tent mate Mark and I went to investigate. Sure enough, people luxuriating in cold waters drawn from well. We took turns dragging old leather bucket from the depths and pouring it over each other: freezing cold but felt fantastic. Felt much better after that. Also washed our kit. Not likely to have this opportunity again.

Dawning on us what we've let ourselves in for.

[Original Stage 1 email postings not sent from bivouac. This entry submitted later.]

At last!

Done: all packed and ready to go. Well, except for my hotel bag . . . I'm bound to have forgotten something.

The ambitious plan is for me to try and briefly update this blog after each stage but that depends on how shattered I am.

Best laid plans and all that!

Can't wait and itching to get on with it . . .

Rucksack weight

Today I finally packed up my rucksack and waist pouch and I'm really pleased to have got the weight for both down to 8.6kg in total: 4.1kg for my food supplies over 7 days (a total of 16,740 calories), and which will drop by about 600 grammes per day, and 4.5kg for everything else.

That's before adding water to my water bottles (about 1.4kg: unavoidable), and the other stuff the MdS organisers will issue on arrival: the compulsory distress flare (about 350 grammes), salt tablets, the road book (containing sketch maps and compass bearings) and 8 bags for the "toilets" which, although I don't intend to use them, are a compulsory item to be carried.

The packing jigsaw begins. No, the bed's
not coming.

It's been a fascinating exercise in cutting down weight!

For example, I need to take some topical disinfectant as a compulsory item and once I finally got hold of iodine (off the internet, unbelievably, rather than Boots or my local chemist) I decanted the 25ml glass bottle contents into an emptied plastic bottle of Simple Eye Make-up Remover (which my research in Superdrug showed had the same bottle top design as the original iodine bottle), saving 33 grammes!

And yes I have cut off excess straps and unused buckles and togs off my rucksack, saving between 10-20 grammes.

I've also decanted my various freeze-dried foods out of their original foil bags into Poly-Lina Pour and Store bags which can take boiling water, meaning I save between 7 and 15 grammes per bag dependent on the freeze-dried brand. For 5 meals that weight saving allows me to take my Garmin GPS watch without too much guilt!

In total, by thinking about every little bit of my kit and foods (which themselves had all been bought with  weight considerations in mind) I've saved up to 1kg in unnecessary weight.

And it all fits!

This does mean though I'm travelling with little: just one spare pair of socks and one spare pair of shorts for camp in the evening to allow things to, er, freshen up as best they can. And I've ditched a 67 gramme pillow: it was too uncomfortable and I'll have to rely on putting my head on my rucksack.

Every gramme will count!

Heat acclimatisation

I'm fortunate to live close to the Harrogate Turkish Baths which have three rooms with three different temperatures (45C, 55C, 70C) which are also a dry rather than humid heat, so ideal for getting used to some desert-like conditions.

Today was my last day in these and I've had 12 days of one hour sessions. I started straight into the 70C room and felt a little unwell after 45 minutes but managed to stick with it. I really noticed the taste of salt in the sweat pouring down my face (which started after about 3 minutes).

For the last couple of days I've sat for an hour in the 55C room. Over the last week or so I've really noticed a significantly reduced salty taste in my sweat (part of the body's heat acclimatisation process is apparently reabsorbing a significant percentage of the body's salts rather than excreting it: see Mike Stroud's book Survival of the Fittest) and it's taken an increasingly longer time before I'm dripping buckets.

Initially too my heart rate monitor (yes, I wore it!) showed a higher than normal heart rate as it sought to cope with the stress of 70C, getting up to 110-120 beats per minute just from very gentle leg stretching. During a spa weekend away last week I sat in a room which was at 85C: very uncomfortable and I didn't last more than 15 minutes before a 5 minute break (then back in for another 10!).

But today's last session felt fine and gave me some confidence I'll be a little more comfortable when I arrive in the Sahara on Friday.

As the highest temperature I'm likely to experience on the MdS shouldn't be more than 50-55C (though some of last year competitors recorded 56C) I sat in the 55C room yesterday and today. This felt far easier than the 70C room and it took a lot longer before I was dripping. My heart rate also didn't exceed 95 beats per minute during some stretches.

I'll be fascinated to see whether this heat acclimatisation exercise will have achieved anything once I'm in the desert on Friday!

Desert hygiene

The desert is a sterile environment but hygiene problems will be created from the usual suspects: hand-to-mouth contact, the toilets (a hole in the ground in a small tarpaulin make-shift cubicle) and cooking.

Inevitably I'll finish the week absolutely stinking as washing is not really an option with a limited water supply. I'll give myself a token daily wipe down using Wemmi Wipes, a tablet the size and depth of a couple of £1 coins which, when a drop of water is added, expands to a damp towel about 20cm x 20cm. Very clever!

But that realistically won't do that much and it's still possible I'll end up binning them just before the off. If I'm going to stink then I may as well really stink!

Every other bit if hygiene risk I've thought about carefully. You could be the fittest person in the world but once the D&V take a hold (as, historically, it has done to the majority) there's a very real risk of DNF (Did Not Finish).

So my hygiene thoughts are as follows:

- using a toothbrush and toothpaste is a risk from hand-to-mouth contact so I won't be using them for a week and instead I'll be using Orbit Spearmint chewing gum;

- I don't intend using the provided "toilets" and will instead head off a few yards into the desert to dig a hole, taking care to stamp around loudly to ward off inquisitive desert nasties like scorpions and camel spiders, and incinerate with my lighter the paper left behind (apparently in years past some competitors haven't done this, creating interesting wind-borne items in sand storms!);

- in a similar vein is the issue of how much toilet roll to take and how? Best tip I've heard is bagging up a day's ration into a sandwich bag so I now have 7 such bags with a guesstimate of a daily supply and a glove; in this way I reduce the risk of transporting around my person and taking back to the bivouac a contaminated single roll of toilet paper;

- cooking: I'll be boiling my spork before each meal and afterwards applying alcohol gel; all my meals will be eaten out of disposable bags, reducing the risk of contaminated pots etc;

- water bottles: I can't change my water bottles on a daily basis but after a few day's use they'll become a bacterial breeding ground without some attention, so I will add half a Boots Micropur chlorine-based sterilising tablet to some water in my bottles and leaving them for a few hours.

Bet I still end up with problems!

Technical: kit and stuff Part 2

Part 1 was posted 6 February 2012.

The remaining key kit choices are:

Sleeping bag and mat
Down sleeping bags are more expensive than synthetic but deliver the lowest weight. I've gone for the Mammut Ajungilak, a down bag giving me that red caterpillar look. It feels very warm and the packaging says it should perform to as low as 5C.

The Thermarest NeoAir XLite is my choice of mat. I'm not sure I fancy a cold and rock stony floor to start with. I'll be interested to see how this performs as it's really a large inflatable crisp packet. If I so much as cough I'm in danger of rolling off it! Not sure it will last a couple of nights on top of sharp stony plains and a couple of thin blankets.

Cooking equipment
I've gone for titanium for all of the cooking pot, stove and spork, making this a very strong but lightweight set of key cooking utensils. I'll collect my hexamine cooking tablets once I get to Morocco.

Sunglasses
My eyesight isn't that great once dusk arrives, nor for long distance. For the night stage this could be a problem as it's pitch black in the middle of the desert save for the minimal amount of light from other competitors' head torches. And I'd like to get an accurate idea of just how far that checkpoint is once it comes into view!

The strength of the sun means I've also had to consider a high strength sunglass.

So I've gone for the Adidas Evil Eye sunglasses: this has my prescription as an insert (solving long distance and poor light problems) and Cat 4 "Space" lenses for the sun. I can pop these out and replace them with a clear lens for the night stage.

The arms are also interchangeable with a headband. This in combination with my Buff and Frillneck desert hat should make any sandstorms less of a problem.

