Tenerife Day 1: Preparation day

I arrived on the island on Sunday evening, picked up a rental car, and my sister met me and showed me the way to the apartment. I did little more than go straight to bed. The following day I first gathered a few necessary supplies; cooking fuel tablets and a lighter, plus two 1.5l bottles of water. I tried out my live tracking with my phone and GPS. It worked, but was temperamental connecting to Vodafone back home. Despite my best attempts I was unable to get my uk phone unlocked for a Spanish SIM in time for the trip. So, I would be stuck with using my UK SIM.

Next I made a trip up to the centre of the Island to Teide National Park. It's about a 50km drive from sea level at the coast, to the plateau just over 2000M. The weather was fine; not a cloud in the sky, but at that altitude it was of course much cooler than on the coast (where it was 24C). I stopped off firstly at the foot of the Veijo volcano, which is half way down West side of the Teide Volcano. This would be my descent on day 2 and I was keen to see what the terrain was like. It struck me as much steeper than Google Earth shows, but I almost expected it I think. Google Earth never seems to show just how steep a slope is. I asked a park ranger about the area and she told me than climbing Veijo was one of the toughest climbs on the island. Less than Teide with approx 1000M gain, but it was steep and the path wasn't great. I asked about a descent form Teide. She estimated 7-8 hours because of what she called 'badlands'; a difficult surface to walk on, very rocky and broken up. Before arriving I had estimated 4 hours for the descent, so this would perhaps have changed my plans. That said, I would have been running (where possible) and not walking, so maybe 4 hours would have been realistic. I've marked the placed I stopped on this map; STOP1.



I got back in the car and drove down from the Teide plateau about 10km to a recreation and camping areas called Las Lajas. It is on one of the main roads coming up from the coast, way past the towns of Arona and Vilaflor for those who know the island a little. I've marked this STOP2 on the map. I had read that this recreation area had a restaurant, and was surprised to find that it was open, even in winter. Las Lajas would be my half-way stage on day 1. I stopped and had a coffee and then decided to hedge my bets about it being open the following day and so bought 4 x 250ml bottles of water and a snickers bar (as a treat!) and then ran about half a mile up the nearby Mountain de Las Lajas and there secreted them away and marked the location on my PDA (GPS on). So, at least I would have some fresh water the next day even if the place was closed. I ran back down the mountain to the car and literally drove round the corner and parked again. On the map you will see a thick blue line near STOP2. This was the route (there and back) that I was going to reccie that afternoon. I was concerned about a description in a guide book about a narrow shelf hovering over a thousand foot drop, and wanted to see if I dared tackle it the following day, or change my route for that section.

I strapped on my backpack, which I only packed with essentials, plus waterproof jacket, gloves and hat etc, as well as plenty of water. It was only perhaps 5kg, the lightest pack I would sport all week. The route is shown below. Green x is the car, red x is where I stopped and returned. The yellow markers are the 'dangerous' section.



Part of the route from another angle.


The return route was a little over 5 miles, but gained 350M (1150ft), so it would be a taxing reccie, and not a gentle stroll! The start of the route was virtually invisible. A single white arrow chalked on a rock about 10M off the road. If you did not know it was there (or lacked GPS) you would never find it. I should at this point state that this is typical for Tenerife. Unlike the UK, where there are signposts on every footpath way marks and stiles etc, there are practically none in Tenerife. There are a handful of easy tourist trails that are well signposted, but that is it. For the rest, you are relying on past trekkers having left little chalk marks, or painted white or green spots on rocks, or maybe little cairns (a pyramid of 3 of 4 little rocks in Tenerife) to mark the footpath. It is all too easy to get lost and you frequently backtrack to pick up the right path in some places. As it happened the past trekkers on this route had done a good job, and the route was well way-marked with these 'signs'. I had no trouble following the path. This photo I took illustrating the easy path to follow.



All the paths are rough in Tenerife; just different grades of rough. What you see above is almost the best it ever gets. Everything else is much rougher; bigger rocks, boulders etc. What struck me as I walked, quite steeply up at times, through the pine trees was that the bottom 3 or 4 metres was burned. My sister had told me (and it was on international news) that forest fires had swept through the island. This area had got off reasonably lightly, but practically every tree was scorched.

Eventually I made my way past the huge round mountain called 'the Sombrero' on that Google Earth shot and up onto the ridge of Las Canadas mountain range. The north face of the ridge is steep to sheer cliff, whereas the south side is just very steep to less steep. This photo was taken from that ridgeline. If you look closely (near the bottom of the shot) you can make out a road than runs horizontally, a thousand feet below.



Dominating that photo is of course the Volcano Teide. The volcano Veijo is the bulge half way down the left hand side, 600M lower than the summit. What is funny is that the Volcano doesn't look steep from that angle. You'll just have to take my word for it that it is!

I ran and walked along the ridgeline at intervals, depending on the terrain keeping an eye on my GPS as I approached the feared 'dangerous section'. Abruptly the path vanished into an almost sheer wall of rock. At the top of the rock was an arrow pointing up through a narrow gap. To the left was the sheer drop straight down.

To try and give some perspective here is a shot of the whole ridgeline I took a few days later. This section was about half way along it (top to bottom; a thousand feet remember)



Now I understood and immediately didn't like the look at it and scanned around for a way around on the south side of the ridge. It appeared I wasn't the first the think it as someone had way marked a path, at least for 30M or so, past this section. The route meant descending off the ridge on a very picky boulder strewn path, through some thick undergrowth. Abruptly the way marks vanished and I was left to find my own way back up. This meant climbing on all fours, carefully at times, and eventually emerging perhaps 100m past the dangerous section back at the top of the ridgeline. This was quite an exhausting and lengthy detour to pass such as small section, but I understood why now. I ran on for another 1/4 mile before deciding that was far enough, and I had met my objective for that section.

I made my way back, but as I reached the area where I would detour down bravado got the better of me and I thought I would just take a close look at the dangerous section, from the return direction. I made my way forward and was on a narrow ridgeline. The drop to the south: maybe on 5M sheer, but an awful lot longer on the north (my right). It certainly was not 1000ft straight down, as the guidebook authors had made out (that was the drop to the canyon floor where the road is), but it was certainly a drop that would seriously injure or kill, and certainly one that it would be impossible to climb back up from. After about 50M I got to the hard section. As described in the book, you had to step out and down onto a narrow (6 inch) shelf and edge along it about 6ft, before climbing back up and over the rocks, then climbing down that almost sheer wall that I had faced on the approach. Now I was there it didn't look quite as bad as I expected, and the sheer drop was not visible as you lowered yourself down on the shelf. You would have to look behind you and down to see it. I'm not rock climber, but even I fancied this section if nothing else than to face down a fear of heights. Sporting the backpack was somewhat of a hindrance, but I figured I would manage it.

I remembered watching TV about rock climbing and one of the golden rules is that you always have 3 points of contact with the rock, moving only one limb at a time. I followed it to the letter as you can imagine. I lowered myself down onto the shelf, clinging to the rock on my left. I didn't once look down (in case I got struck with vertigo), and edged across without any issue and climbed back up. I managed to lower myself back down the face on the other side, using a slightly different and safer route than the one suggested. I was pleased with myself for tackling it, but wondered if the following day with a pack weighing in at almost 12kilos at 3 times the bulk if I would do the same, or play safe? I had proved to myself I could do it, but a big wide pack would counter-balance me more, and would increase the risk factor massively. I pondered on it as I ran along the ridgeline and headed back to the car. It had taken me about an hour and a half to get to the half way stage that day, but barely 40 minutes to run back down to the car. I managed to get the car almost stuck in a ditch (no nice lay-by to park in), and had to use some ingenuity to stop the wheels spinning in the dust and eventually get it back on the road. I was driving a dinky little Hyundai Getz; a few horse power less than I am used to!

I next drove to what would be my campsite for day 2; the day of the Teide ascent/descent (via Veijo). This time the recreation area had no restaurant, no facilities (apart from BBQ stands!). It did have a few water taps, which I had confirmed from my sister were no good from drinking from. This was a blow, and would mean I would have to stock up and carry more water on the ascent to Teide, to ensure sufficient for that night and into the following afternoon. I had one small water bottle that I stowed behind a rock, and cursed that I had not brought more with me in case of this eventuality. Still, it was not a major hurdle.

I made my way back down to the coast and the apartment. I packed my 30l Raidlight rucksack, and 5l front pack (my new Raidlight Evolution pack was not even close to getting a look in here; far too tiny!). It was absolutely cram-packed full once my tent and sleeping bag/roll-may were inside, as well as my extra clothes, waterproofs, cooking equipment and provisions for 3 days (inc 3 litres of water for first day). It was so crammed full I was forced to store some items in the webbing on the outside of the rucksack (Helly Hansen top, hat, gloves etc). The Raidlight pack was bursting at the zips. I put it on. Wow, was it heavy. I had never carried, let alone trained with, a pack of this weight before. I knew I would be at least 11 kilos when I was advance-planning, but this was more. I don't have a precise weight, but I'm sure it was 12k at least. Not only the weight, but the bulk meant that it was twice my little body-frames' width. I must have looked stupid carrying it! I did take a photo of it, but the pic was sadly lost as you will read later. I timed sunset that evening. It was 18:15, not 17:05 like a website had told me. Serves me right for believing what I read. However, it said sunrise was at 06:45. It was actually at 07:45. So, right amount of daylight, just time-shifted one hour.

