This is my training diary for the 2008 Marathon Des Sables. It was a 2 year program with various events in 2006; including 10K's, New York Marathon to get me fitter, then my first ultra marathons, a multi-day ultra, then finally the MDS itself. I hope you find it useful.
Above is my month 4 training plan. Since we are a couple of weeks into it, i've updated to show what I actually did as my normal training was interrupted by the Tenerife holiday/training and subsequent recovery. This month’s milestone was the 19 mile Tenerife training run as detailed in my previous blog post.
No Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) event this month for that reason, and also because 2 weeks into month 5 I must do a 35 mile route. This will be exactly one month before I take part in La Trans Aqu in France in June. After that 35 mile, which will simulate the longest distance I will have to cover in one day in France, I will not do another route as long, probably only 15 miles max. For the next 8 weeks, injury permitting, I will also be concentrating on running.
On the subject of injury, I'll move onto my weekly update. I posted last week about my shin pain which caused me several days limping following Tenerife. I still don't know what it is or what has caused it. It was Friday this week before it felt anything even approaching better, so the week was lost with no training. On Friday I did my normal Gym session with no problems though. Saturday I literally tried running a few steps, and the increased force on the joint still caused pain, so I decided it was not worth running.
However on Sunday (today) I have done a 10 mile walking route. I decided that 10 mile was the maximum I should attempt. My girlfriend asked to come along, since it was such a nice day, and I would not be running. I packed some of the equipment I will be using in June, and on the MDS, including my new PHD minim 300 sleeping bag which arrive this week (5 weeks late I might add!!!), and my Prolite Thermarest roll mat. I also added a couple of 1.5l water bottles and some towels and clothes to add more weight. I weighed the pack before I started (and to the finish) was 7kg’s. This is getting towards the maximum weight I could carry in June, which is 8 kilos. However, with some careful packing I hope to keep it down to 7kg.
The route is posted below. You may notice the new improved map.
I'm now using 1:25000 scale maps instead of the 1:50000 I was using previously. This helped especially today as I was not using GPS. My PDA is in for repair after being destroyed by the hailstorm I was caught in whilst training on the 'Spring in Lakeland' event. I forgot to mention my PDA was a casualty in that blog post. Hopefully it can be revived. So, it was map and compass today, although to be fair there was little call to use the compass as most of the route is easy. I did however take a few bearings to practice and refresh my memory. All of the La Trans Aqu France route will require road-book and compass use. It's been an unseasonably good Easter Bank Holiday weekend, with clear blue skies and temperatures getting towards the high teens.
We set off at a slightly slower than normal pace to see how my shin/knee would cope. It didn't feel right, and was causing discomfort, but not serious pain. However I took a 600mg ibuprofen to keep inflammation down. An hour later, and the pain had got no worse, but had got no better, so I had another. That did take the pain away, but proved to me that it's obviously in no shape to be attempting any serious training this week. I will do my gym sessions and replace the runs with swimming. I have to rest it to ensure I am fully fit to training for the June event over the coming weeks. We completed the 10 mile route in 3 and half hours, so a very gentle training session, just around 3 miles an hour. I've since iced my leg and I’m about to do the same again now. The ibuprofen has worn off and no pain has returned, but I can just tell it doesn't feel right. It is still tender to touch in one spot and stings when my leg flex's beyond a certain angle. I just wish I knew what I had done to cause it, or what it could be? I've been pretty unlucky this year so far with injuries, lets hope this is the last one!
So, I'll wisely keep off the running and cross train in the pool this week. Even if it takes 2 weeks to get right again, I won't rush back to running on it. Besides swimming totally tires me out, so must be doing my cardio fitness (as well as muscle tone) wonders. Speaking of muscle tone, I've noticed my upper arms have acquired imrpved muscle tone since I have been doing a lot of work with the trekking poles, which I also used again today incidentally. I'm fairly light build at only 67kg; useful when you run a long way, and I've been amazed how even my slight build has changed over the last 18 months. There really is not an ounce of fat on my legs at all now, not that there was much to begin with. If I do another fitness test where they measure fat with callipers in various spots on the body(like I did a year ago), I'm sure I will probably be under 10% body fat now (I was 11.5% in February last year). None of this is through conscious effort or building, it's just happened as a result of the MDS training. Wonder what if I can improve further by the MDS 2008? I'm sure I will.
That's all for now, other than a quick hello to all the new people reading my blog. The traffic on the site has rapidly increased over the last few months with many far reaching international hits from all over the world, as well as many UK readers. Welcome everyone, hope this is enjoyable or helpful, and by all means if you think you can be of help or make suggestions to my training (or on this site) please email me from the link in my profile.
