Final preparation for Marathon Des Sables (involving mostly Wine and Doughnuts)

Well as im sitting here on the train to Tartu, drinking coffee with white sugar and eating a lovely jam doughnut, im beginning to wonder what i should actually be doing the week before a big race.

Its almost impossible to conceptualise what a desert ultramarathon will be like from here in the frozen north, with a temperature change of 50 degrees, a heart attack is definately in the running. I'll feel pretty stupid if that happens.

However, although I was quite chuffed with my ability in the cold weather, after a month in the hot - I feel im cheating by running in the indoor track- I did a little fast half marathon on Sunday, in 1 hr 30, with no backpack, indoors to ensure technique was still there (well...kind of) but this kind of temperate enviroment is so far removed from the hot and dry and mountainous desert, which drains every inch of your energy - there are so many uncertainties regarding what kind of time i should be aiming for, i dont think theres anything i can do to know that right now except estimate...at the moment my experience is

Cool Weather Marathon, no backpack, flat ground - 3.5- 4hrs
Hot weather Marathon, no backpack, flat ground - 4 -4.5hrs
Hot weather Marathon, full backpack, bad terrain and up and down steep hills - 6- 7 hrs

So im reading books that say the average pace for Marathon de Sable is 4miles an hour, or 6.5hrs for a marathon. Which is basically, like the 3rd above- walking, which means im at about average pace for the race right now (disapointing, bearing in mind ive been thinking about training for 6 months now) Ok i understand steep hills (like my last big run in the back of Jaco) its physically impossible to run up and down, but surely the whole distance isnt like that? While i cant see myself briskly sprinting up 1000m sand dunes in 45degree heat for 20miles, im sure the terrain is mixedso i hope to get that up to at least 5-6km an hour.

So all i can do now is avoid getting sick or injured (i have a niggling ant bite on my ankle which has opened up, so ill try to see a chiropractor today) and well...apart from that ill just drink and wait. Probably i shouldnt really drink, but im sticking just to wine. And i am in Estonia after all (which still has 2 metres of snow AND IS STILL SNOWING)

Seriously though. This week, my training will consist of i think one long walk in the snow, with a pack on. Possibly drunk but its no matter. I need to read up on Chi-Walking and i really should look at my diet and buy a ground mat so i dont freeze at night. Theres no amount of Yoga that can put off my impending and inadequetly trained for doom now. It kind of serves me right really for getting into such stupid things - why didnt I stick to something safe like Muy Thai?

I'll write a diary on the race and put it in here afterwards. Seriously,  i hope that it doesnt get embarrassing or involve any airlifts or other pansy style cop-outs. Or my leg being amputated. I can promise you that there will be moments when ill lull between conciousness and semi-conciousness, but i will try to stay alive the whole way. I have some really good power songs in my i-pod. From what i read, the real enemy is nutrition and keeping hydrated and salted up throughout the time, as all your sodium sweats out constantly. So basically drinking wine as training is ok. Well done Alan, by writing about it your almost there...

Au Revoir and wish me luck!

ps I'd like to thank Nick Constantine of Soul in Motion for his support and help in my Chi-Running. If anyone is in Scotland/North of England and wants to change their whole running technique, his website is here

Mountain Marathon Trail behind Jaco

I did my first marathon distance last week in the mountains outside Jaco. Because most of it was either steep uphill or steep downhill, i left at 12noon, with some bananas, nuts and an extra bottle of water, as there weren't any Macdonalds on the way.

Monkeys can and do attach themselves to you, this one was trying to get my jelly babies

I started off right across the road from where the 'Maxi' supermarket is, on the dirt road that leads to the canopy tours (3km in) As i ran in, a bull stood in my way, but it seems that they are more scared of humans than British bulls, and it scarpered thank God, as I ran towards it clapping my hands like an idiot.

The track is flat for the first 4km then starts to rise gently - it was really exhausting that time of day in the full heat of the sun, so i tried to slow down when i got to the shade of any trees there. By 5km id almost drank my first bottle of water but luckily theres a waterfall, up the hill a little so i could fill up. After that, the real hell started. Im sure it was about 45degrees hill, it seemed to go on for about 3km , then you get some respite and downhill again, then back up again. It took me about an hour to complete the next 5km and up to the top of the hill, where it flattens out and there is a cooling breeze. Id love to hear some tips on running up hills with a pack on, because Chi-Running doesnt help a great deal. I basically walked the steepest parts, since i knew i had a long run ahead in a remote part and didnt want to end up wearing my headtorch later or sleeping up there, if it got dark (if the snakes and ants wouldn't eat me alive, the monkeys or the drug smugglers would ! )

If you keep following the trail, when you get to the very top, there is a smaller trail in red earth, that goes right and higher - this is the way you should go unless you want a 195mile run round all the mountain villages (which sounds like fun but not in one day) If you get to a surreally located restaurant on the track, in the middle of nowhere which has a sign saying 'no world economic crisis here' at the entrance, then, like i did you've gone about a km too far so turn back (or im sure you'll want to give up after that steep hill and get a lift back from the ATV guys that hang out there, as its too rugged for cars.)