I laid out my clothes for the following day, and set my alarm clock an hour later. At least I would get an extra hour in bed! I then went out for a meal with my Sister and her boyfriend at a lovely Italian (always thinking carbs me) in La Caleta, near Adeje. I got to bed around midnight. Before I drifted of I thought the day had gone well; the reccie was a success. It looked like all my hard work and meticulous planning was going to pay off. I had no idea that the following day would almost very nearly be my last.

Rich vs the volcano

It happened today. Find out who came off worst when I get back home on Monday!

Tenerife update

The storm has meant that the camping part of my trip is over. The first day was my springboard to the centre of the island where the highest altitude routes are found. Now in order to reach them, I have to drive. I don´t see any point pitching my tent next to my car, so I am settling for day trips.

Very briefly, today I went to see if I could attempt the Volcano Summit. As I aproached it becameobvious that this was going to be unlikely. The rain storm I was in at 2000M was an ice and snow storm higher. The Volcano and peaks are all covered in snow. I picked up a disposable camera and took shots, I´ll post when I get home. The park rangers told me not to climb Teide becuase the north face wa covered in snow and ice. As if to make a point, the rescue helipcopter was heading up there. Summit access has impossible anyway, as the cable car was closed, so none of the workers would be up there. The snow and ice looks like it´s there for the season now, so I am gutted to have missed the opportunity by a couple of days, but am thankful I wasn´t on the ascent when the ice storm came.

I did two peaks today instead, one at 2700M in the Las Canadas moutain range. There was lots of snow underfoot but manageable. I walked up and ran down, with full pack. Then I drove back down to the coast and did a 1000M peak (400M gain). I was short of daylight, so I did the last peak without my pack, running there and back to ensure I made it back to the car before sunset. All gone well today, really good training. I feel tired and have demolished a huge meal at a restaurant this evening. Tomorrow I am planning another full day with plenty of ascent. Here are a couple of photos from the digital camera that got destroyed. The memory card was ok, but I only took a few photos before the rain started. Enjoy them. and compare them to the shots I will post back homeform today. Here you see no snow, the ones I took today, just one day later and it´s a whole different picture. Taken from the top of the mountain range (2500M) opposite the Volcano, the day before the storm.

A very good path hereon the way up to that mountain range. Very few are this easy to follow. The last photo my camera took. Taken from the point on the live-tracking map where it will be forever frozen. This is a little deceptive. It looks cloudy but this was not the actual storm front that hit me about 2 hours later.

Finally, a video I took on my reccie day, from the same spot as the first photo.

Into a storm

Live blogging is over I´m afraid.

I did say that if my icon on the map below didn´t move, or I didn´t update at least once a day that was probably bad. It was. Unknown to me an ´Orange, Severe weather warning´ ( Which appears to mean 30L of water per square metre expected, according to a report a couple of months ago) was given out the night before I set off. Today I found out that this was the same storm-front that caused the recent ice-storm havoc in the USA. Anyway, I knew none of this, setting off blissfully unaware.

I´ll post the story when I got back. After 2 hours of fine weather the Island experienced the worst weather in 2 years and I was in the centre at 2000M in the middle, not underneath, of the raincloud. Waterproofing eventually failed, I got very cold, turned around in almost zero visibility. Through a combination of fitness, determination, good judgement, and luck, I got to my half way stage; a road. I eventually managed to flag down a passing car of 2 old German tourists. After that by some luck, half-remembered knowledge, and the help of several strangers exactly the right sequence of events took place to sort me out.

Counting the cost:
1 Mobile phone - Destroyed
Enlish SIM - Lost
1 PDA - Destroyed
Camera - Destroyed
Timex Watch - Lost
Timex GPS - Lost
Compression Top - Lost
Noth Face fleece - Lost
Windstopper Glove - Lost

I´m underselling the story deliberately so my family don´t stress. They know I´m safe and in perfect health. My Sister, who lives here, picked me up. I´m at her house now. I´ll give you the full details when I get back.

The weather is as bad again today, the rest of the week looks ok. Some of the items listed as lost may get returned to me (dropped on floor of German peoples hire car I hope). If they do I may be able to pick up my training schedule, with some modifications. No more live updates as that equipment is destroyed. I´ll post up again when I get home, it´ll be worth a read.

Tenerife Live: December 18th - 22nd 2007.

map loading...

Assuming the Spanish mobile network plays nice I am hoping to live blog my trip. I suggest you choose 'Satellite' view of the map above, because I will be in wilderness most of the time whilst in Tenerife. You can click on the man icon for timestamp/speed information. I will probably set my phone to update my no more than once per hour, starting at dawn on the 18th December. The reason for this is that mobile internet usage abroad costs £10 per Mb; likely to be minimum 50p per update! If at all possible I will send some photos too, but they may be fairly low resolution! At worst I'll try and send a text update just to let you and family know that I am fine and well. I know for certain that some areas have no mobile coverage whatsoever; namely on Mount Teide itself, which I climb on Wednesday. I expect to be in a total comms blackout from 10am to possible 4pm. It's possible I could get an update out in between, but no promises. I should be able to update at the end of the day worst case scenario, because I should be in an area with mobile coverage. If there is no update, that's probably not good. I am doing this totally alone, and because of the altitude and routes, there are risks of course. I'm pretty sensible so I won't do anything too stupid! I'm a runner not a climber after all.

I am hoping to 'reccie' some of the route and potential campsites the day before I set off. I hope this will confirm water availability, mobile phone coverage and in one case if I should pick a totally different route for part of the first day, due to one small section being excessively dangerous.

My previous blog post has the week's itinerary, in addition to the rest of the month, so you can see which days I should be active.

Training Plan December 07 to January 08

Above is my next 4 weeks training plan, seeing me through into the New Year. My first week, as you can see, is spent training in Tenerife (I get on the plane tomorrow). It's a heavy mileage and heavy packweight week. I then get a couple of lighter weeks, with an LDWA event on the 5th January; The Hebden. It's 22 miles with around 4000ft of ascent. However, I'm hoping that will feel like a walk in the park after the Tenerife training where I will be doing more ascent than than in the first 10k of the first day!

I've not yet entered it, but the week after is a 15 mile trig point race at Cannock (no fixed route; point to point). I entered last year, not knowing what to expect. I arrived late, unfit after 2 months off through injury, didn't realise the only checkpoint only carried water, and basically hit the wall before half way around. I crawled around the second half of the route, ending up taking a little over 3 hours. Ihad to beg water off passers by, ended on the floor with the most severe cramping I have ever experienced, and generally did very badly! I feel I should revisit it and redeem myself this year, but I'll see how I feel during that week.

After I get back from Tenerife I'll post up a summary of the year and how it has gone for me.

Tenerife training preview

I'm still getting over the aches from Saturdays Round Rotherham event, but this Sunday I fly to Tenerife for a weeks solo training. I arrive on Sunday night, and will spend Monday making final preparations and collecting essential items such as solid fuel cooking tablets for the trip (banned from planes of course).

I then plan to do a 3 day, 2 night camping expedition from Adeje near the coast, at 200M above sea level, eventually up to the Volcano, Mount Teide at 3714 (the highest mountain in Spain), and then make the return trip. I have applied for, and received a 'summit permit', allowing me to go to the very peak of the volcano. Such permits are tightly controlled, limited to a certain amount per day and you must show your passport as well as the pass. Most make the initial 3550M of the ascent (the last 160M is on foot) by the cable car of course.

I have heavily researched as much of the route as I can, but there are a lot of unknown factors. The temperature on the coast will be probably mid 20's in the day, but on the crater plateau at 2000M above sea level (where I will camp), the daytime temperature will be at best 15C (probably less) and about 5C at night. If that wasn't bad enough, the temperature on top of Mount Teide will be around -20 with wind chill. So, I am looking at a massive temperature range to deal with and pack for.

The best maps that exist are 50,000k, so they are not very detailed. Practically no footpaths have signs, and you pick your way through the terrain, occasionally happening upon a chalked arrow or a little pile of stacked rocks (cairn) to indicate the path, but more often that not there is very little to help guide you. You are simply following a faint trail. It's easy to go wrong and I did frequently on my last trip there in March. Last time I stuck to established routes that were still hard to follow. This time I am making my own paths in some sections; completely cross country, hopefully guided by sat nav or compass as a backup.

On day 1 I will start from Adeje and ascend on a path that I used during my last visit. About 5 miles into the route I will then strike due north following no path, until I hit a road about 5 miles later. That first leg of day 1 sounds straightforward doesn't it? Well, in those first 10 miles I gain 2000M (6500ft) in elevation. That should lead me to a recreation area where I hope to top up my water before heading East, gaining a further 500M and walking the ridgeline of a spectacular range of mountains called Las Canadas (actually an ancient volcano crater rim)for about 3 miles.

