THAT Running Song. Remembering the Marathon Des Sable and the Tunes That Pull You Through...

 I remember clearly, like it was yesterday, the 82km stage in the Marathon De Sables, where for some reason I followed a delirious frenchman a mile and half up a rocky hill in the wrong direction because he'd dropped his water (and if he'd kept going would likely be dead) When I got him he didn't speak english, so i had to pull him in the right direction, and we trotted back to the (by then dark) 'path' and on to the next checkpoint, where I met the two notorious scandos Krister and Jarmo and pushed on into the night....

 As dawn broke the next day and everyone had got lost (because some local kids had stolen the luminous way-markers) I found myself coming through some scrub and finally onto the 20km home stretch. I could see the tents of the end of the stage, shimmering way off in the distance, but after three hours, and as the sun rose and it pushed over a hundred and twenty, it still looked no nearer away and my spirit began to break.

 It's at these times a tune or two comes into your head, and through the tears you begin to sing. So when all seems lost and your out of water and your throat is burning and your blisters are bleeding, and the only sound is the forlorn croak of the vultures, and finally you consider what the newspaper will say about you, when you're found, dying alone with your eyes picked out in middle of the sahara... what do you sing?

'Everything Will Be All Right' by The Killers was the tune that got me through - a nice slow beat to run to, convincing myself that any minute I would be drinking some nice cool pepsi, eating fish and chips and dunking in the pool, but I thought i'd share my top 5 favourite running tunes with you here  that pull me through or speed me up on the very common days when I hit the wall....

1. Mr Brightside - The Killers.  Im not a big Killers fan really, just a few of their songs are standouts, and this is one of them, for running at least. The first riffs are uplifting and keep a fast pace going, and before you know it you're thinking of that hot girl you used to dally with from Uni days...

2. Call of The Cthulu - Metallica.  I like instrumentals like this, the way it kind of forces you on and builds up to a maddening energetic crescendo.

3. Extreme Ways - Moby.  Similar to 1. nice and upbeat and puts you in a good mood. Makes you think you're the guy in Bourne Identity.

4. Ostia - Sepultura. A furious bit of thrash that whips you into shape. Its also all about Dantes Journey in Hell so you'd better get running...

5. Mean Street - Van Halen. Fast pacy rock, with old Dave Lee Roth giving it laldy, you basically can never sleep to this...

There are more of course, but I'm always open to other perfect running tunes if anyone has some good recommendations...

Marathon Des Sables Diary, Stage 1

Ok so i bizzarely completed the 26th Marathon Des Sable 2011. I really can't explain how, but i wrote a little diary on the subject. You can read the first part on the link below.....

http://alanstraveladventures.blogspot.com/2011/04/marathon-des-sables-diary-stage-1.html

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

Year Zero

So I made my first ‘hot weather’ run of the season, here in Panama City. And i’m still alive.

Although i understand it was just a mild 31 degrees, I can safely say, it was certainly the hardest 3km of my life (im running 3km and i have a 250km race next month, dammit!).

Note forced smile for the camera -I could hardly stand up

Can you imagine sitting in a very large sauna, just beginning to sweat as some Finn put lots of water on to show off. With running gear and an 8kg backpack on. Then running 3km? Well, sounds easy, if you’re sitting in your bed reading this, or tucking into fish and chips somewhere. Well, maybe i packed my pack too heavy, it jostled about as it had my laptop etc in there (ill bring a towel this time as i’m soaking with sweat here in the air conditioned heaven of Dunkin Donuts)  or maybe it was because i just came from Baltic winter weather last night, or maybe it was just the sheer humidity taking it out of me,  but to be honest I barely made the 3km today. (19 mins by the way in case youre asking,  6 and a bit mins a km)

 From the map there seemed to be three decent choices – a trail in the national park that borders the city, the promenade along the waterfront (its about 3 km long) and the causeway  beside the Panama canal which is about the same. It was a hot day and i had my pack on so i opted for the easiest to find, at the seafront. I walked about and got myself familiar with the city too (ok ok it was noon and i was scared to run in such heat)

Either way it really brought it home to me how difficult and different running several marathons in severe heat  will be compared to running on a nice easy indoor running track back home. How i laugh now at how i nievely thought that running 10km circuits every few days would prepare me for such hell. Fortunately most runners are North European and don’t know what the hell they are up against, so maybe this month of hell in the tropics will give me an advantage when it comes to the race. Either way im going to try 4km tomorrow, i think ill try the causeway then, its about 2km there, 2km back, and ill pack my bag with the same things as ill take in the MDS itself – sensible huh?

