Hello again everyone. I just went out to purchase the Suunto Foot Pod Mini to go along with my Suunto heart rate monitor. I have been a bit worried about how I was going to pace myself without knowing the distance covered and the distance left each day in the MDS.
The problem with most GPS devices is that they drain the batteries really quickly, so there is no way they would last the duration of the MDS without taking tons of spare batteries or a solar charger (which some people mentioned didn't work that well), and of course that adds extra weight to the pack.
The Suunto Foot Pod Mini on the other hand uses an accelerometer to measure the speed/ distance and hence the batteries last much longer. The packaging states that they last for 400 hours when the Foot Pod Mini is in use. I was wondering about the accuracy of such a device, but I read several reviews where people said that the distances are fairly accurate when they compared them with the distances shown on their GPS devices.
Again, the packaging claims that without calibration the device is 95% accurate and with calibration it is 98% accurate. 98% is good enough for me. It doesn't have to be exact after all, but it would be helpful to know for instance that the finish line is still 10km away when it appears like it is only 2km away. I know from the Salt flats of Uyuni in Bolivia that distances can sometimes be very deceptive. Despite the island in the middle of the flats looking like it was only a few kilometres away it was actual over 30km away. Imagine thinking the finish line is only 2km away and really going for it, only to discover that it is 10km away and you have no energy left and end up walking the last 8km.
I can't really think of any outstanding points that are worrying me now. In terms of equipment I have managed to:
1) get my pack weight down to something reasonable (around 8.5kg)
2) carry extra calories than the minimum requirement in case I feel I need them for recovery
3) carry sufficient warm clothes in case I get cold at night
4) have a means to measure my heart rate and speed/ distance
5) test out the food and gels during my training
In terms of training I have managed to:
1) consistently run around 100km per week since the beginning of January, and this week I will have covered 160km
2) gain the necessary core strength for carrying the pack through a combination of Pilates and yoga
3) run both on and off road
4) run on snow (to simulate running on sand) and have 2 weeks in Morocco to run on actual sand
5) run a marathon in under 3:30 to prove to myself I can run fairly fast for long distances when need be
6) run 71km continuously without stopping
7) start the process of heat acclimatisation and have 2 weeks in Morocco before the race starts to continue the process
8) run long distances multiple days in a row
9) run with a pack containing the actual gear I will be using in the race for the last month
The remainder now is probably going to come down to mental strength and my ability to push through the pain when I have blisters and my whole body is aching and crying out for me to stop. This is one aspect that is hard to train in advance without actually experiencing the race conditions. I am glad at least that I have had some chance to know what it is like to have to fight not to give up, in the Marmotte cyclosportive and during my cycle trip in South America.
Last Marmotte for instance my knee was really sore (and I mean REALLY sore) early on in the race and then my cleats came lose and I didn't have the tools to put them back on. It would have been so easy to stop right there and then, but I struggled on to the end (10 hours in total) with my feet constantly slipping around on the pedals and aggravating my knee even more.
There was also one day during the Vuelta Sudamerica bike tour when there was a ridiculously strong head wind (so much so in fact that a tent was blown right away with a sleeping bag inside it, and never seen again) and I was out front on my own with no-one to spur me on and no pack to draft from. That day we climbed to over 4,000m high and the road was often broken and jarring my body and making my butt hurt like hell (to the point where I could barely put my weight on the saddle). The distance was over one hundred kilometres and there were also sandy sections where it was a struggle to keep moving and where sand was being blow constantly into my face. Less than half the group finished that stage and it would have been really easy to give up, especially when the truck came alongside me with others in it and they were trying to tempt me to give up and join them (how mean). But I didn't give up - I was determined to complete that stage, and I did. I hope I find this same strength of mind when I need it in the MDS in a few weeks time.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
The day after
If you have gone out on an all night bender the previous night, you might expect to wake up with a cracking hangover and to feel like death warmed up. Likewise if you went out and ran 71km (44 miles) the previous day like I did, you might expect to wake up with a serious case of DOMS and barely able to walk. All the signs last night indicated I was in for a serious case of DOMS (Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness) today. When I went to bed my hips were really stiff, my left knee and pad of my right foot under my little toe were a bit tender, and my left calf muscle was quite swollen and tender to the touch just above where my sock came up to. Actually my left calf muscle was what worried me most as the lump was pretty big and I have never had swelling like that before. I googled it and found out that the swelling is usually quite harmless, and is gravitational or dependent edema from being on your feet for so long.
I went to sleep with my feet raised on a pillow so that the fluid could drain from my legs and I also rubbed some Voltaren gel on my feet, left calf and left knee. Voltaren gel belongs to a group of drugs known as NSAIDs (NonSteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs), and is used to treat pain and swelling.
It seems that raising my feet and using Voltaren gel did the trick, as this morning I woke up feeling almost like new. I have ever such slight muscular aches, but nothing to write home about, and if I had the desire I could go out and run again now. Obviously I wont do that as my body needs to rest, and even in the MDS there is a rest day after the long stage if you manage to complete it in one day. I will however go out running tomorrow and do the remaining 18km that I need to do in order to complete my 160km (100 miles) week. Everything I wanted to achieve this week has gone to plan.