This is a shot of Las Canadas, in the background.

http://flickr.com/photos/curreyuk/1798518603/

I will be walking along the very top, left to right. I'm more than a little apprehensive about this ridge walk. It does appear on maps, but this is an extract from one author's guidebook about the scariest section of the route.

"David suffers a little vertigo moment. To reach the waymark involves lowering yourself onto a narrow rock shelf than overhangs the drop into the crater, edging across the shelf and then backup up onto the rim. We look at it, then pick our way amongst boulders trying to find an easier way, which there isn't. The thought of giving up and returning is only marginally less appealing than dangling over a thousand foot drop." -Taken from Walk Tenerife by Ros and David Brawn.

Now, I'm not good with heights at all. I'm the kind of person who would edge to a cliff on their stomach if forced to look over. I would then descend to sea level and hug the ground. Why on earth I have picked this route I don't know. Well, I do know, it's all about facing your fears, but travelling alone I wonder if I may be biting off more than I can chew with that section. All I can do is take a look and if I don't fancy it, backtrack and take an extended detour (big mileage). The weather could also decide it, if there is a significant wind. However, I'm not quitting without looking because I don't like failing at anything.
Here's a Google earth shot of the ridgeline you can click to enlarge, which obviously does it no justice in terms of scale. Use it in conjunction with that web link above and imagine high and steep.


Assume I manage to traverse the ridgeline I then cut south and join a well established path called the Lunar Passage due to the nature of the geology. If you have never been you'll love the photo's I promise you. I then head north a few more miles and make camp anywhere I deem suitable for the night. I should cover about 20 miles. An easy distance in the UK, but factor in over 3000M of ascent and it should have me on my knees by the end of the day.

I should mention also that the sun rises about 7am and sets at 5pm, so I don't have a lot of daylight to play with. I will realistically need to be making camp at 4pm. Only 9 hours each day and at times I know I will average less than 1mph due to the steepness of the climbs. I hope I can pick up the pace when on the flat.

I will set off at dawn on Day 2. I would love to set off before dawn but it is just too dangerous. I first head north again, over the Las Canadas ridge at 2500M and straight down following a very steep zigzag path to the crater plateau at 2200M. From there I head along an established path in the direction of Teide itself. I will stop off at the cable car station and refill my water, before then heading to the East of the Volcano and join the path to the summit. I made an attempt at the summit with my father in March , but lack of time and snow meant we called a halt at the mountain refuge hut at 3250M, rested, then returned. The route goes up the east side of the mountain past a smaller mountain called Montagne Blanca before suddenly becomming very steep on the approach to (and beyond) the mountain refuge. This section will be very slow indeed.

I didn't suffer from any altitude sickness last time, up to 3250M; in fact I can’t say I even noticed the difference in the oxygen level. This time however, I will be going all the way to the cable car station around 3550M then using my Summit pass and walking up the final 160M to the very top. Here the oxygen level is 50% of sea level and it will be very cold indeed, so I won't stay long. By this stage I will have travelled around 14 miles and gained around 2000M in total. By summit pass is from valid from 1pm to 3pm, but I must try and arrive much earlier and hope they allow me through. After the summit I then plan to descent by the West slope, past the Veijo volcano crater which is supposed to be better than Teide's, but little visited. This descent is another real unknown for me. I have no idea how long it will take me to descend the 7 miles to the plateau, and then onwards a further 4 miles to my Camp 2 (an actual campsite). You are not allowed to camp on the Volcano, and who would be stupid enough to anyway? It's -20 and there are sulphurous gasses seeping out all over the place. So, I must hope to make the summit before midday I guess, then make the next 11 miles in descent in 4 hours in time before darkness.

That day is my most ambitious. Hikers usually take the cable car up and walk down via the refuge, or walk up and cable car down. I may be being foolish to think I can cover 24 miles including the 3700M summit and descent in a single day. I can only play it by ear. If the ascent takes longer that expected with no possibility of me making a decent in daylight I would have to ride the cable car down and probably make a random camp for the night somewhere.

Assuming day 2 goes to plan, I will be at a campsite with water and set off at dawn for a 20 mile return route to Adeje. The final sting in the tail is a part of the route which the authors title "Wow Spectacular to Adeje". The route is down a narrow donkey trail that borders Barranca Del Inferno and Barranca Del Fuente, two very deep ravines. I happened upon one by taking a wrong turn in March. You can see from this youtube video I took that I'm not keen on heights. It's a 1000ft down off that edge. This time I will be on the opposite side of the ravine, on a path that no longer exists. The original path has fallen away. All maps have removed the route, but the authors of this book I have say that it is possible to pass using a "section of the narrow old canal where a protruding rock threatens to tip you over the abyss". The more I read that, the less I like the sounds of it. They go on to say "We quite understand if you turn back at this point", and suggest returning by what would have been my starting route on day 1 of this trip. Here is another Google Earth shot of that small section. The ravines shown are 1000ft deep and the blue line is my GPS plotted route.



So, I do have a get-out, but it would mean more mileage on top of the 20 planned for day 3. It is all descent that day of course, so this could be a tough day on my legs as well. That tricky section is but a few miles off the finish, so if I am tired or the light is failing then it may not be worth the risk. But you know I will have a look don't you?

Assuming that’s all a success I am back to sleeping in the apartment. I will take the next day off, and then do a 20 mile session along those similar Adeje Mountain trails the day after. The final day, 23rd December, will be spent Christmas shopping. Apparently people still expect presents off me, despite this MDS training schedule? I think everyone might be getting volcanic rock for Christmas this year.

I arrive home just after midnight on Christmas Eve. I'm giving myself Christmas Eve off, but treating myself to a Christmas Day run, because would you believe it the gym is closed ;-) ?

I hope to live blog my trip, but I can't promise it because I'm not sure if the mobile phone network will support what I need it to, or indeed if I will get any signal in some of these areas. I know you can't get a signal climbing Teide; I remember from last time. I will try and post an update via my mobile to let you know I am alive and well. If I do get the live tracking up and running I will only set it to update my location every now and again (hourly perhaps, if I get a signal) because Vodafone tell me GPRS use there is £10 a megabyte!

My pack is going to be n0 less than 10kg incidentally, including tent and water etc. I have a feeling, given the climbing, I will be doing a lot of walking and not so much running. That said with 9 hours of available daylight I will have to be moving quite fast.

I will post up my story over the Christmas period. I’m looking forward to this, but nervous at the same time.

EDIT: I'll try and post up before I go away (Saturday more than likely) with a few details from this week, and hopefully a live-blog link for the trip.

The Round Rotherham

Subtitle: Saved by the Godfather.

If you read my previous blog post you'll know that I decided to turn this event into a full dress rehearsal for the MDS long day. In the end, by the time I had added walking poles (which I didn't use at all), my PDA's, phone (these are not going to the MDS of course) and a few other bits and pieces, the pack was just short of 7kg. I drove to Sheffield on Friday night and stayed at my uncle's house. I got up at 5:30am and ate my MDS breakfast, which was not far off 1000Kcal. I drove to Wath upon Dearne and registered ready for the 7am start. There were a lot of runners there, and the walkers had set off an hour earlier. I won't know the actual number of starters sure until they post the full results, but they had around 280 people registered and 15 dropped out in advance. It's probably reasonably safe to assume somewhere in the region of 250 started I guess. I said hello to a couple of friends from La Trans Aq in June; Anne and Vaughan. Both superb runners, who were looking for a sub 9 hour finish this year (they did in 8:55, well done you two!).

I had seen the weather forecast (wet and cold) and was wearing my Raidlight winter gear; thick, lined, runner tights and long sleeve top with polar neck. I wore a warm hat, but had decided on my woollen running gloves instead of my big heavy wind stopper ones. The reason for this is that my hands usually warm up fast and I lack dexterity to use my PDA/GPS with big gloves on. I wore a Pertex ultra-lightweight windproof jacket over the top. I had a waterproof jacket packed in my rucksack, but decided against taking an extra fleece and additional thermal base layer, thinking what I was wearing was already over the top (you can see the punch line coming already can't you).

Can I just apologise for there being no photos. You will know by now my event reports are usually littered with pictures. I took a couple; one of which was a nice shot of dawn, but it didn't come out. The other picture just wasn't interesting enough to post. The weather wasn't camera-phone friendly.

The route is shown below along with the hill profile. You can see it's not that hilly, varying between 50ft and 480ft. Memory Map indicates it has 3140ft of ascent, someone on the Fell Runners Association website says his Garmin logged it at 52 miles (I think that is too much; maybe 51 at the most) and 8500ft of climbing, which I assume means around 4250ft of ascent. I suspect the actual amount is somewhere in between, but either way, no serious steep hills, just long drawn out gradients at times.