 I think tomorrows run will be better as im more aclimatised to the heat (i feel a total dickwad whinging about sruggling over such a short distance already, but i may as well be honest about it)

Chi - Running - It's Not All About Looking Like an Idiot

Some Poor Buggers Feet (taken from googling 'Marathon Des Sable Feet')

 I had a 'Chi-Running' lesson last week in Edinburgh. If you want to see me prancing around like a fat turkey on amphetamines, with tights on, you can watch the video, ill put it up when i work out how to.

Dont watch it if you have a crush on me girls, you'll change your mind, really....

Plagiarised from my trainer Nick Constantines website -

'ChiRunning combines the inner focus and flow of T'ai Chi with the power and energy of running to create a revolutionary running form and philosophy that takes the pounding, pain, and potential damage out of the sport of running. The ChiRunning program increases mental clarity and focus, enhances the joy of running, and turns running into a safe and effective lifelong program for health, fitness, and well-being.'

Despite seeming a bit like a Chinese Eckhart Tolle, the main principles are sound -

1. It's all about biomechanics. You dont see gazelles getting sore knees. Or even cats for that matter. Thats because they move efficiently. In the west, people run like clunky robots, with terrible technique, which is why they end up with niggling injuries that keep with them all their running lives, or keeps people saying total crap like 'yeah i cant run, i get sore knees/back/shins...' doh!  Chi-running aims to allow you to run smoothly and without injuring yourself for long distances.

2. To run ludicrously long distances without getting injured, you need to sort out the basic technique perfectly first. The whole intelligence here is to tweak your technique and improve it so you both speed up dont die.

The Videos (thanks to and another free plug for Nick Constantine from soul in motion ) were extremely helpful. Not only did they show me that actually i'm not all that good looking after all, Nick was kind enough to put me through a structured programme where i could see where I was making small errors in technique, so I could fix them, followed by a powerpoint focussing on where I can improve (In my case i needed to relax my ankles, and watch my footstrike, and increase my cadence towards 175 per minute)

And stop eating pot noodles.

Anyway I recommend the lessons, i'm looking forward to using the remainder of this month (in an extremely cold and icy Baltic Estonia) to run indoors with my pack, get my technique right, and build up to some decent mileage. And to try not to drink more than 3 nights a week. Bring on the Marathon Des Sables!

New Year Resolution

Despite having flu for the last ten days ive finally made the first (hopeless 5km) training run of the year, on the icy roads, before the snow came back on again...I now have 3 months to get into super shape and fitness levels - if its not been snow/icy out, ive been down with flu, so im totally out of shape. However, this is how i plan to change that (got to act serious now - whether i can deliver, theres another story!)

1. January - Im in Scotland, London and Estonia (which is about -15 right now) After being out for most of December due to snow/illness/laziness, my aim for this month is to get back into basic good shape again. I've a chi-running lesson in Edinburgh this week, so i can learn to chi-run with the pack on.  Talking of which, the casino was nice to me last week, so i splashed out and bought all my kit online - i now am the proud owner of lots of dried chicken korma packets, compass, headlight, desert running shoes (they look great shoes actually) and a superlight raidlight backpack. It seems that my weight will only be about 8kg on my back which is fine.

2. February - Im in Estonia, Buffalo, then to Panama. Just in case anyone asks why, its because I am actually homeless, ie i dont have a home. Pretty weird feeling but ill sort that out after the Marathon Des Sable. I'll buy a tent or somthing. Again i'll be in frozen countries and i dont want to humph around winter kit but i think ill have to. I'll be in Panama, which at least will be above zero degrees, from 12th Feb so this is when my peak and most intense training will take place, im hoping by then to be in good enough shape to increase my running distance to 10km short and 30km - 40km long again, with pack.

3. March - Panama and Madrid. I'll have most of this month in the warmer and cheaper climes of Panama City, so ill be able to spend the first week and half pushing my fitness up and maybe looking at other things like speed and diet and so on, and tweaking any kit that doesnt work right. On 20th, ill fly to Madrid, Spain and try to get down to Morocco from there for the race. After 20th, i plan to wind down training and relax ahead of a lovely week long walk/run in the desert.

Fortunately ive been reading up about the Marathon Des Sables. It actually seems like a much easier race than i thought it was - it certainly is no longer the hardest race in the world, although i suppose its still in the top ten. But i imagine if im not careful it is still possible that my last vision will be a vulture plucking my eye out somewhere in the desert.