Two days after scaling Mount Teide I wanted to do a harder training session. I had purchased a book called Walk Tenerife, and the accompanying hiking map. None of the routes were suitably long for what I had in mind. So, I strung together 3 different routes from the book. Well, that's what I planned, but I ended up doing 4 routes. The map below shows my route, starting from the left had side in Adeje and heading north, following the green dots I have placed on the map, right around in a circle to the red dot. The route ended up being 19 miles. The first hour and the last 2 hours were hot and cloudless, around 24C. In between it was still warm, but clouded over. I carried 2 litres of water in a backpack that weight approx 5 kilos. I'm sure you have gathered this by now, but you can click on the pictures for a full screen image.
The route began at the top of Adeje next to a National Park called Barranca Del Inferno (Hells Ravine). This is the most popular walk in Tenerife following a spectacular ravine, but the route is only a 7km return and only 200 people are allowed on it per day. The route I chose was obviously considerably longer and tougher and I saw only a handful of people all day, all of which were doing walks on small sections of my route. There are no footpath signposts in Tenerife. You occasionally see a white arrow chalked into a rock, but more often you see little pyramid piles of rocks about 6 or 8 inches high that people put on the trail to follow. They are actually very helpful and got me back on route several times when I took a wrong turn.
The walking surface is rough and ragged. Dirt and large rocks, and boulders on the whole trail as the following photo and short video show.
A lady at the National Park centre not far from where I began my route gave me estimates of 2 hours to reach the first cliff face (after gaining 700 metres) and 5 hours to reach the village of Ifoche. Of course she assumed I would be walking, and not walking quickly or running. I ascended the hills at the back of Adeje and took this photo shortly before reaching the summit shown at the top of the picture.
I reached the top of the cliff 700 Metres above in an hour an 5 minutes. Due to the terrain on that section I had to walk all the way up, but I managed 2.7mph using my trekking poles on most of that part. I took this photo from that point. I had climbed from an area that was level with the circular water treatment tank visible near the centre left of the picture.
At this altitude, which was 1100 Metres, the route mostly plateau’s for a few kilometres and turned into pine forest, gaining perhaps another 100 metres in height. I ran the ran as much of the remaining route as it was safe to do so, but due to the nature of the terrain walking was necessary in order to stay alive! I used my poles while running, planting them down with every other step, almost like a cross-country ski action. This worked well, and I skipped over the terrain well. I even used the poles to launch myself upwards when climbing by placing both on the ground and pushing back to jump up sections. It was really quite enjoyable.
Route finding was difficult with criss-crossing trails everywhere as I followed the path from west to east across the top of the map. I missed a turn at one point and trotted out from the trees to be faced with this cliff, which was actually the Barranca de la Fuente Ravine shown in the centre top of the map. I don't know if you can really see the scale but the drop beneath my feet was around 250 metres
I had missed the path which took my around and wound down eventually to the ravine floor, before climbing back up and out around the other side. I retraced my steps and picked up the path. I reached the ravine floor and took this shot. This illustrates what I mean when I say the little pyramid stone piles that mark the route. Usually there is just one every now and again. Looks like in this photo there is a bit of a stone-man party going on. It’s pretty though huh?
I took this at the other side as I was climbing out of the Fuentes ravine.
I reached the village of Ifoche in 2 hours 40 minutes, somewhat quicker that the 5 hours predicted by the tourist office! At this point, technically the first guidebook walk ended and I picked up the second which took me from Ifoche to El Ancon winding around the almost to the summit of, but skirting to the side of and then down the three spectacular peaks Roque Los Brezos, Roque Imonde and Roque Del Condo. These shots were taken during that stretch of the route.
This little peak before the two main ones is called Garcia's nose.
This is Roque Del Condo. You can see the old agricultural terraces on the hillside.
A shot looking across from Del Condo:
This shot is looking back up to Roque Imonde. I had climbed down from practically the very peak of this.
This video shows the whole vista. The first peak is Imonde, and then across to Los Brezos where I had come from, then the final shot is of Del Conde where I was headed.
There was a lot of climbing down into ravines, and then back up the other side. You can see form this shot on a ravine floor where I had come from, up high in the right. I'm not sure how many metres I climbed that day, but I'd estimate around 2000.
I stopped and ate lunch around here, right next to the area marked Hidden Valley on the map. It really was a pretty spot. There was an old almost overgrown threshing circle and the remains of agricultural terraces on the surrounding hills. I topped up my electrolyte at this point too. I eventually reached El Ancon where the second trekking route ended and picked up the next route a kilometre or two down the main road in Arona. My knees were a little sore at this point. I had been out around 4 and half hours at this stage. I had an ibuprofen more an anti inflammatory than a pain killer.
I began my third (and what should have been final) trekking route. This should have taken me back to my hotel at Torviscus Alto, not far from the place on the map (bottom left centre) marked Picos Las Americas. However, this is where things started to go wrong.