We set off in the dark at 7am, head torches lit. Everyone dashed off like scalded cats, leaving me running on my own after just 100yrds. A guy was filming the start a few hundred metres away, and he had stopped filming what he thought was the last person by the time I went past! I ran at what I felt was my most efficient pace with that weight pack, which when I checked my GPS was around 4.8mph. I can just gauge now what pace I will be able to maintain, almost running with the most minimal effort to conserve energy. I was after all not exactly a competitor with my pack, complete with sleeping bag and roll mat slung underneath!

Within a few minutes I had lost sight of everyone, leaving me alone in the darkness pondering the 50 miles ahead. For the first 10 miles, up to checkpoint 1, the route was either on good quality paths, or pavement beside the road. I guess it would have been about 8 or 9 miles in when I started to catch a few people up. It's hard to tell who is a runner and who is a walker as in winter most are dressed the same. Just on approach to CP1 I caught up 4 people who were actually running; two of which were wearing Raidlight gear, and one of whom had a Raidlight pack. At the CP one of them introduced himself to me a member of the www.themds.co.uk forum. The chap with the Raidlight pack was his friend and a veteran of the 2007 MDS. I ran with these people for the next 5 or 6 miles, chatting away about the MDS. We all were being sensible and walking any ascent. We all knew the importance of running our own race and so we drifted apart in various directions on the way to checkpoint 2, around mile 17.

It was already getting colder, but the rain started and by the time I reached CP2 my windproof jacket was wet and crying out to be changed before the rain soaked through. I took it off and put on my full waterproof jacket, and pulled up the hood over my hat; just my eyes exposed. Up to that point my pace had been steady and sensible and averaged about 4.7mph. Rather annoyingly, at the CP, the brand new batteries I bought for my speed/distance Timex GPS had run out, just 3.5 hours old; Thanks for that Ever Ready; serves me right for not buying Duracell (12 hours life usually)! So I was now without the ability to know how many miles I had done, or how fast I was going. Not knowing how far I had gone was probably a blessing in disguise, so I wasn't slowly watching the miles tick up, but not knowing how fast I was going was very annoying and screwed with my game plan. I would just have to be extra careful to ensure I took it easy. I had not spent much time at CP1, perhaps 5 minutes, and not much more at CP2, so it was all going well and on track for what I hoped would be a 4mph average 12.5 hour finish.

The Yorkshire weather had other plans for me though. The rain at CP2 got worse and the wind picked up, giving a sub zero wind-chill. The forecast had said -2, but it felt colder to everyone out there. After CP2 the terrain got more difficult, made more challenging by the rain plus wet weather over the last few days. We crossed lots of ploughed fields with footpaths through the middle. This kind of mud cakes to my feet and gives me lead boots. You have to get to the other side of the fields, stop, and wipe it all off. All of the open farmland meant that the wind cut right through you and I felt seriously cold, chilled to the bone. I needed more layers but had none. I wasn't sure I could continue without more clothes. I arrived at checkpoint 3, at 25 miles, which was mercifully an indoor checkpoint (the last two were outdoor). It was overcrowded and people were quitting there and then because of the cold. Some were woefully under prepared with no waterproof or even windproof clothes. One young guy was in a T-Shirt and tracksuit trousers; needless to say he quit.

I sat down trying to get some warmth back inside me. My woollen gloves were soaked through, and even though I had then started running with them inside the sleeves of my waterproof jacket, my hands were frozen. I had to get one of the helpers at the checkpoint to unclip my rucksack as my hands would not work! My feet had been wet for miles and damage was starting. I tried to apply tape but it would not stick to my wet feet. I managed to get some to stay, but not enough in the areas I really needed it. I had eaten just my Peperami until then, around 15 miles, and was only at 25 beginning to feel hungry. So, I guess my 1000kcal breakfast worked well. I ate 100g (half) of my cashew nuts. Physically I felt fine, no tiredness, just cold. I spent about 20 minutes at that CP sorting myself out and heating myself up. By the time I left my leg muscles had cooled down and this made me feel even colder as I began the next leg of the race, to CP4.

The weather didn't let up; if anything it got worse. Everyone was cold, wet and miserable. I caught two of the 'Raidlight people' and soon after was caught up by a chap called Jamie who I had passed walking with a group of his friends at mile 14. His friends had all abandoned at CP3, leaving him alone. He is in training for The Bob Graham Round next year. Google it, if you don't know what it is, and be impressed. We both ran together to CP4, at mile 30. I did not realise, but CP4 was the 'drop bag location' where everyone had a bag ready which could include anything; a change of clothes, socks, shoes and waterproofs, food etc. I had not read about this, but in truth would not have made use of the facility anyway. There are no drop bags in the sand dunes in Morocco! So, the lucky ones put on new clothes and I looked on enviously.

I got a phone call from my uncle whilst at the CP. He happened to be fairly nearby on his way back from work and said he'd drop and give me some moral support. I gave him directions and waited for his arrival. I had said before the event I wanted only to eat the food I packed. However, I was so cold, I had already resigned myself to some hot tea and extra food to offset the calories required for me to heat myself. My uncle arrived and produced a hot chocolate! I didn't last very long, and went down very well indeed. He had also bought me a sandwich which I ate as well.

I explained how cold I was and that I doubted if I could manage without more clothes. He said he thought he had a fleece in his boot. The word 'Fleece' sounded like 'you've won an all expenses trip to the Seychelles' at this point in time. He went to his car and retrieved it. He had to take off my rucksack due to my useless hands'. In fact he basically dressed me because I could not grip a zip either. I looked at my gloves and said 'I think I have some gloves in the car too', which sounded like 'Oh, and you get £1000 spending money in the Seychelles too' to my ears. He came back with a full on, big thick pair of ski gloves and helped me into them. It must have been like dressing a doll with my useless fingers. Jamie joked that he could do with wiping my nose for me as well. I was too grateful to feel silly.

Now, I felt like I was dressed for the next 20 miles. I could not thank my Uncle enough. He's my Godfather incidentally, in case you wondered about the blog post subtitle.

I had spent about half an hour at that CP in total; so already an hour lost at CP's, mainly getting warm. My average speed plan was in tatters, but in the end I just wanted to finish.

Me and Jamie set off from CP4 and soon turned into yet another endless muddy field crossing. I swear If I never see another muddy field again it will be too soon. We ran, walked, waded, slipped and slided our way across these fields at all sorts of paces; mostly slowly! After a couple of miles I got indigestion, due to running after the sandwiches (serves me right!) and was forced to walk for a while, Jamie ran off ahead. I caught up to a 67 year old guy who was walking in his 16th Round Rotherham, and a veteran of nineteen 100 milers. Hats off to him, hope I am capable of the same at that age. I walked with his group until CP 5(he obviously knew the way well of course, so I could ease off my navigation). At CP5 (about 35 miles maybe) I had to swap my PDA battery for a fresh one and as a result spent 10 minutes there; once again left on my own as the others left.

It was dark by now, so I fitted my head torch on again and set off. You guessed it over another extended field crossing. Physically I felt good, but the water bottle across my chest had started to give me some abdominal pain around the 35 mile mark. I could live with it for the time being (but ended up moving the bottle to my backpack at 40 miles), so I set off at a run and caught up the veteran walker and his party. I passed them and soon after caught up Jamie and the two people he was now with, Ian and Michelle, just before CP6 at 40 miles. By this stage the weather had improved. The rain had stopped, the wind was lower and it felt much warmer. I was still feeling remarkably good at this point. Yes things were aching, and I knew I had blisters, but I felt as though the end was in sight. We all made a very brief stop at the CP for refreshment, a few minutes maybe, then headed straight off. All 4 of us were first timers to the RR50. Initially we ran/walked in our pairs (me and Jamie, Ian and Michelle), leap-frogging each other every mile until about the 45 mile stage where I think we all decided we'd just get each other through the race and stick together. It was dark, and four people navigation and giving moral support was excellent. The terrain was still grim; just more muddy fields, which none of us were happy about. Muddy fields in the dark aren’t easy to run or walk on, even with head torches. By this stage there was very little in the way of running going on anyway.

We all arrived together at the final CP, 7, at 47 miles and had a welcome cup of hot tea. We maybe spent almost 10 minutes there and set off walking. Could I have mustered a run? At a push, probably, but there was nothing to be gained at this stage. I was more than happy to walk with these three nice people I'd met and chat the final few miles away. I was tired and I wondered if my feet lay in ruins within my sodden wet shoes. Despite the promise of 'good paths' for the last 3 miles, by the people at CP, they were still fairly muddy! We all got to the finish and thanked each other for the support. It had taken me well over an hour outside my estimate, taking me 13:45 in total. I've now found out 254 people started. I came in 156. In total 209 people finished, and 45 people abandonded.

I dropped my rucksack to the ground and sat on a chair gratefully. I took off my shoes, but not my socks fearing the worst. I hobbled over and got a tray of shepherds pie, mushy peas and gravy which I shovelled into my mouth at pace. Big thanks to all the organisers and caterers for the event. Everyone at the checkpoints deserves big thanks, especially the outdoor ones!