The trail you should be on, and i was on, goes all the way to Hermosa beach and back to Jaco. It undulated randomly up and down hill, and almost none of it is flat, so it does make hard going. And dont stop to eat on the way, like i did - my whole body is now a dot-to-dot book of ant bites. I should mention now that you should have an anti venom kit if your up in these kind of places, as there were a few snakes about, although not quite 6m long Anacondas like Venezuela.

The view is great but its a hell of a hot in the middle of the day

Eventually after another 8-10km or so, the road forks again - you can actually go either way - left you'll pass some farmhouses and you can go for 15km more and get to Jaco beach in a more gentle fashion, and I suggest this road. Theother option is (like i did stupidly after asking the farmers wife in the house there which way was less difficult, she must have understood more difficult) to go right and what looks like your going nicely downhill....however halfway down the trail almost peters out to long grass (which isn't fun going steep downhill on) then you find yourself going down a track that is physically very difficult to stand up, you pretty much have to clamber, and then you find yourself in a quarry. It is in theory a shorter route (about 8km back to the road) but it probably takes at least twice as long, as you have to step down bit by bit, knowing every second that you may be about to hit a dead end of impenatrable jungle and have to climb back up again. After the quarry, its best to follow your nose out of there without getting shot by the (armed for some reason) guards there, and then the track becomes wider and you can gently follow it down to the original road, and eventually back out to Jaco. For some idiotic reason i got into the running mood about then, so i ran down the long road to the beach, just in time for sunset (6.15ish) and ran home that way.

As for Marathon De Sables training, i think that was my best day yet, but the bad news is that 1. i must have ran less than 50% of the distance, and climbed/walked/scrambled the rest and 2. I was aching like hell the next day, which doesnt bode well - i suppose im used to easy little beach runs not these mountains straining my calfs and knees and tendons. Interestingly the steep dowhill was a lot harder than the uphill, especially after a long and tiring day, so i think i'll spend the next week ahead of the race with a fair amount of hill running if i can to strenghten those muscles a bit and get them used to hills (as i beleive there are some in the race)

I think im as fit as im going to be due to my inherent laziness and lack of discipline, but i think i have my Chi-Running down ok now and ill try a 30-40km run tomorrow along the causeway here in Panama City and assuming its a breeze at a decent 5min-5.30km  clip then i think ive done all i can do. The biggest issue ive had here is still running in the middle of the days humidity and heat, but hopefully its the humidity thats the problem (which wont be a problem in the desert!)

Jaco, Costa Rica

I just got back from a great longish run through the sunset, so i'm writing this with endorphins coming out of my ears ;o)

Finally i think i've cracked the Chi-Running technique and am back coming towards peak fitness - about time, since the race is less than a month away now. I heard from a freind that i'm Estonias first ever and sole representative in the Marathon Des Sable this year, which means i only have to finish it to be a record holder!

When the tide is low it's perfect, apart from the heat and humidity (and rivers)

The running in Jaco beach, here in Costa Rica is pretty simple. There are i beleive some good trails (i'll hope run some this week with a guy i met who organises adventure racing in CR) But the main obvious running choice is the beach. It's 5km long, so you can do up and down for 10km or twice for 20km (like i did today) or 3 times for 30km etc. I don't know, i thought there would be a breeze, but the humidity is still hellova high, and is probably the biggest limiting factor in running in hot tropical areas. There are two rivers, and one has a croc so be careful, but its actually quite cooling to run through these on a hot day anyway.

My first race when i got here was a 7km night race in Jaco, and even then the humidity is around 70-80% so the sweat simply drips off you or sticks there - i.e. sweating doesnt cool you down so you overheat, which of course saps your energy and, in time kills you (see last blog post)

I think however after 2 weeks here, my body has got used to it, and id say i can run normally with my full pack on for an unlimited period of time (boredom permitting!)

The main things i was thinking about today was technique - after about 10km, i felt a little tug in my knee, and in my lower back, so set about altering my posture to fix that. So with a bit of focus and thinking about the techniques Nick Constantine showed me in my last Chi -Running lesson i mentaly listed the things i still need to make sure im not doing -

1. I need to keep making stupid looking but effective prancing leg movements to ensure i was landing on the middle of my foot, not the heel. In the sand i was checking this too, and it seemed my footprint showed im landing in the middle - i'll need to take a video to check that.

2. I must make sure my knees are behind my centre of gravity and so arent taking any pressure or acting as brakes (i.e. most western runners do this, stop it!)

3. I need to peel my feet off the ground, rather than any sudden movements (thats easy in the beach Thankfully)

4. I need to relax my calves and ankles so the oxygen can get to them ok - i thought about this earlier before the run and incoroporated some ankle rolls and shaking my legs about much to bystanders amusement, before the run.

Anyway, with 2 weeks left here in Jaco, before two weeks of travelling before the race, i intend to now start on a 3x20km and 1x40km runs a week regime, to get me match fit, with surfing and yoga in between days to strengthen my middle more (and make me look more handsome generally of course ;o) )

But i know that in the back of my mind is the 92-94km day in the MDS, so its likely on the second 40km day, i'll attempt something crazy to whet my 'Ultra' appetite - (and make me realise that im actualy not so fit after all !) ;o) watch this space!!