I couldn't find my way down to the road. The hill was very steep and I was still at around 800 metres at this point. I took this shot from the peak of this route, just before I descended to try and find my way back. See the white line that runs in the side of the hill; remember that, as it was almost the death of me.
I descended down to 500 metres and then hit that white line, which turned out to be aqueduct carrying water along the hillside. At this stage it was open-topped and was 1 metre high and 1 metre wide, and made of stone. This is known as the Rio Conde, as marked on the map. I looked at the guidebook and decided that since I could not find my way down to my hotel, I would follow a 4th trekking route in the guidebook which followed the line of the Rio Conde. The name of the route in the book was "Adeje Skywalk" - I was soon to find out why. I scanned the route, a little too hastily, and disregarded the warning about a certain part inducing vertigo. Although as it transpired, that section wasn't an issue.
A started to make my way along the path that ran parallel to the Rio Conde. At first it was an easy and obvious path. The drop to my left was not quite gentle, but certainly not steep. However, at the point on the map marked 'difficult water changeover point, this got tougher. I had to clamber up and balance on the walls of the Rio Conde, which was about 3 inches wide. So doing a tightrope act I tip-toed over this meeting of several aqueducts. The other side the water in the duct had gone, to be replaced with a 18 inch diameter plastic pipe that sat at the bottom of the rock aqueduct. So, it looks to have been reused for some modern purpose. Then soon after the Rio Conde gained a concrete top, the path to its left vanished into the slope and I had to mount the Rio Conde itself as use it as a walking surface, which is what the guidebook indicated. This metre wide surface became my path for the next 4 miles. You can see it below.
You can see that although the hill drops off fairly steeply, it's not a sheer drop, so a loss of balance would not result in anything too serious. This continued for the next couple of miles, following the mountain contours, winding in and out of ravines. This shot illustrates nicely.
At several points, the aqueduct became a small bridge, with nothing to the right or left. Perhaps only a 3Metre fall either side, but enough to cause injury. None of this really fazed me, and I ran much of this section as I am pretty sure footed.
I turned a corner and up in the distance I could see the fabled Vertigo-inducing aqueduct over the Barranca Del Aqua (Marked waypoint number 13 'Danger of Vertigo', on the map). I also noted that after the aqueduct (to the left of the picture, the drop to the left of the Rio Conde walkway looks somewhat steeper...)
You can't see it from that photo, but around the corner and before the bridge over the Barranca, the drop to the left steepened a little and there was a sheer rock face on my right. I turned a further corner and my face went ashen when I saw this.
The things wrong with that scene:
1) Rock fall had smashed through 1 to 3 metre sections of my walking surface, the Rio Conde.
2) The scale isn't good, but firstly that's a 5M sheer drop, followed by a short steeper section, then another sheer drop that is not shown in the shot.
3) The cliff to the right of the Rio Conde, overhangs, the only way past is to edge around the mountain sideays. Not a good idea for someone who is wearing a backpack.
4) The plants and cactus had already ‘spined’ me to death in various sections. The overhanging plants are pretty tame here, but got worse later. I was forced to go through them, or go off the cliff.
I edged my way forward and had to climb down inside and into the pipe inside each time I hit broken slabs. There were many-many more of these over the next couple of miles, by the way. I'd already packed away my trekking poles onto my rucksack, but I was concerned they would catch on the cliff as I passed by. I was pretty upset that an respected walking book would put me in such a dangerous situation. Routes like this should just not appear. I later read in their book - "We were surprised that this route didn't appear in anyone else book". Well I think I can answer, that's because they all died whilst scouting it out!
I clung onto what I could of the cliff and edged my way around to the other side. This was seriously scary for me with a fairly large backpack with trekking poles poking out at all angles. I eventially made it past the worst, and I let out a sign of relief, but things got no better the other side. The same broken slabs and sheer cliff face continued. My progress slowed, no more running as you can imagine. Next I reached the aqueduct bridge section over the Barranca Del Agua. You can't really see it, but that's a big drop to each side. Serious injury or death if you fall, about 10 metres I think.
This shot taken as I was crossing it. I should have pointed the camera down to catch the drop, but didn't think about it at the time.
As I said earlier, this didn't both me too much. OK it was a straight drop 10M either side, but that's a metre wide surface to walk on and there was little wind. I think I even ran across it as some kind of bravado stunt.
For the next mile or so, things didn't improve at all. I kept hoping round the next corner would be a path down, but I just kept getting more sheer cliffs, broken slabs and scary walking, as shown here.
It was the overgrown bushes that I had to go through which made it all the tougher. I got ripped to shreds by various cactus plants during this stage.