I sat and chatted to a few people for about half an hour, picked up my gear and hobbled over to the car, got changed and drove home arriving about 11pm. I took off my socks, fearing the worst, but my feet looked in remarkably good condition. I have two very small blisters on the side of toes on my left foot, and none whatsoever on my right foot. Underneath the ball of my left foot is sore where I had tried to apply tape. I think some dirt had stuck to the residue of the tape and rubbed it by the looks of it; that's what was causing me a lot of discomfort in that foot. My right ankle had been painful for the last 8 miles and it was not much of a surprise to see that there was some swelling there. I filed and moisturised my feet, as has become an almost nightly routine for me now.

I had seized up during the drive home and thought I would never be able to walk the following day. I took an ibuprofen and went to bed. I slept for 10.5 hours. Today, well I'm not up to running, but I can walk. I have a few aches a pains, and my quads are a little stiff. My ankle really isn't too bad now either. I got off pretty easy I think.

The event and my performance: It was another 'character builder'. You have highs and lows in long events. You feel rough as anything one mile, then perfectly fine a mile later. You feel like quitting but you keep putting one foot in front of the other and carry on. Eventually the finish line finds you. I have now done the 'MDS long day' distance with the same pack weight I will have for the evnt itself. I suffered with the cold here, I will suffer with the heat there. I slipped, slided and cursed through mud here, and I will do the same through sand there. I hope today was an accurate comparison, in terms of the mental determination, required to finish the MDS long stage.

Now the best punch line: Here I am cursing the weather and terrain for my performance. The overall winner completed in 6:17, just 4 seconds off the all-time course record, and over an hour ahead of everyone else.

I am a Liliputian, looking up at Brobdingnagians.

Round Rotherham preperations

I have made all my final preparations for the Round Rotherham 50 miler on Saturday.

Thankfully, the backpack I ordered a couple of months ago has arrived. It's a Raidlight Evolution 2. It's a smaller pack than I am used to, the main pack being 20litres instead of 30l. It is debatable if I can fit in all my kit for the MDS, but I will certainly give it a go. Immediately it was obvious that I would have to store my sleeping bag and roll mat under the rucksack, attaching with straps to the eyelets that are helpfully located there. I have managed to get my sleeping bag and roll mat in one 'dry-bag', and it sits under the rucksack nicely. I have decided to actually carry it all on the Round Rotherham event, to see how it feels over the distance. I will also be using a 1.5litre mineral water bottle slung across the front pack with a smart tube attached near my shoulder to drink from. 600millilitres of the water from the 1.5l I will decant into a 600ml drink bottle and use that for mixing up my electrolyte.

I am staying over at my uncle’s house near to the event the night before. I am taking my actual MDS breakfast with me to see how that goes down, and I will be eating the exact trail foods, and not taking anything from the checkpoints apart from water. I am carrying 200g of salted cashew nuts, and also a Peperami for snacks. I have also packed 3x40g of SIS go electrolyte.

My food for the day is as follows:
Breakfast - 75g Porrage oats, 60g dried milk, 20g Honey Banana chips = 594Kcal
Breakfast - 100g of PSP22 to wash breakfast down with = 371Kcal
Breakfast total = 965Kcal

Trail snacks - 200g Salted Cashews = 1090Kcal
Trail Snacks - 30g Peperami = 162Kcal
SIS GO - 3 x 40g = 438KCal

on-the-go total = 1690

Total Kcal = 2655

I also have 80g of SIS Rego recovery drink for afterwards. I will have a proper meal more than likely though, because I will have a 2 hour drive home afterwards.

Basically, this is now turned into a full dress rehearsal. I ran a few figures and calculated that I will actually be carrying around 6kg on the long day (day 4) of the MDS, which is what this event distance simulates. So, it is a 6kg pack I have packed. If I am really struggling I could hold onto the 600ml bottle and ditch 900ml in the mineral water bottle(600ml should be sufficient to carry me to each checkpoint. Not in Morocco though!), but that's not in the game plan.

I have prepared and tested my PDA's GPS system, packed a backup PDA (also tested), and I have the route description and rough map printed out and in situe in the rucksacks road-book holder on the front pack.

Taking the new pack is a risk, as it is a total unknown factor. I don't know how it will sit when I run, if it will bounce, or rub etc? I'm not sure how the smart-tube system will feel over that distance, with a heavy bottle slung across my abdomen. This will really be a true test and will shape my final MDS equipment preparation.

Physically I feel ok. I did a 25min V02-max blast on the treadmill on Tuesday, followed by an hour strength and stability. On Wednesday I ran just 5 miles on trails at endurance pace. On Thursday I went to the gym and did the session I usually do on a Friday. This will enable me to rest up a little on Friday. My uncle is going to check my back and ankles over on Friday evening. I know my back is tight, and that causes me problems further down the chain (legs), after high mileage. I'm hoping he can sort that out too, hopefully ensuring I am in good shape for the following day. I don't know if I am fully recovered from the last few weeks’ exertions; I can only hope I am.

I desperately want to finish the event, for the mental boost it will give. I know it will be hard, and I expect to feel truly dreadful come 30/40 miles. My mind will try to convince me that I'm going to collapse and die. I need to remember my body is stronger than my mind and keep that at bay. I have never covered this distance, so I am playing to finish at any speed, however slow. My game plan is to run the flat and downhill sections, at a very strict pace of 5mph or less. The slightest sniff of a hill and I will slow to a walk. Pacing is critical early on. I can't be feeling tired come 15-20 miles, so I must be very careful. I fully expect to be crawling the last 10 miles should I make it that far. We start in darkness and we end in darkness, so I will be packing my head torch, as well warm clothes. We have had a lot of rain tonight, so the ground will be heavy going even if it doesn't rain on Friday. It's not going to be a pleasant experience out there!

The weather is looking fairly grim, and with the wind chill, it's looking cold. 'Feels like' sub zero temperatures for much of the day.




Fingers crossed for me!

You do remember you're running 50 mile event next week?

An overall success this week, but with a wake up call on Saturday.

On Tuesday I did a 30 minute session on the treadmill, running at an even 12.5kph. For some reason I find it really hard to run on a treadmill. It's the boredom aspect and the fact that you have to manually intervene in order to change your pace. I don't like that; I like being able to slow up for a few seconds and then run faster sometimes. So, the pace always feels harder than it should. After the run I did an hour in the gym as usual; a strengthening and stability session. I do a mixture of upper and lower body strengthening each time.

On Wednesday I did a 10 mile trail run, ending in pitch darkness as is the norm now. My head torch is my best friend these days, but the light that it projects is very flat and you get no sense of depth, leading to the odd stumble or misjudged foot-fall. Where possible I will always turn it off, if the moonlight, or light pollution lights my way sufficiently. I always run my Wednesday session at what I call my endurance pace; which over this kind of terrain (20% road, 80% trail including fields, woodland, stiles etc) is 9 minute miles. The Wednesday session is supposed to be a fairly easy session; following the training routine of easy day, hard day, easy day, hard day etc. I'm wearing 3 layers of clothes on my upper body now. I rapidly warm up and would ideally like to discard a layer, but the sooner I get used to being uncomfortably hot the better! I'm wearing the new season Raidlight Winter running tights, which are much thicker and have a cosy lining inside. I can thoroughly recommend them. Hat and gloves I wear too, again I often want to discard these 10 minutes into a run (not always though!) but am forcing myself to keep them on and overheat slightly. The 10 mile session went well.

On Thursday I did a repeat of last weeks session; a 7.5 mile interval session, with hill intervals in the middle. Once again it was a tough session, and really takes it out of me.

Friday's gym session went well, as always. On Saturday I planned what I hoped would be a fairly easy 15 mile run, although there was 1500ft of ascent. I had planned to enter a 10k race the following day, once which I have entered for the past few years down in Apedale where I run almost every day. So, I planned just 15 miles thinking it would leave me fresh for the 10k. The problem I have is that I have run almost every square inch of off-road footpath in every direction for miles around. I like to run a new route every time; it keeps me interested. So, apart from the start and end I just picked random footpaths off the map to fill the middle. You may remember I did the same last week, with awful results. This week I think was worse!

Firstly, I was not using GPS as I had linked it up to my mobile phone to produce a live tracking feed which you can see if my previous blog post. This made route finding difficult, because some footpaths just did not exist or were so overgrown they were impossible to find. I made a couple of serious navigational errors, and ended up not just adding distance on, but adding some even more horrible terrain into the route. There are a few flags on the map below.



Everything to the left of the one at the top and bottom of the map was tough going. There had been very heavy rain the night before, so heavily cattle-divoted muddy and marshy fields, and slurried routes around farms were par for the course. The other 3 flags and lines in red indicate where I went well off course. One such error had me having to get back on course by jumping a small river. I just made it, only dipping my heels in; I don't know why I even bothered because my feet were soaked through from start to finish anyway. After the river I then had to climb up a slope which was at the very limit of steepness that was possible without a rope I think. Needless to say this wasn't an official path, but more a means to get me back on one, after negotiating the barbed wire at the top.