Solar charger
I love my Garmin Forerunner 310XT, giving me heart rate readings, distance covered and speed. While this is considered a luxury for the MdS I'll find it invaluable information on-the-go. The problem is charging. This watch has a 20 hour battery life so I've had to research how to recharge at the end of each day and hope I do the 50-54 mile long stage in less than 20 hours!

The PowerMonkey Explorer is my choice: a pair of solar panels attach to my rucksack and connect to the PowerMonkey battery (which sits in a zipped pocket) for charging. Apparently though it might take 7 hours to fully charge the battery. I'll then connect it to the Garmin watch using the relevant connector to charge up the Garmin.

I'm also taking my iPod Nano which will be my "Break Glass In Case Of Emergency"! A PowerMonkey nut allows me to use the PowerMonkey battery to charge the iPod though with 25 hours of battery life in the iPod I'll hopefully not need to.

Gaiters
The Sandbaggers gaiters have a great reputation for keeping the sand out. I sent them my trainers and got them back within 3 days, complete with the parachute silk knee-length gaiters sewn onto the shoe. Shorter length Raidlight gaiters seem to have had mixed reviews.

Packing all this stuff is something else!

Taper period

There are various opinions on the MdS taper period, the amount of time needed to recover from months of hard training effort and arrive at the beginning of Stage 1 fully refreshed.

Tapering is important from both a physical as well as mental perspective, to arrive physically topped up and mentally raring to go. It's so tempting to keep pushing the distances right up to a week or two before the event but risk arriving stale and tired.

Personally the peak of my training was last week's total of 63 miles, including the 58.6 miles back-to-back. As that was the end of an extended 4 week training cycle with several 20+ mile outings my own taper period will in effect be 4 weeks.

This week has been very light: a "speed play" session of 4 miles (sprinting and resting between lamp posts) and a consistent running speed over a cross-country 18 miles with some ascent where I only walked a total of 10 minutes.

My remaining taper period will be similar. My longest outing this coming week will be about 14 miles and I'll be doing several shorter but fast runs carrying a rucksack not exceeding 5kg. I'll also add in a few swims and weights sessions. The plan is not to go over 30 miles a week over the next couple of weeks.

My final taper week will include Stage 1 of the MdS starting on Sunday 8 April and will be very easy: lots of stretching, a couple of 5 mile runs or walks.

And that's it. The physical training for MdS 2012, which began in January 2011, will be finished.

Lessons learnt

The Grantham Ultra weekend has been invaluable in teaching me a few more lessons.

Body weight
I had been intending to put on a few pounds in the taper period to the MdS start line on the basis (i) I'd need it during the race and (ii) some comments I've seen elsewhere.

But this is of course extra weight that has to be carried. If instead I don't put on a few pounds I'll still arrive in Morocco with fat reserves to use up anyway.

So I'll be looking to keep off the pounds and hopefully shed a few more in my taper period to ensure I start the MdS at my lightest possible weight.

Rucksack weight
The muggy day 2 of the Grantham Ultra wouldn't have been pleasant carrying a heavy rucksack. While I've got used to going out with between 8-11kg I have been trying to convince myself there isn't any real difference between carrying, say, 9.5kg and 10kg.

But over time I really begin to feel every additional gramme with every footstep. Add desert heat and the demands of a multi-stage race and any weight being carried is likely to become uncomfortable as the days progress.

It sounds obvious but my MdS will be easier the lighter the weight of my rucksack: a starting rucksack weight of 10kg which becomes 8kg by the Stage 4 50+ miler will feel harder than a starting weight of 9kg which becomes 7kg by the same time.

So I'm on a mission over the remaining few weeks to shave off as many grammes from everything I carry, including considering whether I really need to carry certain things at all.

Salt
Training through the UK winter I hadn't seen or felt any signs of salt loss but day 2 at Grantham reminded me I do suffer on the salt loss front in warmer weather.

Salt tablets are issued to competitors at the MdS (equal to 20 0.5g salt tablets per day) and the organisers note that "perspiration can make competitors lose up to 15g of salt per day . . ." The NHS recommends 6g of salt is the daily maximum that adults should consume.

Many argue why start taking something you haven't used in training? Others seek to rely solely on electrolytes added to water bottles. For me, I know I will need them and plan to take 2 0.5g salt tablets per hour and see how I go from there.

I'd also noticed during day 2 at Grantham that by the finish I'd hardly touched my sweet foods in my rucksack but had devoured my salty Peperami and salted nuts, so I'll also be changing most of my sweet foods I'd planned for each stage for saltier goodies (peanuts, pretzels, etc.).

ULTRArace Grantham weekend

What a cracking weekend!

My final event for my MdS build up was the ULTRArace Grantham, a double ultra-marathon: 29.3 miles on the Saturday and the same canal route in reverse on the Sunday for another 29.3 miles. Only a few weeks ago I was seriously contemplating pulling out of day 2 and I'm glad I didn't.

Aside from being a great event it was also the first time I've run with other people since the New Hangover Hike on New Year's Day so it made a real difference being able to chat and run with others after so long running and walking alone in the Yorkshire wilderness!

Saturday's 29.3 miles

An early rise to travel to the start after my pre-prepared MdS breakfast: Jordan's Crunchy Oat Cereal with skimmed milk powder and a couple of tablespoons of sugar (just add water).

At the last minute I ditched most of the contents of my rucksack: I had intended to be running with 5.5-7kg but thought better of it, particularly after last week's 11.8kg 23 mile effort. Instead I ended up starting with about 4.5kg in the rucksack.

It was great to be travelling over a completely flat and dry course for a change. My strategy from the off was to run 5 minutes and walk 10 minutes. This meant that within a mile I was all alone and very last! The route and way-markers were very easy to follow though and over the coming hours I passed 9 people to finish 63rd of the 73 starters (I'm never going to set the world alight in this game . . .).

I kept the run/walk strategy going for about 4.5 hours when I then mixed it up while ensuring I still ran for 5 minutes in every 15. I also stuck to the plan of eating something every 45 minutes/1 hour and ensuring I reached each of the three checkpoints and the finish having got through the majority of my fluids: one 710ml bottle with electrolyte tablets and the other 710ml bottle with plain water.

I finished the 29.3 miles in 5h45m, so quite pleased with that, and collected my medal. Conveniently the finish line was the door of the hotel!

A quick check-in and the first thing I did was have my ForGoodnessShakes recovery drink, followed by sitting in freezing cold bath water for 15 minutes (this water must have been pumped directly from the Arctic). Once my hands were going blue, which weren't in the water, I figured it was time to get out.

My legs feeling incredibly recovered I then wallowed in a hot bath for an hour or so then made up my Expedition Foods freeze-dried Chicken Korma with Rice: delicious.

ECG and medical certificate
It's a compulsory MdS requirement to turn up on Administration Day (the day before Stage 1 starts) to hand in a medical certificate signed off by a doctor along with a satisfactory ECG test print-out. This ECG can't be dated more than 30 days before the start of the race. As part of this race weekend a doctor was on site to do the necessary.

The ECG, taken a couple of hours after I finished today's effort, confirmed I'm still alive and all the squiggly lines are in the right places. I also now have squiggly lines over my hairy chest too where it had to be shaved in the right parts before the test.

Ultra-running/MdS evening talk
The majority of runners will have heard of Rory Coleman, the ultra-running legend. In a different lifetime in the 1990s Rory had got used to being an overweight alcoholic smoking 40 a day until realising there was no fun in it. After a breathless 100 metre jog in 1994 Rory was appalled at the state of his body and decided to change things.

Rory has since completed 714 marathons, has 9 Guinness World Records to his name and has completed 180 ultra-marathons (i.e., races that exceed the standard marathon distance of 26.2 miles), including running from London to Lisbon . . . just the small matter of 1,275 miles. And 2012 should see Rory complete his 9th MdS . . .