Something strange happened then. I half questioned if I was imagining things. I swore no one had used this as a route realistically, and that it had not been trodden in months or years. Then I glanced across the ravine from where I had come and I saw a man. He had long black trousers on, no shirt, and had no shoes on as was following behind me on the Rio Conde I'd guess about 2 mins behind. I wondered where he could have come from as there simply was no access. You were effectively a captive of the Rio Conde for 5 miles. The cliff had got less steep to my left anyway, so I turned a corner and broke into a jog again and went around to the next ravine. I slowed up again as I went through some plants, and glanced over the canyon. Around the corner came the man, but now having lost quite a lot of ground to me running. He glanced across at me, stopped for a second, then turned on his heels and walked back around the corner never to be seen again.
This did freak me out a little. Later I was told that there were hermits who lived in the hills. I had visions of the hills have eyes movies.
A mile or so later, and much to my relief the Rio Conde disappeared into a rock face near the Barranca Del Inferno where I had began my walk, and after some clambering down a steep hill, I found the path that wound down into the canyon floor and back up into Adeje. I took this last shot looking back to the end of the Rio Conde, after I reached Adeje.
I completed the last couple of kilometres at pace. Even with the snail-slow progress on the Rio Conde and the lunch stop I averaged 2.4 mph. It had taken over 7 and half hours. Not bad for 19 miles and 2000 Metres of climbing. The most important thing there was 'time on your feet'. Out for 7 hours in warm weather in hassh terrain, just what I need. I called in a lift back to my hotel and retold my story. My sister and her Spanish boyfriend live in Tenerife and they had never heard of anyone walking on the Rio Conde. Nor had any other resident they spoke to. You must be crazy they said. I think they were right.
So I survived a training session that went way above and beyond the call of duty, over harsher terrain that I will ever face on the Marathon Des Sables in Morocco.
The day after I developed a lump on the top of my shin bone, red and raised, and was soon limping badly and could hardly bear any weight on it. 4 days later and now home in England, I can now walk better, but can't run. A physio looked at it and didn't think it was a sports injury. He suspects infection. Maybe I caught a bad cactus spine? I don't know, but if it is not much better tomorrow I'll have to go to the doctors to see what it is.
Apart from that I have no aches or pains of any kind and feel pretty good. Only 8 weeks to La Trans Aqu in France and only 5 weeks of hard training before a small taper. If this shin issue gets resolved quickly, I'm well on track and things are looking good.
I'll return to Tenerife later in the year for more training. It will be much hotter in July or August. The terrain is perfect though, and I will no doubt have plenty more opportunities to frighten myself witless in the mountains.
I decided before I got to Tenerife that I wanted to climb mount Teide. Mount Teide is the highest mountain in the whole of Spain and the third highest volcano on earth, at over 3700 Metres, oxygen around 40% less than at sea level at the summit. The basin from where you begin your ascent is already at almost 2300 Metres, and you are not allowed to climb the last 163 metres without a permit. So, that leaves just over 1200 Metres to play with. As I was preparing my Father decided that he wanted to join me. I did try to put him off with scare stories of altitude sickness, and being harder that climbing Ben Nevis in Scotland, and that it was only suitable for fit experienced hill walkers. Here is a 3D image grabbed from Google Earth.
However, he was not deterred and came along. It's a 60km drive gaining 2000 Metres to the basin. I had packed for both of us, knowing full well my father would not be prepared! I carried more weight than I ever had before. I didn't have my scales but it felt around 7kg; this included 3kg of water, so over time the weight did reduce. We called at the cable car station to enquire about using it to come down. However, to our dismay the last car back was at 4:50pm. This gave us only a 4 hour window to each the summit, which basically meant that at the pace we would be moving, no chance. It also reported the summit temperature being -3 (-22 wind chill) at the top. Considerably colder than we had anticipated or were dressed for. So, we settled for getting as far as we could in 3 hours, then we would turn about and descend. The start of the route begins at the road, by the signs for Montagne Blanca. The first 2.75 miles is on an easy wide path, than gains about 400m, very steadily. The landscape is awesome and looks very lunar-like as these shots show. That's my father in the frame incidentally.
Shortly before the easy paths ends, we hit snow drifts on one side of the mountain, as my father demonstrates.
By fortune, it was easy to navigate these as we continued on. I'd forgotten to say the wind was biting cold at times and neither of us had any windproof clothes with us in Tenerife. At no point did we really feel cold as we had a few layers of clothes on. This video was taken during the first hour as we headed along the nice steady ascent to the foot of the mountain proper.
Very abruptly at around 2.75 miles the nice path ends and suddenly turns incredibly steep. It had taken us just over at hour to cover that distance, but already we would tell our progress would get much slower. This shit illustrates that. The dark coloured earth is where it starts to get steep. We were heading to a point at the very centre of the picture.