All of the terrain, and especially the errors sapped my strength. I had hoped that I would have the whole run well covered off in under 3 hours. I hadn't even bothered to take along any electrolyte or snacks, just water, so I really began to feel weary. The route ended up being over 18 miles, 2000ft of ascent and took me almost 4 hours. I was tired afterwards, and one of my ankles was playing up. Nothing too sinister, just a very tight tendon in my leg causing it I think. That will go in a day or two. It then dawned on me that I was running 50 miles a week later. 50 miles! A year ago I tapered for a month when I did my only road marathon; 25% less distance each week. Here I was after already having covered over 40 hard fought miles since Monday (over 80 total if you count the two days prior to that), considering an actual race just 24 hours later, plus an extra run to make up the Sunday mileage. Add to that a full weeks training ahead, albeit slightly reduced, and I was thinking I was going to be fine for the Round Rotherham 50?

I woke up at that point. I stopped and listened to my body for a couple of minutes. Saturday had taken a lot out of me, and on the back of the last 10 days mileage, and I took a few decisions then and there.

1. I would not to the Apedale 10k. I would not do it justice in my weary condition, and that the race is really just a distraction. I'm not conditioned for short distances like 10k's trails anymore.

2. I would rest on Sunday totally, and take it fairly easy this next week. I will do my gym on Tuesday, and on Thursday not Friday. My runs on Tuesday and Wednesday will be shorter that planned.

3. From now until the MDS I will stick to running on routes that I know. I won't risk anymore unknown footpaths. Some of the paths I was on in the last 10 days were all but forgotten, and I suspect not walked in years (maybe decades they were so bad). That's not to say some of the terrain on my familiar routes is great, but better the devil you know.

I feel better having made these decisions, but hope that I am well enough rested for the Round Rotherham. I will be starting it no matter what; I just hope I am up to finishing it. I was momentarily tempted to do it without a pack, let alone without 5kg or so, but that was quickly dismissed. I need to cover the distance with a pack, or not at all, otherwise what's the point?

Other news; as my trip to Tenerife draws closer, I am finalising my routes for my 3-day camping expedition around the volcano's crater plateau and Teide itself. I ordered a tent which should arrive in a few days, and I have received a solar charger to keep my phone and GPS alive for the trip. I won't be taking these items to the MDS, as I don't want any distractions or unnecessary paraphernalia. I'm taking these for navigational and blogging aids in Tenerife only. I hope to live-blog the Tenerife trip, but that is dependant on the mobile network coverage and GPRS capabilities. My Mountain House food order arrived from the States. I ordered two of everything, so I will cook a few meals whilst camping and see what suits me best, taking it's duplicate with me to the MDS.

So, a more restful week ahead, and a diet of rice and pasta to fuel my main goal for 2007; The Round Rotherham 50 on Saturday.

Have a good week.

Track me Live Saturday 1st December 10:30 - 13:30 GMT

Below is a google Map that produces a live feed of my location (you can click on my icon for a time/date/current speed readout). It's a GPS connected up to my mobile phone that sends updates to a server once a minute. I currently testing it, and it workswell. When I turn it off, it stores my last location which you see until I turn it back on and start moving. You will have to refresh the page to see the update. I may make it refresh the little map every minute to save you reloading/pressing F5, but have not got around to doing it yet.

map loading...

I'm very impressed with it. I plan to take it to Tenerife (if my GPRS access on my mobile works there) just before Christmas and use it to allow everyone to track me. I am doing a 3 day camping expedition on my own. Some of the routes I am planning on doing don't appear on any maps, and some of the terrain is very dangerous. One step the wrong way and it's a 1000ft (at least!) down off a cliff (I'm not joking either!), along some very narrow paths. So as well as being a bit of fun, it does have a practical aspect in case I go missing, or get lost.

Free plug for the software behind this. The company is 3dtracking. You can create a free account here, and there is code there for you to include on your own website.
You will need to have a Google account to use in conjunction with this. It is a little bit techy to setup, but 3dtracking do answer support emails very quickly.

http://3dtracking.net/

Back2back 20

This week has gone well. My ankle is better, thanks for the well wishes. As I mentioned in my midweek update I went to the gym on Tuesday and did 1/2 hour on the bike in stead of running, after the ankle sprain last Saturday. On Wednesday evening I did 9 miles no problem too, as mentioned. On Thursday I did a 7.5 mile interval / hill interval trail session. I always do a 10 minute warm up followed by 3 mins fast, then 2 slow; and repeat. Half way through the session I did 4 repetitions of a hill that takes around 2 minutes to climb. This is always a tough session, intervals always are, but hills mixed in just makes it even more tiring. Add darkness and cold into the mix and these are not sessions to enjoy, more to endure. Friday’s strength and stability session went well, as always On Saturday and Sunday I had my back2back 20 penned it; 20 miles each day. This was to be a (not so gentle) reminder of what multi-day effort was like. I planned my first route on Friday evening. The route would take me from my home up to my usual first port of call and local viewpoint, the Wedgwood monument, then down into Audley, Miles Green, Halmer End, Heighley, Wrinehill, Bridgemere, Woore, Onnely, Madeley, Keele, Butterton, and finally Clayton to my parents house. I realise none of those names will mean anything to you, but it makes me feel better typing them all!

The route is shown below, as is the hill and actual speed profile.


There is around 1700ft of ascent (but it feels like more), but actually a couple of hundred feet more of descent (though it doesn’t feel like it!). It’s quite cool in the day now. I wore my running tights, an under armour Metal T-shirt, lightweight windproof jacket, hat and gloves. I packed a 5kg pack and 100g of cashew nuts in addition to 40g of SIS go electrolyte to mix up half way around. The first 5 miles was familiar territory for me, and so was the last 4, but in between it was all new. Sure I’ve visited all of the places, but the obscure footpaths between them I have never trodden before. I got fairly lucky on Saturday with the paths, most but not all were good, and I could maintain a reasonable pace.



Below: I took this photo looking back. Not all paths I had picked were so great. Needless to say I enjoyed wet feet throughout the day.



I started to get a little tired around 12 miles, probably earlier than I normally would expect, and I wondered if I had lost a little fitness. However, I saw that I was maintaining just over a 5mph average so I could not complain. After a sharp hill that slowed me to barely a slow walk, picking the pace back up was hard. At 19 miles I was really quite tired and had run out of nuts and my entire electrolyte. I glanced at my watch and knew that I would have to run every step of the next mile at 5mph if I was to maintain that average over 20 miles. What I didn’t factor in, was that there were some hills in the way, albeit on tarmac. I pushed myself to maintain pace, and really ran myself out and hit the 20 mile mark. Below you can see the result at that stage (Average Speed, time taken, distance travelled).



44 seconds to spare... I had worn myself out and with no food left It took me 13 minutes to do the final mile to my destination, making 21 miles total. I had forgotten my recovery drink so I raided my mother’s cupboard and fridge for sugar, as my blood sugar was low. I gorged on biscuits, cakes and apple juice like some kind of crazed bulimic for 10 minutes, before I could raise the energy to shower. I felt better 15 minutes later. Ok, so one day down, one to go. I had a SIS Rego Nocte night recovery drink and went to bed

The following day I planned a route from my parents to my sons other grandparents, as I had agreed to fix their computer and then get a lift back home. The route and hill profile is shown, but I had not fully charged the PDA battery so I had to use it sporadically, hence no speed profile.



I had to pack a change of clothes into the rucksack, so it came out heavier at 6kg, just to make my life that little bit harder. Once again I packed 100g of nuts and 40g of electrolyte.

I only knew the first 3 miles of Sunday’s route, and the last mile. Everything else was new. I had just picked paths off a map with no idea of the terrain. There was actually a couple of hundred feet less ascent that Saturday, but would I pay the price in overall terrain. The first few miles into Swynnerton old forest were plain sailing and enjoyable but after that and for the rest of the entire run, the terrain was miserable. I got my first taste at 5 miles.



I had just come through that. There was no way around; waded through shin-deep water. Just what you don’t want early in a run; sodden wet and heavy feet.


Next I went crossing two extended farmland areas, where the farmers had put electric fence across the footpaths in many places. The only way under was to lie down and roll under. I had to do this about 10 times. I was furious. This is illegal, needless to say. If I would have had bolt cutters, I would have cut every single one down, I swear. Now, wet feet and wet all over, the misery continued going through deep mud, deeply rutted fields, more marshes and liquid silage. My overall pace was destroyed by this terrain, I was walking way more often than I wanted or needed to. Below is one of the better paths I had.



I made the turn for home at around 12 miles up a sharp and nasty hill, which I sensibly walked, passing this curious cave on the way. Not the warmest house I'd have thought.



I was feeling good at 14 miles, but started to feel rough at 15 miles when I had to cross more fields of clay-like mud. The mud caked to my shoes, making them a couple of pounds in weight each; like running with lead boots. The terrain picked up in the last few miles; mostly road of good field crossings as shown below.



The last 1.5 miles were on the road. I'd say I ran 80% of that, now fatigued from the effort of the horrible terrain. As a result of that, and the extra weight probably, I only managed a 4.5mph average for the distance, which turned out to be just over 19.5 miles (route planning in the country is never an exact science, but I had done 21 the day before, so all is even!). I wasn't quite so tired as the day before, less energy spent I guess, so a cup of tea and biscuit revived me. I fixed their PC and got a lift back to my parents’ house and a welcome Sunday roast (thanks mum!). Shame she won't be waiting at the end of each stage of the MDS with a Sunday roast.