So what Rory has to say about ultra-running is worth listening to.

Rory and his partner Jen Salter are the team behind ULTRArace which organises the Grantham Ultra and other similar events as well as providing coaching and personal training. I picked up lots of useful tips from Rory's talk, some of which challenge the plans and thinking I'd already decided upon for the MdS . . . so back to the drawing board on one or two points.

It was great meeting a few other MdS 2012 entrants and other ultra-runners with other plans, including one guy being trained by Rory for next year's MdS who's so far lost 20 kilos (over 3 stone) . . . in 1 year.

Sunday's 29.3 miles
I woke early for a freeze-dried breakfast (Expedition Foods Fruity Muesli with Milk Powder) and then back to bed for another hour or so before getting up and thoroughly stretching off. I just don't think my body likes hot breakfasts so maybe I'll stick to Jordan's Crunchy Oat cereal during the MdS!

I cleared out some more of my rucksack and went with 4kg.

Emerging from my darkened hotel room into the hotel reception the weather was a surprise: barely a breeze, not a cloud in sight and full sunshine before 9am. A quick change meant I ditched my running longs to just run in shorts but I kept two layers on my top half. I was as unprepared for unseasonably warm weather as most of the field with no hat, sunglasses or sunscreen. I just had one Buff with me to wear as a headband to stop the sweat dripping in my eyes which also meant everything else was exposed to the sun.

I found out today that the race finish in Cotgrave was about 10 miles away from the officially recorded hottest place in the United Kingdom (Watnall, Nottinghamshire: 18.6C). Last week I was running around in temperatures barely reaching 4C.

It was certainly a humid day. I started out more aggressively than the previous day with a 5 minute run/5 minute walk strategy but after about 3 hours this was getting too tiring: in the humid heat and after yesterday's effort my heart rate was spiking too much. I really wished I could dump my rucksack as even with just 4kg I knew that wouldn't help.

So after 3 hours passed I ran what I could, which was little, and mostly walked fast instead. I could tell from the dried salt marks on my clothing that I was sweating out a lot of salts. I had no reason to think I'd need to bring salt tablets with me and the electrolytes I was taking on board weren't helping as much as I needed in the sodium department.

With a couple of hours to the finish I found I couldn't run more than a minute or so without wanting to be sick, my appetite had switched off, my upper leg muscles were cramping up and my hands had swollen a little: all classic signs of low salt! To top it off I found I couldn't turn my head much to the left without a locking back muscle and pain: I've no idea why that started.

Where's that Whopper and
salty fries?!?

With the finish markers in sight I ran the last half mile and finally finished the second day's 29.3 miles just 31 minutes slower than the previous day's in 6h16m, with a combined time of 12h1m27s for the 58.6 miles. A good result and a real confidence booster for the MdS.

I sat down and struggled to get up again without my wife's assistance as my legs were cramping. I still didn't feel like eating though so didn't (a mistake) and instead went straight for a shower.

After a quick chat with Ray McCurdy (who's completed over 160 marathons and will complete his 100th ultra-marathon in the next few weeks) we began the journey home. I knew I badly needed salt so stopped at a service station for some Burger King salty fries: I really didn't feel well standing in a queue in a warm building!

Armed with a Whopper and salty fries I got out of the building sharpish and sat down in the cold shade feeling quite hot, dizzy and sick before I got the hot and cold sweats. The chap emptying the bins looked quite alarmed at the sweating mess sat in front of him and asked if I needed sugar. My long-suffering wife wasn't quite so alarmed: she got used to this on one of our first dates years ago (i.e., me repeatedly throwing up on the hard shoulder of the M1 after carrying on through some pain through a 6 hour track race).

That first salty chip was absolute heaven and I finished off the rest and half the Whopper in double-quick time and felt 100% better! Another bag of salty chips on the way home and I was ready to run again . . . well, sort of . . .

Official: excitement has arrived!!

This weekend sees the pinnacle of my Marathon des Sables training when I'll be "competing" in the Grantham Ultra: 29.3 miles on the Saturday, an overnight stop, then running Saturday's route in reverse to complete another 29.3 miles on the Sunday.

Assuming I complete both days this final build-up period will have included the following:

w/e 12 Feb: off week to recover for upcoming cycle;
w/e 19 Feb: 20 miler (8.5kg rucksack)/20 miler (6.6kg rucksack) back-to-back;
w/e 26 Feb: full 26.2 mile marathon with 6.5kg rucksack;
w/e 4 Mar: 23 miles (11.8kg rucksack), day off, 20 miles;
w/e 11 Mar: 29.3 miler/29.3 miler back-to-back.

Which also means I have just 2 hard days to come and my training preparation, which began in earnest in January 2011, is pretty much finished. I'd aim for another 20 miler or so next week and then my 3 week taper period will begin.

So with just 4 weeks to go before I travel to the Sahara I can officially declare that THE EXCITEMENT HAS ARRIVED!

Heaviest weight to date

Another 50 mile week. I forced myself to solely walk 23 miles on Wednesday with my heaviest rucksack weight to date at 11.8kg (OK, I confess I couldn't resist running the last 10 minutes home . . .).

It's a long way up, which means a long way back down
again with 11.8kgs

To add to the difficulty I did this walk over some tough terrain over the moors: stony, rocky, boggy, grassy, taking in over 2,700 foot of ascent. This felt fine and I covered the hilly distance in 6h44m.

The rucksack weight started to take its toll though after about 4 hours, when the muscles of my upper back really started to ache. I also really felt it in the legs as I began to tire from the weight on my back, particularly when descending off the high moors.

What this shows is that it will be critical to try and get my MdS rucksack weight as low as I can get away with: the heavier the weight the slower the run, the more energy being burnt (which isn't being properly replaced) and the longer I'll be out in the desert heat.

I'd intended the next day to go out for a 20 miler but when I woke up I realised I may have pushed it a bit with the previous day's weight. And considering what I've done over the last few weeks I'm really noticing how much more tired I'm feeling generally: injury beckons if I'm not careful.

So it seemed sensible to instead take the day off and I went out for my 20 miler on the Friday.

My intention for this outing was to go out with a far lower weight (just 2kg) but increase the running time along a flat route. It took a good 3-4 miles before the various pains in my overworked hip and buttock muscles eased off.

Other than a 20 minute walking period (waiting for 100g of jelly beans to kick in and do their stuff!) I maintained 8 minute run/2 minute walk for about 3 hours then changed this to a 4 minute run/1 minute walk to finish the 20 miles in 3h58m.

From the off it was a beautifully sunny early spring day. I wanted to give myself a bit of a boiling in the warmth and refused to take off my woolly hat and three layers including a windproof/waterproof jacket which doesn't breath. A few runners I passed were looking at me as if I'd lost the plot (Why's he dressed for the depths of winter when it's dry, sunny and in the mid-teens?!?).

Unsurprisingly I'd used up the 1.5l of water I had with me within 2.5 hours and suffered the rest of the way, but I was not going to remove my woolly hat and three layers!

What size shoe for the MdS?

Being on the feet for so many days in the desert heat invariably leads to swelling which in turn can lead to serious foot battering.

Hence the old lore that MdS competitors should consider taking a pair of shoes which are larger than normal, which leads to the inevitable question: how much larger?

The official MdS guidance bizarrely suggests two sizes larger than normal but most accounts suggest this is crazy: going too large simply means the foot has a lot more room to slosh about in the shoe, which then causes the serious foot blistering that's sought to be avoided.

Being a normal size 10 I ordered in to my local running shop a wider fitting size 10.5 and size 11 (I've decided to go with the very comfortable Asics Gel Nimbus road shoe rather than a less cushioned trail shoe). Stupidly I forgot to go for my shop test with my orthotics!

Still, with the standard insoles in place and two pairs of socks it was obvious the size 10.5 isn't going to work after a couple of days of MdS swelling and/or bandaging of cuts and blisters.

