Tuesday 28 February 2012

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.

Sunday 26 February 2012

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.

Monday 20 February 2012

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!

Sunday 19 February 2012

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.

Wednesday 15 February 2012

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!

Sunday 12 February 2012

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!

Friday 10 February 2012

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 . . .

Monday 6 February 2012

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!!!!

Sunday 5 February 2012

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.