I had let my father lead and set the pace for the day, as he doesn't have my fitness, although he did surprise me. I had visions of calling in mountain rescue for him before we started! He'd done very well up until the steep section, and then had to pause fairly often as we ascended the steep tight winding path. He was flagging a little until I revived him with some electrolyte and Enduroylye (electrolyte capsules). His muscle cramps disappeared quickly, and he stuck to drinking my electrolytes instead of the plain water. I also gave him my trekking poles to use for the remainder of the day. Progress improved immediately, as he took to using the poles like a seasoned professional. The following shots are good indicators of the terrain. You can also see the only item my father thought to pack for an expedition of this kind! In the shots looking down, we had climbed from the lowest point visible, off to the top right corner of the shot.
You get an idea of the terrain and views from the 3 mile mark video I took.
Our pace dropped from the 2.7mph to just over 1mph for the last 1/2 mile of steep climbing. We set ourselves a goal of reaching a pole that we could see before our return. It took us about 1 hour and 45 minutes of the steep climbing to reach what turned out to the mountain refuge at 3270 Metres, taking total walking time so far to 2 hours 50 minutes.
Here is some video I took from that viewpoint.
I left my father to take 5, and I continued climbing for the next 10 minutes. I really just wanted to see if I could get a photo of the summit and see how far away it was. However, almost immediately I hit snow, although I did clamber up for those 10 minutes before calling a halt. I took the next photo and video from that location. You get an idea of the steepness, although after that ridge the tough climbing is basically over and it's a steadier climb to the cable car station.
I took this shot just before I descended back down to my father at the Mountain refuge.
My father had only jeans and light gym shoes with no grip. We didn't have any suitable clothing for climbing those last 200 metres of altitude, and approximately 1 hour of traverse time, so we ate a little lunch and descended. As you can imagine, the descent was considerably faster. Using the poles my father descended very quickly, and we made it to the foot of the steep section in about 45 minutes, then took a further 40 minutes to reach the car. A descent like that is certainly hard on the knees, and I had an ibuprofen to keep any inflammation down, as I had give the poles to my father of course. Although the first section is less steep, you get an idea that there was still some effort required, especially given the conditions, from this photo.
I had sore knees for a little while afterwards, but all in all I felt good. We covered just over 8 miles in total. I had carried quite a lot of weight and felt fine. My New Balance 1000MDS shoes really performed well. Tons of grip and I didn't feel a rock or sharp stone through the soles all day. Lot of the early terrain looks similar to that of Morocco, so I know I have the right shoes for the job already.
I took a day off after that, before I did my next route. That is a story in itself. Lets just say it involves 19 miles, more metres of ascent and descent, and one of the most scary experiences of my life! I'll write it up tomorrow with photos and video.
Cliff-hanger or what?
Update: I made another Teide summit attempt in December 2007. read about it here.
Well, I'm back from Tenerife. I survived my training, but only just. I'll create a whole post about Tenerife, separate to this one as I have plenty to say and lots of pictures to see.
If you have been following this years MDS using the links I posted then you will know this already. If not, then the 2007 Marathon Des Sables has just finished. Overall it looks like the conditions were more favourable this year. The humidity was back to normal. Last year about 150 people retired, this year it's looks to be just 30. The humidity looks to have averaged around 15%, and not the 30-40% of last year. The one day the humidity made it to 18% the temperature mercifully dropped to 33C. This was the long day (double marathon) stage, so I bet the competitors were thankful for that! However, for one competitor the long day was his last. Very sadly, a French competitor, Bernard Julé, died in his sleep after completing the long day stage successfully; he was just 49 years old. The full press release can be found here
Other websites go into more detail, only to say he was flown to hospital by helicopter where they later confirmed he had died of a heart attack. What stunned me is that this guy looks to have been a superb athlete. He had finished the long day in 45th place. Out of 750 competitors that is no mean feat. He even got up to greet other tent-mates in the night, and then passed away in the 3 hours before sunrise. There is nothing anyone could have done in this case. He sought no medical aid at any point, his ECG will have been normal just to gain entry. A minutes silence was held the next day, and the eventual winner of the whole event held up a placard with his number on as he crossed the line.
In better news, Alan completed this years MDS successfully. I've been getting daily updates from his boss and kept an eye on his progress. I've yet to hear the full story, but I'm sure I will when he returns from Morocco. I can only imagine he is elated, after the disappointment of retiring through injury last year. Well done to Alan, I look forward to hearing all your news.
So, MDS 2007 is over. The countdown begins now. Less than 365 days to go before my turn!
I'm going away for a week this afternoon to visit my sister who lives in Tenerife. It's her birthday, and the whole family is going out.
