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.