So I've gone for a full size bigger than normal. This feels odd because there is so much room in the toe box of the shoe. I now plan to break in these new size 11s with the following combination in the shoe:

- the standard insoles,
- together with my orthotics,
- one pair of Injinji toe socks, and
- one pair of Thorlos running socks.

With this combination filling out some of the space in the shoe I'll then have a variety of possibilities during the MdS for stripping out some of these dependent on how bad any swelling or foot damage gets.

When sheep attack!

Following last week's 20 mile/20 mile back-to-back (when I wasn't well!), and bearing in mind the next couple of weeks will be tough, I'd intended to keep the overall mileage relatively low for this week but still put in a long run. I'm paranoid about getting injured at this stage.

So I just put in 40 miles this week including 9 miles in the dark around the lanes and across the fields to test out my head-torch of choice for the Mds, the Petzl Tikka XP2. It has 80 lumens of power (whatever that means) and was impressive.

The instructions say "Do not stare directly into the beam." Being male I have that particular gene that interprets such instructions as "Stare directly into the beam to assure yourself that this new toy is in fact very bright", so I did and I can confirm this head-touch is indeed ideal for burning one's retina.

I also did another full 26.2 mile marathon this week with 6.5kg in the rucksack, getting 2,658 foot of ascent and covering the distance in just over 6 hours with a largely 5 minute run/5 minute walk strategy while walking the inclines. The next morning the legs felt tired but otherwise OK so I went for a quick 5 miler.

The highlight during the marathon was passing a field of about 30 sheep and my first sighting of this year's spring lambs, 40 or so of them, with the farmer trying to get them downhill into the barn across the track which was my running route. Rather than be mown down by this charging mass I stopped for 10 minutes or so and took on some food and drink.

I'm glad I did! There was one last sheep with its two lambs that was refusing to go anywhere it didn't fancy. The sheepdog tried all it could to circle it and push it along. I couldn't believe what happened next: the sheep growled (I didn't know they could do that) and started charging at the sheepdog, knocked it over and started head butting it on the ground!

This went on for a good few minutes, this lone ASBO sheep attacking the sheepdog. I think by now the farmer was suitably embarrassed by his poor example of the canine species so decided to have a go at rounding up this lone sheep and its two lambs using his quad bike. The farmer revved and hared towards the sheep, the sheep stood still and faced-off the quad bike: the farmer stopped, the sheep growled again (this both looked and sounded wierd) . . . and then charged at the quad bike, head butting the bike's front grill!

Eventually the sheep thought better of it and trotted across the track towards the barn. This was very entertaining! I gingerly passed with a big smile on my face . . . keeping well clear of this seriously hard sheep.

Training and preparation fatigue?

Although it's not long now before my physical training preparations are finished (just 4 weeks, max, assuming I have a 3 week taper period) I think I'm starting to feel the common illness afflicting MdS entrants: training and preparation fatigue!

Because I've missed the cut-off dates for pretty much all the long distance events I was planning to do, all my training has been on my lonesome since the last LDWA Challenge event I did on New Year's Day.

In poor winter weather it does take some mental effort to get out of the door for up to 8 hours at a time.

In the summer and autumn of last year it was quite easy to get on to the LDWA's Challenge events that are open to runners: these give regular milestones to aim for with a sense that the training runs are being shared with others.

It's been nigh on impossible to get onto winter events at short notice, I guess because there are fewer of them but still enough people desperate to get out of the house. I would definitely recommend to future MdS entrants that they get those LDWA Challenge events entrance forms in early to make the winter training period a little easier!

Also the detailed planning and meticulous preparation required to stand a chance of actually completing the Marathon des Sables takes up a lot of time: in effect, it's a case of thinking through every minute of every day from the Admin Day (the day before Stage 1 of the MdS starts) to consider what I'll need and how I'm going to get it or use it: how many calories will I take for each stage? shall I take any spare clothes and, if so, what? what type of hat shall I wear? where can I shave off some grammes in weight to keep the overall rucksack weight down? etc. etc.

There are now just 48 days to go before I stand on the start line of Stage 1 and it can't come soon enough  . . . ignoring for the moment the fact I haven't yet tried to put everything I'll need into my rucksack, or finished ordering it!

20 mile/20 mile back-to-back

After a week off to recuperate I started this week's training fine: a quick 4 miler.

But after that I really didn't feel right all week until today. I've been feeling nauseous, had a break out of mouth ulcers, a temperature, dehydrated despite drinking like a fish and very poor sleeping patterns.

At first I thought I was seeing overtraining symptoms.

So although it was the last thing I wanted to do and after a night of just 3 or 4 hours sleep I went out Wednesday for a 20 mile run/walk: doing this feeling none too clever would be useful mental stamina training, I figured, considering that I'll experience this at some point on the MdS anyway.

I started off with 8 minute run/2 minute walk and reduced the run proportion as time went on as my plan was to do the same route in reverse the next day, Thursday. I was also carrying 8.5kg in the rucksack which oddly felt more of a struggle than previous rucksack runs with heavier weights.

I finished feeling pretty grim and not only because of my symptoms. This is my third week in yet another new pair of Asics Gel Nimbus trainers and I've persisted with two pairs of socks along with my orthotics. This hasn't felt entirely comfortable of late and for the last 2 hours of today's effort my feet were in some pain and felt a little crushed.

Wednesday night saw more poor sleep and the next day I did the same 20 mile route in reverse but this time with a lighter rucksack (6.6kg). I loosened off my trainers, went with just one pair of socks and tried to take it easy. But I finished feeling whacked, freezing cold despite 3 layers and with chaffing on my lower back where the layers under my rucksack have rubbed with sweat that can't evaporate anywhere in the freezing cold air.

Today I felt hugely better and went out for a quick 6 miler, finishing the last half mile at 8 minute mile pace up a hill: the energy has returned!

I've only just downloaded and checked this week's data from my Garmin Forerunner 310XT (a fantastic heart rate monitoring and GPS watch).

What it tells me is that my heart rate for Wednesday's 20 miler was way too high for the perceived low effort I experienced, despite the run/walk strategy I used with only 1300 foot of ascent. Okay, I was carrying a heavy-ish load of 8.5kg but the data shows my heart rate maxed out at 177 beats per minute (bpm), and my average was slightly high at 145 bpm.

But the next day's 20 miler saw a max of 157 bpm and a much better average 129 bpm, both significantly lower than the previous day's effort.

And the difference in total time between Wednesday's and Thursday's 20 milers?

Just 3 minutes.

So rather than seeing overtraining signs (thankfully, as that would be the last thing I need!) I've clearly been fighting some infection which was at its worst on Wednesday.

Hopefully I can get fully recovered before next week's long run.

More food tests

I've been testing Mountain House's and Expedition Foods' freeze-dried offerings over the last couple of weeks.

I've found these to be tastier than the ExtremeAdventure freeze-dried foods I've tried recently.

This time I used less than the recommended water amounts: I boiled what the instructions suggested but then added just enough hot water to the foil bag to come above the dried food, gave it a thorough stir (including the bits easily missed in the corners of the foil bag), then added a little more to end up with a consistency that resembled solid food rather than soup.

Taste wise there was little between the Mountain House and Expedition Foods brands but the former marginally had it. The Mountain House Scrambled Egg with Ham and Potato was surprisingly very tasty, and Expedition Foods' Porridge with Sultanas and Fruity Muesli with Milk Powder were delicious.

A problem remains though that when these breakfast freeze-dried foods are combined with another freeze-dried main meal in the evening, even though I've deliberately ensured the overall fibre intake for the day isn't excessive (which I found difficult to do when trialling the ExtremeAdventure brand), I still get uncomfortable and excessive windy-pops!

So I don't plan on having two freeze-dried meals for every day of the MdS.