So, I managed it, a back2back 20. I'm a little weary, my knees are sore, so are my ankles, but I'm ok. Could I do it again tomorrow? Yes, you know I probably could.
I'd like to say that I enjoyed it, but I didn't. 80% of the time it felt cold, wet and miserable. The terrain got me down and it wasn't nice. At the same time, that is the reason these were good sessions. I felt miserable, I wanted to just go home, but I didn't. I carried on trudging through and finished both. I need more character building miserable training runs, to prepare me for the depths of despair I will face in Morocco!

I did feel tired at the end of each day though. In two weeks time I will have to do 50 in one day. Armed with the knowledge of how much effort I expended in the last couple of days, at each pace, I will have to be careful to pace myself. I will certainly be more than happy if I can maintain 4mph over 50 miles, and I will definitely build in walking breaks. It is important for me to finish the event, and whatever pace; just for the morale boost.

I'm going to soak my weary muscles in the bath and have another Rego Nocte now.

Enjoy your week.

Next 4 weeks plan, midweek update

My next 4 weeks training plan is shown above. The last months injuries decimated my running training from last month, but I was able to cross train in equal amounts, so I don't feel as though I have lost fitness. My ankle sprain on Saturday kept me off running until tonight, Wednesday. I completed a 9 mile run, in darkness, with no problems. I taped my ankle to protect it, as I knew the first 2 miles were on terribly rough ground. After that I removed the tape, as 70% of the remaining route was on good paths or road. Both feet and ankles felt good throughout the run, so I'm hoping normal service really is resumed this week.

This weekend I have a tough test; two back to back 20 milers on Saturday and Sunday. I will probably not do the night run I mentioned in the last post, and just run locally in the day. A night run is asking for trouble with my recent luck with feet and ankles!

This month also sees my primary milestone for 2007; The Round Rotherham 50. It is a 50 mile route around the town of Rotherham in Yorkshire. There are a few hills, but it looks relatively flat. There is just 3000ft of ascent in the whole 50 miles. I have never covered 50 miles before, so this will be my 'MDS long day'. I won't carry a full pack, more likely around 5kgs. I'm hoping to average 4mph or better, but I'd settle for 4mph and success. It starts in the dark and finishes in the dark, so I will have to be careful. I have given myself a deliberately much easier week following the RR50. I don't want to tempt more injuries by clocking up well over 100 miles in a week. I've planned it, so I should do no more than 75 miles in the 7 days around the event, including the event itself. Otherwise I will be averaging around 60 miles per week. I'm hoping my Raidlight Evolution II pack arrives before the event. It should have been sent from France in the last day or two. I need to put this pack through it's paces and see if I prefer it to the Raidlight Sac Runner that I have used for almost two years.

I hope that the rest of my training goes well this week. I will update on Sunday night as usual.

Normal service is resu...*!snap!*

After 10 days off running completely I stood on the treadmill at the gym on Tuesday a little nervously. I did a 5 minute fast walk, just to warm up the muscles a little, then turned up the speed to 12k's and did 30 minutes with no problems; no foot pain at all. Good news. I did further hour in the gym strength and core stability too.

On Wednesday I planned a 5.5 mile trail route. Now all of my running after work is in darkness of course. I dressed up warm in running tights, a Helly Hansen top and a windproof top too. I also ran with my head torch as well as some high visibility strips. I set out over the fields, wary of my footing of course. The weather has gone much colder in the last couple of weeks and despite the clear evening it was foggy everywhere! I'm sure everyone has driven in fog? Well you know what happens if you turn on your main headlight beam? It just lights up the fog and you see less. Well that's the problem I was having. There was no fog at all, but my head torch was lighting up my exhaled breath in the darkness, making it tough to see where I was going. I did find it mildly amusing initially, but then tried breathing out in odd directions so as not to catch the light. Anyway, that was a minor issue. I was finding that the rougher uneven ground was niggling my foot and it did concern me. I found a better path and made it home no problems.

On Thursday I planned a 6.5 mile route, but decided to take in about 60% road to ensure even footing and not upset my foot. This was very successful and I had to stop myself from running on further as I felt so good.

I did my usual gym session on Friday. On Saturday I planned a 9 mile trail and road route; probably 50/50. The latter part of the route was in a wood on a fairly good path, which was at this time of year covered in fallen leaves. My run had gone well, although my foot had niggles from time to time. Strangely I noticed the pain went away when going up steep hills, so I leaned into my run a little to simulate the position. This worked well and I was heading down a steady downhill path in the wood around the 6.5 mile mark, feeling pleased that I had turned a corner and the injury woes were behind me. My right foot (the mostly good foot) landed on the leafy path, which must have hidden a large stone or small brick. My ankle inverted sharply outwards with an audible *SNAP*. I brought the leg up instinctively and keeled over onto the side of the path, hurting and cursing as you can imagine. The amount of times that I have inverted that ankle is beyond a joke. If my foot would have landed an inch to the right or left it would have been ok. As I lay on my back nursing my ankle, thoughts of 'well that's the next few weeks lost' and 'I won't be doing the Round Rotherham in 3 weeks' etc.

I sat for a few minutes until the pain subsided and got to my feet. I could stand and bear weight ok, so nothing broken, and walking slowly initially was ok. I ran on again but it hurt, especially where my foot landed on a slight angle. I decided I would have to cut to the shortest route home which was still another 1.5 miles. I half ran, half limped home feeling sorry for myself and cursing my terrible luck. I got home, took ibuprofen straight away and got an ice pack on it straight after a shower. As always with sprained ankles they get worse when you sit down, as they seize up. I put on a compression sock and also dug out an old neoprene ankle support. I stayed off the foot as much as possible on Saturday, and continued with ibuprofen and ice packs.

So, Sunday's planned run lay in ruins. I kept the compression sock on overnight and have iced it again today. I can walk on the ankle albeit it slightly slowly. It's one of those injuries that will probably only stop me running for 2 or 3 days, but it will have no doubt weakened all the muscles and tendons that I have been working hard to strengthen. I hope to be back running on Wednesday, but only time will tell.

I have been told about an event next Saturday night near Stratford. The location and route are a secret to stop people reccying the route in advance. It's 20 miles and starts at 11pm. I am tempted, assuming my ankle heals quickly, although running around in the dark could be asking for trouble couldn't it. I had planned to do 20 miles next Saturday, and another 20 on Sunday; to remind myself what extended mileage multiple days effort feels like. I'll update in the week and let you know what I'm planning. I've got to be careful, because I am taking part in the Round Rotherham 50 miler on December 8th. I see this as my key milestone for 2007, so I must be fit for it.

I'll think on it, and update in a few days.

Other news, I have myself another week in Tenerife for training, just before Christmas. Assuming that the Teide (The isalands volcano; 3,715 M (12,188 FT)) has no snow on the ascent, I will go up it again. Alone this time (my father came last time, see the post here), and i'll run as much of it as is feasible. I'll also do a few other trail/mountain routes. The weather is usually mid 20's so it should be a nice week.

Have a good week.

Good advice taken

Thanks you to everyone who has commented this week. It's been a unanimous 'stop running' from everyone. I know you are all right.

Well, you'll be pleased to hear I didn't run a step this week. I can't tell you how hard it has been not to run. You convince yourself that if you miss a session your fitness will suffer!

I was working away from home on Monday night, and on my way back home on Tuesday I called in at my uncles for some treatment. I was almost pleased to tell him that my foot was hurting whilst walking, and I wasn't imagining it all. His sports massage therapist loosened my back on the left side, and also that muscle beginning with P in your bum too. Had a mental block, can't think of the name. I keep thinking Peroneal, but it's not that in this case. It sounds a bit like it though! Anyway all of that was tight and could have been contributing.

When my uncle came in to see me he decided it was definitely the foot that was the issue. To some extent this was a relief, because he explained the tightness and pain in the rest of my ankle and leg (Peroneal tendon) was secondary pain because they were being overworked as a result of the foot weakness. So, at least I am not suffering from tendonitis. The foot however felt fine until he went to work on it. He did want to x-ray it first to rule out a fracture, but I convinced him otherwise. I was positive there was no fracture as I could more or less walk fine. It was the running action that caused the issue. So, working on the assumption that my foot was in one piece, so to speak, he first set about locating the most painful areas and 'massaging' (one mans massage is another mans torture!) them. The main area of pain I get is behind the little bone on the outside of the foot, half way down towards the heel. It's actually your 5th metatarsal protruding I think. Anyway, that is the area of pain, but as it transpired the whole length of my foot between the 4th and 5th metatarsal hurt a lot as it was being worked. I literally had my hands gripped to the bench, trying to keep the strangled squealing noises as quiet as possible, to avoid scaring his paying customers!

