Jo4hospice’s Weblog

It’s been a bad week for my training thanks to a severe case vertigo.  I woke during Sunday night, feeling extremely dizzy and nauseous.  So much so that I had difficulty in walking.  I managed to control these symptoms with medication, and am now almost back to normal.   

I was very relieved when I got back on track and managed to do my usual 2 hour run around the Toi’s challenge route yesterday.  However, it was much slower than usual.  Needless to say I was exhausted afterwards, but after a good night’s sleep, I was ready for more training this morning.  It was a beautiful clear day, so I drove out to Lake Okataina and spent four hours on tracks around in the surrounding area.  Again I was very slow, but I was determined to get the hours in. 

I have spent the week watching the progress of the athletes competing in the Sahara Desert Race http://www.4deserts.com/sahararace/ , which is the third of the Racing The Planet events.  (Atacama and Gobi being the first two deserts, with the Antarctic race still to come).  I am blown away by the achievements of first place-getter, Ryan Sandes … his results are phenomenal.  Dean Karnazes (the Ultramarathon Man) has also done well.  Ryan will be running in the Namibian Event with me, and I predict that he will be the guy to watch, if his current form continues.  

The 4deserts website is very user-friendly and it is a real buzz to follow the event on a daily basis.  The organisers use solar powered laptops which allow competitors to both send and receive emails, as well as update their blogs or websites.  Modern Technology at its best.

During the Atacama race, I found the supportive emails from friends and family invaluable.  When one is stressed and physically depleted, a few kind words have an enormous impact.  With this in mind, I have been emailing several of the Sahara runners who ran the Atacama Race with me.  I am thrilled to see that three of them are in the top five finishers.

In terms of my preparation for Namibia, I am trying to improve my hydration system.  My two bottles and collapsible bladder worked well but I want to try a more simple configuration.  I have been looking closely at the photos of the Sahara runners, as several of them have the same backpack as I use, but their bottles are carried on the shoulder straps.  I had mine in a pack on my chest, which is what I would like to do away with. 

Bottles in a front pack, as used for the Atacama Race

So my next project is to try running with the bottles on the straps.  I don’t feel comfortable with the bottles too close to my face, so I need to configure the pack so that they sit further down on the straps.  I will post a photo once I have worked out the best option.

Tomorrow (Sunday) is going to be a rest day, so I won’t run but will go on a long walk instead.  Here’s hoping that the weather allows that.

Cheers

JO

6 race days' rations for the Atacama Race

In response to Ian’s questions (in the Comments), the only reason for reducing my calories is that I can’t think of any other way of lightening the load on my back!   Everything else that I carried falls into the ”essential” category, so only minimal trimming is possible.  I must admit that my new figure is just an estimate … I will have a better idea of my daily calorie allocation once I start putting the foods together for the race.

As far as my choices of food for the Atacama are concerned, I found that I struggled to eat dehydrated meals after day 3 – my appetite had decreased and they all seemed to taste the same.  Also, I ended up giving away some food items such as peanuts.  The problem is that I don’t really like peanuts, but bought them in Santiago because they offer high protein and carbohydrates.  With a diminished appetite, they were even less appealing than usual. 

So lesson number one : don’t rely on dehydrated meals and don’t take foods that you don’t normally enjoy.

I also learnt that my taste buds yearned for variety and strong flavours.  Hence the idea of using biltong (good protein and high salt = taste). 

One food that was very successful for me was protein milkshake powder (sweet flavour), mixed with additional milk powder to boost its protein content.  All I had to do was add water and it made for a very satisfying filler.

I am currently trying out a product called “Perpetuem” which comes highly recommended by other runners.  It is labelled as an “extreme endurance fuel” which I guess means that it will pack a good punch for its weight.

In hindsight, I realise that I packed my foods with a normal “menu” in mind.  For example, I had dehydrated cereals for breakfast and meat meals for dinner.  In fact, one’s focus need only be on “fuel” or “energy” foods, regardless of when one is going to eat them.  So noodles for breakfast and milkshake for dinner is on the cards.

While running, I used Nuun tablets, which one simply adds to water.  These have electrolytes but no sugar.  I supplemented this fluid intake with Peak Fuel gels for energy (developed here in NZ : http://www.peakfuel.co.nz/ ).  This combination worked very well.  The advantage of the Peak Fuel gels is that they come in a toothpaste-type tube which means that one doesn’t have to consume the whole tube at once.  During my training, I experimented with several different energy gels, but found that those that are packaged in sachets are less user-friendly.  I would have to swallow all the gel in one go and invariably ended up with very sticky fingers and a sticky sachet to dispose of.

I don’t deliberately carbo load before a race, but my pre-race meal is often pasta or pizza, so I guess there is an element of it in my preparation.

The organisers of these desert races do supply water for the runners, with water tables every 10 or 12 kilometres or so (depending on the terrain).  I was carrying 1200mLs in two bottles plus 500 mLs in a collapsible bladder.  This served me well, although the downside is the 1.7kg of weight involved.

At the end of each day, runners were also given a set amount of water (in bottles) which had to suffice until the next morning.  The reality is that this limited one to teeth brushing but no washing.  Water was strictly for rehydration only, although there was also boiling water available for adding to one’s evening meal.  I used wet wipes for limited personal hygiene – which was not a big problem as everyone was in the same (stinky) boat. 

Cheers

JO