Instead I'll largely go with my own breakfast mix: 150g of Jordan's Crunchy Oat Cereal with 60g of skimmed milk powder and a spoonful of sugar thoroughly mixed in a Lakeland small zip-lock bag (with 500ml of water) does the trick to give just short of 900 calories.

Another test has been trying to cook Batchelor's SuperNoodles: these go down really easily, are tasty and 1.5 packs gives a good number of calories for a warm breakfast.

But I don't want to be using my Esbit titanium pot for anything other than boiling up water: this is part of the overall attempt to try and ensure potential hygiene risks in the desert are kept to a minimum.

So what I tried this morning was smashing up 1.5 packs of SuperNoodles into a Lakeland boil-a-bag. Using two hexamine fuel blocks I boiled up some water in my Esbit pot and tried pouring the water into the boil-a-bag, scolding my finger in the process. What I hadn't realised was that a flaming hexamine block was attached to the bottom of the pot . . . which then fell burning onto the kitchen worksurface!

My stove and 0.75L pot together weigh
just 127 grammes but have the power
to burn down kitchens.

In a mad panic I doused and removed the burning block but spilt some of the contents of the boil-a-bag. With the pot back on the stove I tried to cram as much as I could of the boil-a-bag into the pot until I realised the boil-a-bag was starting to disintegrate! Finally, the noodles having taken on as much water as I dared to attempt I poured the lot into a 1.5L bottle cut in half (this is the size distributed on the MdS: 1.5L water bottles cut in half form ideal eating bowls, saving washing up and hygiene issues!) . . . only to start seeing the water bottle start to warp from the heat of the water.

I just poured the lot into a breakfast bowl and enjoyed SuperNoodles with chicken and molten plastic flavouring before today's 20 mile effort (and removing all evidence of attempts to set alight our kitchen before my wife got home).

So back to the drawing board on cooking SuperNoodles for breakfast, or maybe I'll just stick with a cold breakfast every day instead.

I use the word "tent" loosely: with no front or back and the sides
not touching the ground these black sacks on poles allow overnight
sand storms to be experienced to the full!

With the Saharan Berbers waking us all up at 6am each day of the MdS to dismantle our "tents" I'm not sure I'll be awake enough to boil up 300ml of water anyway!

I love doughnuts

During this off-training week I've still eaten as if it's going out of fashion. While Krispy Kreme doughnuts are clearly the best there isn't a store anywhere near home so I settled for 5 Tesco glazed doughnuts during the week, and a few other bits of rubbish.

Yet today's weigh-in shows I've still lost almost 7lbs (3.2kg) in weight since New Year's Day as my metabolism has gone into overdrive.

Because I'm not going to be able to carry all the calories I'll need during the MdS I really don't want to be losing too much more weight from here as I'll be looking to have some reliance on spare fat stores during the event itself.

I had planned on stocking up during my 3 or 4 week taper period which will end on the day Stage 1 of the MdS begins, 8 April, but I think I need to be taking on more calories between now and then as I'm clearly not eating enough!

Lost in translation

MdS competitors have been receiving regular emails from Darbaroud, the French organisers of the MdS. Although these come in both French and English the English translation (computer generated, I suspect) requires some thought to try and work out what they're trying to tell us.

Today's email, MDS Timing No.5, is some advice from the foot butchers, Doc Trotters (they're not that bad really, apparently). On the subject of shoes they note the following:

"The divisions favor the absence of conflict."

Right . . .

There are other real hoots, including gems such as this:

"All the shoes should always have at least one size furthermore than the normal, and mostly two sizes (elongation of the foot beyond 30 km, and permanent inflation)."

If my foot ends up elongating beyond 30km whether my shoes are one or two sizes bigger than normal will be the least of my worries . . .

Technical: kit and stuff Part 1

This post is about kit choices and similar technicalities so feel free to move on if this bores you to death (assuming the rest of this blog hasn't)!

I'm at the stage now where I need to make final decisions on all my kit and food. Particularly as I think my wife is now becoming stupefied from my endless comments about whether I could/should do a hatchet job on my otherwise poor performing Raidlight bottles or do a DIY job on the High 5 bottles or simply exchange the Camelbak Performance bottle top for the Camelbak Podium bottle top; or should I wear the UnderArmour HeatGear Draft Compression shorts rather than the Nike Dri-Fits or Skins A400? and how can I take Super Noodles for breakfast in such a way that I don't need a cooking pot or mug (which I don't intend to take)? and did you know that if I bought the titanium long handled spoon, which is far more practical, rather than stick with the Esbit titanium spork, I'll save 1 whole gramme in weight! Every gramme counts!

You get the idea!

Trainers
Hiking boots: not a chance for this event.

So the choice is down to off-road or road running shoes.

My wife doesn't understand my
expensive shoe habit

I've had several on the go for several months, all at various stages of approaching the end of their useful life for me of about 200 miles (to avoid injuries), hence I'm changing mine every month or so at the moment.

Because I now wear orthotics I know I need a neutral gait shoe. I've found the best neutral cushioned shoe for the road to be the Asics Gel Nimbus and, for off-road, the Asics Gel Trabuco.

On the MdS there'll be a variety of terrain: sand dunes (Nimbus, I guess!); a couple of mountains (Trabuco); salt flats and dried-up wadis (Nimbus) and rock-strewn plains (Trabuco).

I've found the Trabuco OK for off-road soft and grassy trails but not as great on very muddy terrain. But it does have a rock protection plate to protect against bruising from running along on or hitting stones and rocks.

The problem with the Trabuco is that after several hours I start to feel everything, far more than I have done in the Nimbus after the same period of time. There seems to be more cushioning in the Nimbus.

Cushioning will be my friend after a few days so I'm minded to go for the Nimbus. I'll try out one more test of the Trabuco, on hopefully a winter-hardened track, before a final decision . . .

. . . Other than the final decision of whether to go a half or a full size larger shoe to accommodate heat-swollen feet, or the room needed to accommodate the work of the infamous Doc Trotters (the French medics who literally slice the skin off blisters (cutting into raw skin is optional), add neat iodine, patch you up and send you away in tears).

I'll have to do this soon so I can get a final new pair of whatever I choose, break them in over a couple of runs and then send them off to get knee length sand gaiters sewn and glued onto the shoe: getting sand in the shoes leads to horrific blistering and foot damage, as some MdS photos on the internet prove!

Socks
Years ago I used to wear Twin Skins until the manufacturing appeared to change and they started giving me blisters. I then discovered Thorlos running socks with reinforced sections and have never had blisters wearing these: they're a fantastic product.

As I'll likely be starting the MdS with a slightly larger shoe to accommodate swelling and Doc Trotters' work (see above) I've recently been trying Injinji toe socks underneath my Thorlos, partly too as another method to try and ensure no blistering on the MdS. These have been fine but with a normal sized shoe have made my feet very snug. I'll likely take the Injinjis for the first couple of days of the MdS and bin them if/when my feet swell so much that I can't get my trainers on.

I haven't yet decided whether I'll take a spare pair of socks, though it's likely. I'll have to see how the rucksack weight pans out: spare pair of socks or 100g of jelly beans? Decisions! Decisions!

Shorts
I went by the sizing guide to try on the UnderArmour HeatGear Draft compression shorts to ensure a chaffing-free MdS but still found them a little too loose: maybe I need to take all my measurements again because not many of my clothes are fitting properly anymore!

I've also tried the other main compression short competitor, the Skins A400.

Neither can beat the Nike Dri-Fit shorts I've been wearing. On the couple of times I've worn them and got serious chaffing I think that's down to horrible wet weather conditions causing the friction, not the shorts themselves. I've found the UnderArmour and Skins a little looser and thinner than the Nike Dri-Fit and aren't tempted to spend more money on trying a smaller size when the Nike's seem to be doing the job.