Once the massage was over, he then loosened all of the joints. This basically involves bending parts of the foot and ankle back and forth, also pulling the foot whilst I hold onto the bench, pushing down on the base of your toes until they each 'crack' (like when you crack your knuckles), and even applying a blow to release locked joints. This might sound quite brutal, and it did hurt, but I didn't mind as I knew it was doing me good. He really knows what he is doing, and said he'd had 'foot day' with lots of patients with foot complaints. He also worked the other ankle a little, and also mobilised my back. Anyone who has been to a chiropractor knows what this involves. Typically you lie on your side, one knee up towards the chest. The practitioner then lies on top of you, you breathe in, out, and then they apply force and twist your pelvis back into line. Mine crunched a number of times; a good release. After this he then put me on his interferential machine for 10 minutes, before home.

Later that evening I went to the gym. Instead of a 30 min V02 run, I did 30 minutes on the bike doing a 'sports training' program; quite intensive. Following that I did an hour strengthening and core stability as usual.

On Wednesday I was due for a 100 minute run. Instead I did 50 minutes on the bike, followed by 50 minutes on the cross trainer. Initially I was not sure if my foot was up to the cross trainer but it went ok. 100 minutes on cardio machines is torturous; dull, boring. It's a necessary evil though I know.

On Thursday I had to go to Belfast for the day to work. I had to get up at 4:30am to get a 7am flight, then a flight back later and got home at 6:30pm. I was totally shattered and had been suffering from localised stomach discomfort for the last couple of days. I decided the 95 minute session would have to be cancelled. I was so tired, I didn't much regret it. I was in bed for 9pm. I woke in the night still suffering with stomach ache. This worried me more than a little.

On Friday I had another session with my uncle. It was an exact repeat of Tuesday, so I won't take you through the gory details again. He did say I had more movement in my foot than Tuesday, and I had been using an icepack as instructed. He asked how I was, and I said I had a rough stomach. He asked where and I pointed to lower stomach, right side. He said 'that's where your appendix is'. The world stopped for 10 seconds. My face dropped and I said "I can't afford to have my appendix out". I remember 2006/2007 MDS competitor Alan Silcock had to have his appendix out at this very time last year. He had to stop training for 2 months! Add that to a morbid fear of anaesthetic (I would have to insist on a local. Not sure if they do it for appendectomy, but I'd tell them to give it a whirl!). He lay me on my back and pressed on my stomach, which hurt. He then pushed hard in, and kind of let go so it bounced back. It didn't hurt. He said something about a rebound pain or something if it was my appendix. He seems to know a little about everything, considering he's a chiropractor. Anyway, he said it was likely some bowel irritation (sorry if you are eating breakfast!). I breathed a sigh of relief. I hope he's right. It's still not totally gone now, but it's not as bad. I know if I had full on appendicitis it would really hurt me, I assume much like the acute pancreatitis I had once 7 years ago (now that hurt!).

On Friday night I wrestled with myself; Devil on one shoulder, Angel on the other; well more like an ultra-runner on one shoulder, and a bed-ridden-one-footed-hospital-patient on the other. One saying "You must do the 25 mile Six Dales Circuit event tomorrow, you have paid for it, you'll be fine", the other saying "Don't be so stupid, you'll just injure yourself worse". This conversation went on all night. I loaded up the course route on my PC. I looked over the route description. I went and stared and my backpack. I looked at the road route to the start line. I rubbed my sore foot, and remembered how much the treatment had hurt hours earlier. I decided not to do it.

I still woke on Saturday morning, thinking, ‘I wonder what time it is?’ The race starts at 9am. If it is 8am or before, I could probably still get there in time. I stumbled into another room; it was 8:58am. So, I'd missed it, luckily. A couple of hours later I went to the gym and did 1.5 hours on the cross trainer, followed by an hour strength session. It was the longest gym session I can ever remember. I was so tempted to get on the treadmill, but thought 'No, I might as well have just done that race if I do". I completed the session, quite tired, but pleased that I had at least worked hard.

On Sunday I did exactly the same; 1.5 hours on the cross trainer, then a strength and stability session straight after.

So, I've managed it, over a week without running. I will go to the gym on Tuesday and try to run on the treadmill. That will be 10 days without running by then. If it niggles even once, I’ll stop; I won't run for the sake of completing a 35 minute session. If Tuesday goes ok, I'll see about the rest of the week, but certainly won't be running 100+ minute sessions. My foot does feel ok, both to walk on, and to the touch, so I'm hopeful.

A lost week

It's been a bad week. My ankle wasn't improving so I had two physio sessions; Tuesday and Wednesday. The pain I am getting is on a small ligament on the side of my foot, but I am also getting pain on my peroneal tendon and also pain on the inside of the ankle too (the physio said these pains were a result of the tendons working harder due to the failings of that ligament). The physio worked this ligament, and also treated my other ankle (the one I inverted a month ago) too. I had heat treatment, and some inferential (electric muscle twitch machine) on both feet/ankles.

On Wednesday it felt a little better so I thought I'd try a run. Again it felt rough during the first mile, but eased off slightly. It niggled all the way around, but I did 5 miles. OK, I thought progress. I had another physio session on Thursday and had some ultrasound as well as the ligament manipulation. I found the ultrasound uncomfortable to the point of being painful on my right ankle, but completed the session ok.

On Friday I was walking pretty much normally, so I assumed I was healed. I had to travel to South Wales for work on Friday afternoon and work into the night. I got to bed about midnight and set my alarm for 6am, hoping to run for an hour and 45 minutes before breakfast and work at 9am on Saturday. I got up and changed and started running at 06:15. I had barely gone a couple of hundred metres when my foot started hurting. I hoped it would ease off after a mile; it didn't. I switched to running on my left toe because that caused less pain. At the 3 mile mark, I was pretty depressed and knew I would have to turn back and retrace my steps. Sometimes I tried running on my foot normally, but within 3 footsteps the pain kicked in. I'd go as far to say it was as bad as it has ever felt, possibly worse. I limped back to the hotel, after covering just 6 miles, showered, had breakfast and went to work. I limped around for the whole day after that. I phoned and left a message for my uncle, the chiropractor, telling him of my problems.

Today, Sunday the foot doesn't feel to bad again, but my left calf is very sore; I assume a result of running on the toe for 6 miles. Because my foot felt ok, I was genuinely going to be stupid enough to try and run again today. I drove to my parents house unannounced and was hoping to get them to baby-sit my son for a couple of hours. However, no one was home and no one came back before I left at 7:30pm (I'd been there since 3pm). On reflection this was probably a blessing in disguise. MY foot would have not magically healed in 24 hours, and I'd have been in the same boat as yesterday; limping along feeling sorry for myself. Whilst I was there, my uncle phoned back, and I am going to see him on Tuesday evening. I almost feel guilty because there is nothing to 'see', and I am now more or less walking normally. It's just the action of running that causes pain. Nevertheless he will check me out and hopefully find the cause. It may well be the ligament, or it may be tightness further up the leg, or even nerve pain caused by the usual suspect for injuries, my back.

So, with just 11 miles covered and one gym session, it feels like the week has been lost and wasted. I know I won't lose fitness that quickly, but it just feels like I will. I have the 6 dales circuit 25 mile hill run coming up on Saturday; pending miracle work by my uncle, that's looking unlikely. That said, my uncle has a habit of working miracles 9 times out of 10, so I'm fearing the worse but hoping for the best. I have got to keep the bigger picture in focus. A couple of lost weeks now aren’t the end of the world. I can pick my training back up and be fine. However, running on partially healed injuries for the next couple of months will ruin my chances of making or completing the MDS. I have to keep that in mind and don't do anything stupid.

On a different note I had a pair of the New Balance RX1441AT trainers through, the ones I pictured in the previous blog post. I wore them this week for those short runs. I actually think they may well keep out the sand. I need to put them through their paces on some dunes in Wales perhaps over the next month or so, but they stand a good chance. There is a built-in inner-sock as well as the outer gaiter.

The outer fabric is like a rip-stop type material. Providing that keeps out the sand, and I think it will, they could work. The orange gaiter, only if you hold up to the light, can you see through it, so in theory very very fine sand could get through but should be caught in between the gaiter and inner sock anyway.

They are a fraction heavier than the 1100MDS shoe 394g vs 384g - per shoe weight of course. They don't look to have the same quantity of cushioning, and perhaps don't, but in my tests this week involving some road running they felt good. They didn't feel too hard, and had sufficient cushioning; certainly a world-more than Inov8 305's etc, which I find too hard in just a few steps on the road.

One major difference I noted was grip; these new shoes have an immense amount vs anything else I've used. They have 1cm depth rubber studs all over the sole. They'll certainly come in handy for trails in the UK if nothing else. I felt sure footed on all surfaces.

I'm approaching using them with a huge amount of caution, because I am not unhappy with the 1100MDS shoes. It's the gaiter that's the hook with these. I'll thoroughly road and sand-test them as soon as possible and let you know how I get on. At the moment I am assuming the 1100MDs unless these shoes win me over in a sand test.

Here's a look at them.



That's all for now. I hope you have a good week, and I hope I have a better one too!