I'm also going to take the opportunity to do some warm weather training, and do a few of Tenerife's many walks. Being a volcanic island it has plenty of mountains to tackle, including the actual volcano Mount Teide which is 3700 (12,000ft) the highest peak in all of Spain. Even the mountains in my sisters back garden are bigger than any in the UK. I get back next Saturday, so expect some pics and video from Tenerife after that.
In the meantime, keep an eye on proceedings at this years Marathon Des Sables which starts tomorrow (Sunday) morning.
It gets updated daily with event and weather updates Keep an eye on Competitor number 543, Silcock. I'm sure he'll appreciate words of support from anyone, if you 'write to a competitor' on that website.
First off, apologies for not getting this weeks update up until Tuesday night. After the event on Sunday, I got back and had to pack for a business trip to South Wales early on Monday morning from where I have just returned.
So, the event was a Long Distance Walkers Association (LDWA) event called Spring in Lakeland. Whoever named the event clearly had no idea what the weather would hold. Winter in Lakeland would have been far more appropriate! The designated route was for 22 miles and 5340ft of ascent. As I arrived in Ambleside in the Lake District the hail started. The organisers gave us instruction to avoid one section of the planned route and take lower ground instead. This, plus an additional short cut (more detail later) meant that the event was 20.6 miles, and 4225ft of ascent. Still fairly substantial, but the main ascent to the highest point in the climb was wisely removed.
Both routes are posted below; the original route, then the actual route taken. The main difference is the peak between the 8 and 12 mile mark taken out, plus another at the end.
The event began at 8am for both walkers and runners. I changed my entry to a walker due to my recovering from ITB injury. This turned out to be a wise move. I was dressed in full waterproofs and carrying a lighter backpack of just over 3 kilos. I also used my trekking poles from the beginning. The route begins with a not insubstantial 500ft ascent in the first mile. After that a descent of the same amount followed by a fairly flat route to the first Checkpoint at 4.5 miles in Elterwater. The area is very picturesque; the rendered images in my previous blog post really don't do it justice. Fortunately I packed my mobile phone and took plenty of shots. The first below is from those flats.
About 3 miles in I felt some minor pain in my knee. I was surprised, at the same time as not at this happening so early. I knew doing the event was a bit of risk so soon after an ITB flair up, but I hoped walking would minimise the risk. At the first checkpoint I was sufficient concerned to pay a visit to a little shop in Elterwater and buy some Nurofen anti-inflammatory painkillers. My logic was to reduce inflammation, take away the pain, and hopefully enjoy the day. I then left CP1 and took this shot as I made the next section of ascent.
It took about an hour for the pain killers to kick in, by which time I'd already ascended and descended another 500ft. However, kick in they did and the pain faded, for now.
This shot was taken before the next climb and just before the weather took a turn for the worse.
At the peak around 6 miles the conditions deteriorated. All the way so far there had been on and off wind and sleet. This escalated to much stronger wind and hail. This video just capture the start of the poor weather just before the next section of ascent to the 8 mile mark
Descending from the 8 mile mark I took these further shots. You can just about make out the chunks of hail that were falling (and really hurt!)
A half mile later, the heavens really opened. This coincided with the route change, where we were instructed to stay on the low ground just after "High Tilberthwaite", and not make the ascent to Coniston fells. This was a shame, as this would probably have been the highest point I would ever have climbed in England so far, but when you see the next video you'll understand why it was wise to stay low.
Shortly after the video I took the next photo, which shows the distinct wintery flavour of the course in that area.
So, we got an easy route into the town of Coniston at Checkpoint 2. I took this shot shortly before arriving.
Checkpoint 2 was at Coniston Museum at the 11 mile mark, about half distance. At this point I took one more Nurofen (I had taken 2 at CP1 6 miles earlier). My knee had started to niggle again, but was still ok. I felt relatively fresh, despite the climbing so far. I had finished off all of my 800ml of electrolyte and virtually all of my 100grams or so of mixed nibbles; dried banana, dried cranberries and cashew nuts. I figured the effort from the climbing had made me burn more calories than normal at this point, coupled with my use of trekking poles, which definitely burns more calories.
The route to the next checkpoint at 18 miles was largely uneventful, yet still accounted for 1500ft of ascent in those 8 miles. I took this shot and video at around the 16 mile mark. I did pass some tiring people over this stretch. I was walking an average of 3.5mph, not a bad pace considering the climbing and several minute stops at the checkpoints.
Lovely views throughout this whole route as you can see. I reached CP3 and applied some zinc oxide tape to the side of my heel where I thought I could feel a blister starting. This isn't an area where I normally blister, so I was a little surprised. I put it down to a change in socks and perhaps not fastening up my laces as tight as I should. A couple of miles after the checkpoint by Clappersgate the weather turned nasty again.