Every gramme saved counts, so I don't plan on wearing a second pair of shorts during the MdS. I might though take a second pair of Nike Dri-Fits for a change before the long Stage 4 starts (assuming I get that far).

I've been trying BodyGlide too as an anti-friction test. A small size of this will come with me . . . just in case I do start getting a chaffing problem! I don't feel I can justify dropping this to save weight: a serious chaffing issue could make for an extremely uncomfortable race if it came on, for the sake of 32 grammes of a BodyGlide stick!

Rucksack

Without a doubt the OMM 32 litre. This has proved to be bomb-proof over the couple of years I've been getting used to it. This should give me enough room to pack everything: I really don't want to end up having to carry items outside of the rucksack, e.g., sleeping mat, sleeping bag etc.

Bottles!
I've had no end of testing nightmares with this one.

The OMM32 rucksack is great but the mesh bottle holders on the sides of the rucksack end up being slightly too high on my back, making it difficult to reach round to get a bottle. As I'll need to be taking a few sips of fluid every 5 minutes or so in the desert the bottles need to be more accessible but I don't want to keep taking off my rucksack so frequently (ideally not at all during each stage, the stuff I need for the day fitting in the hip pockets of the rucksack or a waist bag).

Enter the Raidlight Bottle Holder which can come with a 750ml Raidlight bottle. The Raidlight Bottle Holder can thread through the shoulder strap of the OMM rucksack easily enough and I've been using two of the Raidlight Bottle Holders, secured by duct tape to the shoulder strap, hence I've been running with 1 water bottle on each shoulder.

I very quickly ditched the Raidlight bottles themselves, which are complete pants: the elastic securing string of the Bottle Holder sat too highly on the bottle and regardless of how much fluid was in the bottle it swung annoyingly from side to side: after a few hours this really got on the nerves. There was also risk of serious eye injury by impaling myself with the straws that sit on top of the bottle, and the straws were useless too: in trying to pull up the valve from the straw to take a drink it felt like I'd pull my front teeth out first.

A great discovery was the 750ml High5 bottle: it sits perfect and snug in the Raidlight Bottle Holder and has 50ml markings along the side to allow easy measuring out of water for rehydrating meals (hence no waste of limited water supplies).

I've used these pretty much throughout all my training . . . but recently sat back and thought how I was using them: I was taking them out of the Bottle Holder and pulling up the spout with my fingers.

On long runs in the UK this isn't so bad because I'd only be drinking every 20 minutes or so, but for running in the desert I figured there were two problems: firstly, I wouldn't want to be pulling these bottles out and putting them back in to the Bottle Holders every 5 minutes; secondly, hygiene is going to be a particular problem in the desert so I didn't fancy getting my grubby fingers all over the bottle top each time I wanted a drink.

So final testing was getting a Camelbak Performance bottle (650ml) which has an easy-to-access drinking straw and locking lid to prevent spillage. I swapped this bottle top on to the larger Camelbak Podium bottle (710ml) and haven't had a problem at all training with this: I can sip fluid out of the bottle with ease without taking the bottle out of its strap and without having to use my fingers to do so. The Podium bottle sits tightly in the Raidlight strap and doesn't bounce nor give any annoying sideways movement.

At each checkpoint on the MdS competitors are given a 1.5l bottle (2 of them if the next section to the next checkpoint is particularly long or hard, e.g., miles of sand dunes in the midday heat). Ideally I would have liked to have gone with 2 x 750ml bottles to ensure I'm fully watered up before I leave a checkpoint, rather than be a few miles from the next checkpoint and waterless had I taken, say, 2 x 500ml bottles (I don't want to be carrying the 1.5l bottle itself: I'll empty it and dump it at the checkpoint).

In this way I'll leave each checkpoint with a total (2 x 710ml) 1.42l of water using the Camelbak Podium bottles and having swigged 80ml before setting off. I'm happy with that.

I now just need to make a few markings on the side of the Podium bottle to help with accurate water measurement for rehydrating my meals at the end of the day (rather than guessing at it and ending up with soup for dinner), and I intend sewing on the Raidlight Bottle Holders to the OMM32 shoulder straps to remove any risk of duct tape failure!

Top
I'm going for the Railriders Ecomesh long-sleeved shirt: this is a featherweight nylon with SPF of 30+ weighing just 6 ounces! This will be the only top I'll wear during the race. I'll also take another top to wear sleeping at night which I'll also use under the Ecomesh for the night-stage.

Hat
I tried the Mammut Nubian hat on a run in Portugal last year but I found the neck flap insufficient protection in a breeze (the Sahara does get them), it was too tight a fit around the head (so not enough ventilation) and didn't quite cover my ears.

I've ordered a Frillneck hat from Australia (or "Arafat" hat as it's collequially known for obvious reasons!) which should hopefully do the job and can double up for protection against sand storms.

One of the great things about training for the MdS? Kit, and lots of it!!!!

A freezing start to February

Three or four layers hasn't been enough to keep out sub-zero temperatures this week and I've finished all my sessions very chilled. This feels like the hardest part in training for the MdS: getting up and out of the door into the freezing cold. This isn't ideal Sahara training with the MdS just 2 months away!

55 miles this week, with the only back-to-back being 27 mile/3.5 mile, in my 7th or 8th pair of trainers in a year:

- a couple of short runs without the rucksack (which is bliss!) at a steady pace, apart from today's 3.5 mile short and slow effort as I crunched/slid along in 3-4 inches of snow and ice;

- 18.5 mile fast march (4h10m) with 10.5kg rucksack: this was all on ice- and snow-free pavements as I wanted to maintain a good fast walk for the distance on a hard surface (of which there are some in the Sahara, such as the salt flats); this felt very comfortable for the first couple of hours but a weighted body on a hard surface at speed for so long was starting to tell on my ankles and knees towards the end;

- I had a couple of days rest from the 18.5 miler before going out for a 27 mile run/walk with a 5.5kg rucksack (5h56m; 2136 foot ascent; 3275 calories).

This 27 miler felt great: it was frozen ground from the off so I didn't have to slip and slide around my route, at least for the first couple of hours.

After that thick snow started to fall. Still, an 8 minute run/2 minute walk served me well for the first 3 hours which I then reduced to 5m/5m for the last 3 hours.

Finishing a very, very cold 27 miles;
it's not clear from the picture
but my bottle tops have
frozen!

As the snow piled up on the ground (a good couple of inches, more on the hills) it progressively became much harder work.

I finished the 27 miles feeling strong despite having to wade through energy-sapping snow and trying to maintain heat through the freezing cold but I felt I could easily have carried on: a good sign. I'd only taken on 426 calories during this 6 hour effort so I'm surprised at how I felt once I finished.

So that's another 3 week build up done, which has looked like this:

- week 1: 50.1 miles, including a 23.1 mile (5.7kg rucksack)/14 mile (11.1kg rucksack) back-to-back;

- week 2: 52.2 miles, including a 25 mile (7.1kg rucksack)/15.1 mile (9.2kg rucksack) back-to-back;

- week 3: 55 miles, including an 18.5 mile fast march (10.5kg rucksack) and 27 miler (5.5kg rucksack).

So I'm looking forward to an easier week. Key is to stretch off a few niggles, finish off ordering yet more kit and do more upper body work: a couple of swim, weights and rowing sessions.

There really isn't much time left now until Stage 1 of the Marathon des Sables starts on 8 April. After my upcoming rest week the plan is for 2 hard weeks followed by another easier week which will take me to Sunday 4 March.

I need to have a think about what happens for the remaining few weeks after that date: I had been planning on 2 further hard weeks before my 3 week taper period begins which leads me to the start line of the MdS: during the taper period the plan is to significantly reduce the mileage and exercise sessions to get the body fully rested.

I'm intending, in that last 2 week hard period, to complete a back-to-back ultra-marathon with some other MdS Brits over a weekend, but whether or not I'll be able to get up for the second day of this event is something I'll probably decide at the time!