I went to sleep with my feet raised on a pillow so that the fluid could drain from my legs and I also rubbed some Voltaren gel on my feet, left calf and left knee. Voltaren gel belongs to a group of drugs known as NSAIDs (NonSteroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs), and is used to treat pain and swelling.
It seems that raising my feet and using Voltaren gel did the trick, as this morning I woke up feeling almost like new. I have ever such slight muscular aches, but nothing to write home about, and if I had the desire I could go out and run again now. Obviously I wont do that as my body needs to rest, and even in the MDS there is a rest day after the long stage if you manage to complete it in one day. I will however go out running tomorrow and do the remaining 18km that I need to do in order to complete my 160km (100 miles) week. Everything I wanted to achieve this week has gone to plan.
Friday, 16 March 2012
8 hours of continuous running and 71.09 kilometres (44.17 miles) covered
The aim of today was to do my longest run so far, and then from now tomorrow on to start tapering towards the race. The furthest I had run continuously before was 50 kilometres. The furthest that I had run/ walked was around 70 kilometres and half of that was running and half was walking.
I decided a lap of the Zurichsee was the best route to take as I knew the distance already, so if my GPS ran out of battery it would have been easy enough to calculate the remaining distance. One lap of the Zurichsee is approximately 65km and add to that the distance from the apartment to the lake and back and you have 71km in total.
I wanted to show myself that I could run 80km (50 miles) in around 10 hours or less i.e. averaging 8km/h. That meant each 10km needed to take me an hour and a quarter or less in order to stay on track. I soon realised after 20km that I had set myself a very realistic target. I didn't stop except for pee stops, to grab some water from the water fountains and once to get a bottle of water out of my backpack. Yes I forgot to mention that I had my backpack with me. I looked up the format of the MDS and it seems the long stage is usually on day 4, so I took some food out of my rucksack to simulate being on the fourth day of the MDS and having eaten 3 days supply of food.
In terms of sustenance I used only energy gels to keep me going. I ate 1 Gu Roctane sachet before leaving and then at 10km, 30km and 50km I ate a normal Gu sachet and at 20km, 40km and 60km I ate 2 sachets of gel (1 Gu Roctane and 1 normal Gu). My Garmin watch seems to think I burnt over 6,000 calories, but the energy contained in all the gels I consumed is only 1,000 calories. My body is probably therefore in a serious calorie deficit at the moment and I should eat very soon, as well as take a generous helping of whey protein powder.
I definitely felt the limiting factor for my speed today was my muscles and not my cardiovascular system. If I had more muscular endurance I could have pushed my heart much harder. That may be a good thing, as in the heat my heart will be working much harder than usual, so at least I know that I have the extra capacity to handle that. I was holding myself back a bit too, as I didn't want to get any injuries this late in the game, and I don't want to race in training. The only niggle was in my left knee and it wasn't anything more than that i.e. a niggle. Oh yes and in the first 20km my left calf muscle felt very tight but that loosened up later on.
All in all I am very happy with how the run went, and although the long stage in the MDS is never going to be easy at least I know it should be possible. I could have run further today had I needed to.
Last but not least, in the last 7 days I have covered a total of 147.09km (91.4 miles).
I decided a lap of the Zurichsee was the best route to take as I knew the distance already, so if my GPS ran out of battery it would have been easy enough to calculate the remaining distance. One lap of the Zurichsee is approximately 65km and add to that the distance from the apartment to the lake and back and you have 71km in total.
I wanted to show myself that I could run 80km (50 miles) in around 10 hours or less i.e. averaging 8km/h. That meant each 10km needed to take me an hour and a quarter or less in order to stay on track. I soon realised after 20km that I had set myself a very realistic target. I didn't stop except for pee stops, to grab some water from the water fountains and once to get a bottle of water out of my backpack. Yes I forgot to mention that I had my backpack with me. I looked up the format of the MDS and it seems the long stage is usually on day 4, so I took some food out of my rucksack to simulate being on the fourth day of the MDS and having eaten 3 days supply of food.
In terms of sustenance I used only energy gels to keep me going. I ate 1 Gu Roctane sachet before leaving and then at 10km, 30km and 50km I ate a normal Gu sachet and at 20km, 40km and 60km I ate 2 sachets of gel (1 Gu Roctane and 1 normal Gu). My Garmin watch seems to think I burnt over 6,000 calories, but the energy contained in all the gels I consumed is only 1,000 calories. My body is probably therefore in a serious calorie deficit at the moment and I should eat very soon, as well as take a generous helping of whey protein powder.
I definitely felt the limiting factor for my speed today was my muscles and not my cardiovascular system. If I had more muscular endurance I could have pushed my heart much harder. That may be a good thing, as in the heat my heart will be working much harder than usual, so at least I know that I have the extra capacity to handle that. I was holding myself back a bit too, as I didn't want to get any injuries this late in the game, and I don't want to race in training. The only niggle was in my left knee and it wasn't anything more than that i.e. a niggle. Oh yes and in the first 20km my left calf muscle felt very tight but that loosened up later on.
All in all I am very happy with how the run went, and although the long stage in the MDS is never going to be easy at least I know it should be possible. I could have run further today had I needed to.
Last but not least, in the last 7 days I have covered a total of 147.09km (91.4 miles).
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