Just a mile and a half or so from the finish my heel suddenly screamed in pain. A large blister had suddenly sprung up when I slipped with my footing. It was so painful it was impossible to walk on. I took off my shoe, puzzled as to why the Zinc tape had not done its job to prevent the blister progressing. Two reasons, the blister was on the bottom of my heel, not the side, and also my feet were so wet the tape had come off anyway.
It was impossible to walk with the blister, so I knew I had to burst it. If I had thought about it, I had a first aid kit in my pack with a safety pin. However, I forgot about that, and simply pinched it between two fingernails. It was very tough as the blister was on very thick skin, but I succeeded in bursting it and easing the pressure. However in the process I had pushed dirt or leaf debris under the skin and I could not get it out. I put my sock and shoe back on and decided to take a shorter route back which avoided the last ascent in the original route. This short cut was offered on the instructions for the route, if you were feeling tired. I was certainly not feeling tired, but thought I was on damage limitation at this point and so took the half mile shorter route and finished ahead of the other walkers as you would expect; there were only a handful in front of me before I stopped to attend my blister anyway. I decided not to stop for the free meal at the end, and to drive straight home. I guess I was in some ways slightly ashamed not to have taken on the last few hundred feet of ascent, but I knew this was for the right reasons. Oh, I forgot to say that I ran all the way back from Clappersgate. This was because it avoided pressure on my heel, and I wanted to get back quickly and be away before anyone else got back! I guess the running of the last mile in some small way made up for missing the last hill (well maybe not quite).
So, another successful milestone - 20 odd miles with some substantial climbing. I was, and still am, a little anxious about my knee. It is still sore, as are the tendons at the back of both knees. I had been taking ibuprofen for the last couple of days, and hopefully I've done no lingering damage by popping painkillers so early in an event.
I used my poles for the whole 20 miles, another milestone. My arms did tire in the last few miles, so I got less benefit from the poles then I suspect. I only used 1 sachet of electrolyte and not the second I had packed. That probably would have carried me through, but I was happy to finish as well as I did. I finished in 6 hours and 15 minutes for the 20.6 miles; around 3.5mph for the whole event. I was happy with the time, and look forward to the next LDWA event in a month’s time. Between now and then I will concentrate on my running a little more. I need to make sure this knee is OK, and I really hope it is. It doesn't feel too bad; let’s just hope it heals quickly this week.
My story should end here but I had to make a somewhat embarrassing trip to the local nurse-run NHS drop in centre to sort out that blister. I got home and was concerned about the black patches under the skin (the trapped debris and dirt). The skin was so thick that I could not cut it away with small nail scissors, and of course the red skin underneath was very very sore to touch. I decided the only thing for it was to go to the local DIY store, buy a scalpel, cut away all the blister skin and clean it out, then apply some Friars Balsam as antiseptic. If you've never applied Friars Balsam to a wound before, can I recommend you bite down on leather first! It is a good 7 out of 10 on the pain scale.
Anyway, the DIY stores were all closed. I was concerned about infection, which would definitely have kicked in had I have left the dirt in. So, I rather sheepishly turned up at the NHS local drop-in centre. I asked the burse to cut away the skin, but he said it was better to leave what was left. He prised apart the tough skin and scraped all the debris out with tweezers, before pushing in a needle of saline solution to flush it all out. Not the most pleasant experience, but it hurt less than Friars Balsam! He then bandaged it up and sent me on my way
So, I have a very sore heal as well as sore tendons and a knee. I didn't train on Mon and Tuesday because of work, but I will either run or go to the gym tomorrow, depending on how things feel.
So, a good success this week, but some pain to show for it!
Finally, the 2007 Marathon Des Sables starts this weekend.
You can follow it with the links below, and also send a message to Alan who is competing this year, after retiring with injury last year. Send him a message for morale support! Here's the info from Alan
this is in french. you need to look (its normally near the top somewhere) for a section called:
"écrire aux concurrents / write to competitors"
only messages that start with my details as follows will get to me:
Silcock, Alan, 543
543 is my race number.
from there, you should be able to send a message if you should wish to! do not attach anything to it as the message will not be sent then - text only!! i would greatly welcome one, as anyone who has been will tell you, any message that you receive, lifts you - and trust me, you need a lot of that!!
on this site, you can also follow my progress. go to this address:
this is where you can see the list of competitors. On a regular basis, the organisers update things each day, with your position / time etc, so you can see how i or anyone else is doing.
all you need to do here, is that under number is put 543 (my number) and press send (over on the right) and it will bring up my details. you will then find that you can click on my surname SILCOCK and it will bring up my details as the time passes through each checkpoint.
They also regularly update the website as the days pass too, telling you about the weather conditions and other things that have happened too. they put pictures up and some video clips too, to give you a really good feel for the whole event. eurosport on cable/satellite normally run bulletins through that week too, if you want to try and catch them!!