Depending on how I feel after that event will determine whether I do have that second hard week, or if instead my taper period extends from 3 to 4 weeks.

Please support my chosen charities

When I set out to try and complete the Marathon des Sables I'd never intended to seek to raise money for charity by asking for sponsorship. But as my wife pointed out, this seems a waste of an opportunity when undertaking the biggest physical challenge I've ever taken on.

The charities I traditionally support are already well-supported, well-known and well-funded.

This time I've decided to support two particular charities that aren't well known and so struggle to raise funds for the invaluable work that they do.

These charities, Unique (whose mission statement is to inform, support and alleviate the isolation of anyone affected by a rare chromosome disorder, and to raise public awareness) and The Dame Vera Lynn Trust for Children with Cerebral Palsy (whose School for Parents works with families to educate children under 5 with motor learning difficulties) receive no Government support.

For these two charities it genuinely is a case of every penny counts.

Please sponsor me here!

I have funded the entire costs associated with undertaking the Marathon des Sables myself so the money you pledge will directly benefit these two charities. For which, thank you in anticipation!

Back-to-back food test

Just over 52 miles this week.

The back-to-back was a 25 miler (7.1kg rucksack, 2531 foot of ascent) followed the next morning by a 15 miler (9.2kg rucksack, just 771 foot of ascent).

Towards the end of the 25 miler I decided to put my iPod on as I started to tire. I heard a huge double-boom noise, I felt it through my chest and the ground literally shook. I whipped off my earphones wondering what the hell had happened! I could hear a jet screaming away and trotted on; other walkers further along asked if I'd heard it. The next day on the news I learnt what it was: a Typhoon jet had been authorised to go supersonic. It was very impressive!

I trialled my MdS food intake for this back-to-back:

25 miler
I tried Extreme Adventure Foods Hot Cereal with Sultanas (800 calories). Unfortunately I was gagging after 4 or 5 mouthfuls of the stuff and stopped! This might have been because the dry wallpaper paste consistency was a result of me not adding enough water, but either way the taste wasn't great. Instead I raided the larder of the remnants of a box of Quaker Oat Crunchies so started the day with barely 500 calories.

During the run (726 cals):

- SIS Go Gel;
- Peperami;
- Maxim chocolate and caramel energy bar;
- 100 grams of Peanut M&Ms.

Immediately post-run I had a ForGoodnessShakes Vanilla recovery powder drink (261 cals) then my main meal, an Extreme Adventure Foods Mexican Chilli Con Carne (800 cals). This was quite tasty and, although resembling more a hot soup once made up, went down well.

The total weight of just these items was surprisingly 627 grammes giving me a total 2587 calories for the day (the breakfast (assuming I'd eaten it!), the "on-the-go" snacks, post-run recovery drink powder and main meal). I'd actually burnt off 2960 calories just doing the 25 mile run alone!

But I really can't increase the rucksack weight to try and up the calories. Already, 627 grammes is about 14% of my intended total weight to be given to food for the 7 days (i.e., 4.5kg maximum).

While I felt satiated I could easily have had more: by bed-time I was hungry again . . .

15 miler
. . . and completely ravenous by breakfast!

The Extreme Adventure Milky Cereal and Raisins went down better. My "on-the-go" food was a lower calorie intake to reflect today's lower mileage. Another recovery powder drink after this run was followed by the Extreme Adventure Italian Spaghetti Bolognese; again, this was quite a watery meal and didn't taste of much though I still managed to get it all down.

Unfortunately I then suffered a typical response to too much freeze-dried foods most of the rest of Friday and Saturday morning!

So I'll try again on the food: I've ordered the Mountain House brand for the next step.

Based on the calorie figures I've given above it's quite likely that, even assuming that for the rest of each MdS day I simply laid down and did nothing, my daily calorie deficit will be roughly 2000-2500 . . . minimum.

Mmmmm . . .

Getting the food in . . . and more kit!

MdS regulations state that competitors must be able to show they have a daily food intake of 2000 calories, minimum, for each of the 7 days of the MdS.

The easiest way to get this food in is a main meal for breakfast and again in the evening after each stage. While exercising it's difficult to take on a huge number of calories (particularly in heat) so rather than stopping to waste time and prepare a lunch it's easier to snack over the miles until the day's stage is over.

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noticed that some of my blog entries for events I've run show the calories I've expended, usually over 2300 each time (while the Yorkshireman Off-Road Marathon burnt off over 5000 calories). Obviously the body keeps on burning calories outside of any exercise period so if I'd wanted to replace my entire daily calorie expenditure on those days I quite likely would need to have taken on at least 4000 calories.

But carrying calories (i.e., food!), along with all the other kit, is heavy work across 150 miles of the Sahara.

You can see the problem!

There is no way I'll be able to carry enough calories for each day of the MdS to replace the calories I've lost, so weight loss is inevitable. I've heard some stories of competitors losing up to a stone in weight over the 7 days and looking very different on getting home (though some of that will be down to dehydration).

The other problem with the inability to carry all the food ideally needed is that the body gets progressively weaker as higher calorie demands are made of it which aren't being met by food.

My plan for the MdS is to aim to take on board between 2500 and 2800 calories for each stage of the race, with about 3500 calories to get me through the Stage 4 50-odd miler.

This will be roughly made up of about 800 calories for breakfast, 500-1000 calories of snacking during the day's stage, with 800-1000 calories for the late afternoon/evening.

The best way to achieve this is by using freeze-dried or dehydrated foods. There are numerous brands with apparently varying degrees of tastes and texture; some taste like cardboard, many get the calories from a high fat content and many give the trots after a few days of use!

The brands I'll be looking to try are: Expedition Foods, Extreme Adventure Foods, Mountain House and possibly Fuizion.

I've ordered some Extreme Adventure Foods today as I'm planning on having an MdS food trial-run this week: I'll restrict myself consciously to about 2500 calories for each of my back-to-back long days this week and see what the reaction is.

I've also ordered other MdS kit: 

- a Thermarest NeoAir Xlite sleeping mat (the small size, it packs up to the size of a small water bottle) to give some degree of comfort from the stony desert floor as I try to sleep at night: this will cover the length from my head to just below my hips; any longer is really an unnecessary luxury!

- a lightweight powerful head torch, the Petzl Tikka XP2 (a torch is a compulsory item);

- a titanium spork and titanium stove (titanium is very light and also has the highest strength-to-weight ratio of any metal);

- Eletewater (an electrolyte fluid to drop in to water to ensure electrolytes (sodium, potassium etc. etc.) lost through sweating are replaced);

- UnderArmour HeatGear shorts . . . to see if these are any better than my Nike Dri-Fits in removing any chaffing risk;

- Injinji toe socks (these are socks which have pockets for the toes, like a glove!): I haven't suffered from any blisters on any of my runs and hope that continues. I'm going to try these for size to try and ensure I remain blister-free in the desert.

Upping the weight and distance

Last week I just managed a few thousand metres on the rowing machine. That easy week meant I started this week quite refreshed, though I am noticing the residual tiredness after an easy week steadily increasing. I need to be careful not to end up being overtrained after my 3 week build-up cycles, which is difficult considering I still have about 6 or 7 weeks of tough training still to come.

I covered 50 miles this week on runs, run/walks and a walk, which started on Tuesday/Wednesday with a (respectively) 23.1 mile and 14 mile back-to-back outing.

The 23.1 miler was over the bleak Rombald Moors in the freezing cold with a 5.7kg rucksack, a weight which I barely notice now, covering 2795 foot of ascent in 6h16m and 3435 calories burnt off.

Colour in the sky with a black pencil,
remove the stone's shadow, and that's
about right!