Good Luck Alan!
Ok, back to me again. After this weekend the countdown begins. Just a year to go, and I know it's going to fly by...
A definite improvement with my injury over the last few days. I've continued doing a lot of stretching. My hip is fairly uncomfortable, but that doesn't bother me when I run. It's the other end of my IT band, the knee that I'm being protective of.
On Tuesday I did a 5 mile interval session. I'm deliberately doing intervals at the moment so I fully stretch out the muscles. That went well with no knee pain at all. I was due to go to the gym today, but being short of time I did another run. I did a slightly shorter route, at 4 miles, but fairly 'hilly' all off road and rough terrain. It was probably a little too ambitious as my knee did ache a little. You should really avoid routes with hills when recovering from IT Band syndrome.
During both routes I stopped a few times to stretch out my IT Band. My time was unimportant; I didn't even take a watch. I just concerned about getting back on schedule now. Doing little runs like this, 4 and 5 miles, almost feels like starting from scratch. I guess it is, but I'm going to make bigger jumps to distances than I would starting from scratch. Over the next few weeks I should be back on track. I need to keep the 40 mile event near Oxford in my sights for early May, then a month of easier training before the week long 'La Trans Aq' in the south of France.
This weekend is an event I had planned for months; spring in Lakeland, a 22 mile 5500ft of Ascent, Long Distance Walkers Association event. Now, I'm not stupid, running it is out of the question. I'm still wondering if I should walk it. However, right now I think I will. I can always retire if I'm having difficulty, and I will without hesitation if necessary.
I've mapped out the route on Memory Map (mapping software) and produced a few pictures of the terrain using the 3D-World feature. Now it's not a fantastic resolution, but you get the feel of the area I will be walking in on Sunday.
Lots of hills and lots of lakes. I guess that's why they call it the Lake District! I'll post up the actual route on Sunday, along with my report. I'll try and cut down my pack weight to under 4 Kilo's to ensure I don't overdo it. I will be using my trekking poles from the start, so hopefully that will take some of the strain off my joints. It's going to be a long day. It's at least a 2 hour drive for me to reach Ambleside, then at least 7 hours walking at a guess (considering the climbing) then 2 hours drive back home. I'll do my best to update this blog on Sunday night, but it may be Monday morning if I'm too tired.
I did an hour in the gym on Tuesday; a resistance circuit, followed by half an hours cardio on the cross trainer and stair climber.
I was working away on Wednesday, and on Thursday decided to see if I was capable of running. I picked a short route (just over 2 miles). The route was virtually all road, even paths, nothing that could upset my ITB. I also ran it at a fairly quick pace, to help stretch out my ITB and ensure I was putting my legs through a full range of movement, and not just an off-road shuffle that I guess I do most of my training at these days. I stopped to stretch about half way round. I spent a good few minutes really concentrating on my ITB. After that I continued, and despite a few little niggles, finished without any knee pain. Good news!
I did my usual gym session on Friday, pretty much all resistance and free weights work.
Today, Sunday, I was in two mins as to whether to do another short run, or slightly longer walk. In the end I settled for running with my girlfriend and her father across fields near Stone, Staffs.
A ran with them, but also took a few opportunities to run ahead and stretch out my legs, almost doing an interval session. I stretched out my ITB at every stile we climbed over. Although my knee did niggle a little, it was not too bad. It was only a 4 mile off-road (and fairly muddy!) route, but it was enough given my current condition.
I forgot to mention I brought my Patt Strap out of retirement. It's basically a foam band that you strap around your leg above the knee. You apply it fairly tight, and it pulls the IT band in and prevents it rubbing against the knee as badly. It saw me through the New York marathon last year, so I'm happy to use it again whilst my ITB recovers.
I'll be running again this week all being well. Gym on Tuesday running on Wednesday and Thursday, Gym Friday, Run Saturday, and.... maybe the 'Spring in Lakeland' LDWA event on Sunday. I have entered as a runner, but I'm obviously not going to jump up to a 22 mile 5500ft of ascent hill run with this injury. As long as this week goes well, I'll probably enter as a walker. I'll use my trekking poles, so I won't be dawdling along. If however, I don't feel like my knee will stand up to it, I won't do it. I can't afford another set-back. I need to stay on the road to recovery and start building up those miles again. La Trans Aq, the event I have entered in June is just 3 months away. That is frighteningly close, not many training sessions to build up the miles. I know I can't leap back into the middle of my program, and must build up slowly, otherwise this ITB issue will never go away.
I've kept up my sit-up routine this week. I do the routine most nights. I'm up to 30 of each type each time, as well as my many times a day ITB stretching. In fact, I think i'll do some more stretching before bed! Speak to you next week.