This is a tough route I've designed for myself, beginning with a descent to the lowest altitude I can get before climbing all the way up to Bingley Moor, descending down the other side and coming back up and over Addingham High Moor, the plantations and through the village of Addingham. It was hard work across the very boggy ground; the exposed higher peaks of the moors were particularly cold and windy. This is the second time I've done this route and while it felt a little easier this time my legs certainly know I've done it by the time I've finished.

The 14 miler the following morning was largely flat, just over 1000 foot of ascent. To make it harder I carried my heaviest weight to date at 11.1kg and kept a speed-walk going with a few minutes of running thrown in: 3h11m. My upper back only felt tired for the last hour or so and I'd started feeling very comfortable with the weight.

Another walk today (just 8 miles) was with 9.7kg in the rucksack.

On checking my running diary I've noticed a few encouraging points:

- the last time I covered more than 50 miles in a week was almost 10 years ago when I did my last 24 hour track race (and had severe Achilles tendon problems thereafter);

- my fitness has improved so much that my heart rate monitor now regularly records a drop of up to 20 beats per minute on some of my run routes when compared with the same route just a few months ago (those of you who started reading my blog from the beginning will know that one year ago I was just finishing an enforced 3 week lay off as I couldn't actually run or walk much at all);

- in 10 months I've lost a stone in weight (and, unsurprisingly, 4lb of that in the last 3 weeks alone).

Crucially I need to maintain this work rate without getting injured.

This week I also decided to start panicking about all the other MdS kit I haven't ordered yet!

Compulsory kit!

The rest of my compulsory kit arrived today from Likeys, the ultra-race specialists:

- an anti-venom pump to remove poison from the stings and bites of desert nasties;

- a signalling mirror for blinding aircraft pilots when I get lost;

- an aluminium survival blanket;

- a Victorinox Swiss Card (compulsory kit requires a knife: this clever piece of kit the size of a credit card has a knife, biro, scissors, nail file, tweazers and tooth pick); and

- a small waterproof medical kit bag (I'll need to decide on the medical bits and pieces I want to take).

A dress-rehearsal for being bitten
by a camel spider

That's all there is to the Swiss Card!

31 miles of hard work and pain

46 miles this week. It finished today with an easy 10 miles, a mixed run and walk.

On Wednesday, just three days after Sunday's 20 miler (itself after Saturday's 10 miler), I decided to go for a hard 31 mile walk. I told myself no running was allowed at all.

In brief, this was a miserable 8 hours and 40 minutes.

The ground was awful and made walking up or down grassy and muddy inclines tough. This was the day after serious gales made the news headlines, and strong gales continued today. I'd decided before setting out not to bring my iPod for this long, long walk which I've rarely done anyway for the longer training sessions, instead building the mental stamina of dealing purely with what I can see and hear around me: with trees being felled all over the place I figured it was best to have my ears unobstructed.

Although there were light showers for the first couple of hours thereafter it was a drenching, driving rainstorm. I had to stop and battle to put on waterproof trousers over the top of a pair of running longs and running shorts, but the waterproofing didn't last long. My upper body (with 3 thick layers of clothing) was also drenched after a couple of hours and I had to keep my work rate up to maintain some body heat. As I tired this became progressively more difficult and so the cold gradually set in.

I also had 10.6kg in the rucksack, the heaviest weight to date.

After about 4 hours I became aware of a real stinging pain in my nether regions. My soaked waterproof trousers, tight running longs and running shorts had conspired together to start causing the friction that was giving me some serious chaffing. This was a real disappointment because I thought I'd found the answer to these problems in my Nike Dri-Fit shorts. By the time I'd recognised this, having been zoned out for the last several hours, it was too late to do much about it. Not quite having reached my half way point (15.5 miles) I plugged on, grimacing. No amount of adjusting my gait was making any difference to the sawing action my shorts were now making on raw skin.

By now very cold I reached my half way point and turned for home . . . only then realising that my route outwards had been wind-assisted. I then faced just over 4 hours of walking into the gales and driving rain. I took on some food, finished off my 2 x 750ml water bottles and exchanged them for my reserve 2 x 500ml water bottles.

Head down and plugging on . . .

About an hour from home it was dark, so on with the head torch to cross the fields which weren't far off from being flooded.

Having the knowledge of being almost at the end of your destination after a long session does odd things: suddenly the last couple of miles became almost unbearable; questions like Why am I doing this? popped into my head; I became aware of muscle and tendon pains that weren't there before.

It's a bit of a mental battle to swap those thoughts for the reminder that, as soon as you stop, everything feels so much better and it's all over: that feeling of a deep relaxation on stopping, of a sleep-inducing hot bath and good, hot food.

Dr. Mike Stroud's excellent book Survival of the Fittest makes the point that it can't be because of an accident that human evolution has meant our body's longer term memory of these post-exercise "feel good" feelings successfully drown out the shorter-term memories of pain and discomfort from strenuous exercise. Without this survival mechanism our ancestors' first efforts at chasing a woolly mammoth for several days for the cooking pot wouldn't have been repeated. You can imagine our ancestral cave dwellers:

"Fancy coming out woolly-mammoth-chasing for a few days? I'm starving!"

"Nah! Can't be faffed. Last time we did that I got some serious crotch rot from this Nike Dri-Fit loin cloth and those wretched bison waterproofs, I was freezing cold, couldn't move for days and felt half-starved. I'll just sit here and wait for Tesco Direct to be invented."

Note the absence of rucksack,
water bottles, trainers, GPS watch, 
heart rate monitor, energy gels . . .

Hence, so the theory goes, human evolution saw to it that our ancestors' poor short-term memories of pain and discomfort allowed them to get up a few days later and go woolly-mammoth chasing again.

With woolly mammoths now found just a couple of miles away in the local Co-Op or whatever we don't really need to satisfy the body's evolutionary desire to go hunting and gathering for days on end, hence (apparently) we have a theoretical evolutionary reason for why we desire to do daft things like train for 10k races or marathons etc.

I finished my own day's woolly-mammoth hunting of grimness and crawled up the stairs with a satisfying degree of pain in my hamstrings and various tendons from having worked my walking muscles very hard. Slipping into a hot bath was utter agony though, with hot water and Radox stinging some quite serious chaffed raw skin.

Of course, I'd forgotten about the pain a couple of days later when I went out for my shorter sessions to finish the week!

I've now finished a 4 week build-up (with weekly mileages of 31.2, 35.1, 41.8 and 46), rather than the 3 week build-up I was supposed to stick to, so I'm taking a week off if only to allow my chaffing to heal properly.

Getting serious now

Having maintained a good base now without injury (barring any worsening problems with my knee) the serious training starts.

A good start in the week up to New Year's Day (41 miles this week):

-  a couple of faster runs to keep the base speed maintained;

-  New Year's Eve: a 10 mile session of 5 minute run/5 minute walk with a very light 1kg rucksack;

- New Year's Day: after a late night, up early to drive to south of Dewsbury for the Long Distance Walker's Association's "New Hangover Hike 2012".

As a Challenge event this 20 miler was open to runners. I carried 5.7kg in the rucksack for the 1662 foot of ascent and covered the ground in under 4.5 hours, a steady pace. 2757 calories of Christmas excess disappeared, largely comprised of my mum-in-law's chocolate log (which I've been fueling myself with this week for this event). The terrain was tough under foot: I was slipping and sliding all over the place.

5 minutes before this
photo and the finish
I was pretty much dry!

I had been chasing along with a fellow runner for most of the route until the last 5 miles or so, by which time I started getting very tired as my legs were a little zapped. The other guy had a lighter rucksack on:  that's my excuse! Within half a mile of the finish he took the wrong turn so I sped up to catch him, thinking this was my opportunity to finally beat the guy.

We agreed the right turn over the canal was the right route and off we sped. At this point it absolutely bucketed down with a hard rain storm. Not long after this sudden burst of speed on my part I was devoid of energy to beat him so he got in a couple of minutes before me!