Good Admin!

Though training has been on trickle for the last 3 weeks, I’ve managed to average over 8000cal a week between running, exercise bike, rowing and circuits. I’m back on to 10 milers with weight and am now running as fast with the pack as I am without. Chris and I ran the Riyadh Road Runners’ 10 mile race at Aramco Farm last weekend and we got around together in 1hr 26mins. I also had the pleasure of meeting another Ian from BAe Systems at that race, who is also running in this year’s MdS. He is a racing snake and will be leaving me for dead, but at least we can compare notes and share a few sand dune training sessions together. As well as Ian, I have made contact with Ben from my Corps, who is based back in the UK. He and another officer are participating, so it will be good to get to know them by Facebook and email.

I have tested the Pico Freeloader solar charger. After 7 hours on a rather dull Riyadh day, the Pico had charged my flat-batteried MP3 player to 93% charge. It may have done it quicker, as it stayed at 93% after charging in my laptop for another hour – so not an entirely scientific experiment owing to the poor software I think, but enough to give me confidence in the little charger! At 49g; it is well worth taking along if it means music for more than a couple of stages.

I received my delivery from Racing The Planet, which my boss Peter very kindly picked up on his return from the UK. I now have 21 freeze dried meals to use for the race and training. The Expedition Foods 800cal range offers a selection of menus at no more than 205g/meal; some are as light as 175g, which has had an effect on my choices. Amongst other bits and pieces, I also got a packet of 9 ‘tablet towels’ – white tablets about 15mm across which expand out into small flannels when water is poured onto them, these should be better for my skin and more refreshing than the wet-wipe alternative.

I have been working my way through some essential military admin over this week. I applied for Diplomatic Clearance through the FCO office in Morocco, applied for duty status for the event from the Army Sports Control Board, and applied for a grant from the Berlin Infantry Brigade Memorial Fund which may contribute £100 towards the cost of entry. Once I have written permission from the Control Board; I can send off the Army Sports Lottery form and apply for a further £300 towards the flight from KSA to London. I will be trying to obtain those flight tickets from BA as a donation, in which case the £300 would have to be returned.

This weekend will be mostly spent with the girls before they return home, but it will be all systems go from Saturday afternoon. My weight is settling at just under 90kg, but should take another drop over the next few weeks.

Book Review - The Marathon des Sables by Mark Hines

It has taken me some time to fit in reading it, but it was clear from the start that this book would be something of an oracle of knowledge for the MdS virgin. Whilst the girls have been visiting; I have managed about 10 pages on the way to and from work each day. As I read I took notes of things that I didn’t know about the MdS and thought that I could summarise the book into key points for those who do not have time to read it.

The first thing that the book helped me realise was that I had been roughly planning a kit list in my head, but I had not considered what might break and what items were too valuable not to have a spare or repair for (p13) - a needle and thread and a spare pair of gaiters could well be on the list! What I did come to appreciate is how my military training had given me the fundamentals of walking/tabbing/running with weight – this I had taken for granted (p24).

Hines’ basic analysis of training requirements is highly logical; he looks at the characteristics and disciplines required to complete the race, and addresses those areas lacking in his own body. He then concentrated his training on making up the delta (P14). He suggests that whilst weight training on leg muscles is a good idea when starting out, once into fully fledged cross-country running training, there is little that weight training can offer in comparison to the stresses that off-road running cannot (p18).

Mark’s knowledge of biochemistry and physiology is comprehensive. His advice on electrolytes, isotonic balances, importance of sodium replacement (p19) and explanations of the effect of extreme training on the heart (p97) are laced throughout the book and have been invaluable.

I learned a lot about the format of the race from the book. For instance; the check-points are roughly 10-12km apart, a 1.5l water bottle is given to each runner at each one, and that not much reserve water is carried by most runners. This will reduce the total weight that I anticipated carrying. The food checks to see that sufficient food is carried are not stringent and calories are not counted exactly, it is more of a sanity check, so time needn’t be wasted formulating a list of all content, just have enough (p127). Mark recommends snacks be carried enough for something at each check point, so enough for the correct number of check-points per day (p211). The appendix has Mark’s recommended list of meals and food types (p262).

In terms of equipment, I have been reassured that my purchase of a 2 season sleeping bag is a good choice, as the 300g bags could see people suffering from the cold (p125) – I’d rather carry an additional 300g and be comfortable and get proper rest! Other top tips were to take condoms to be used as inflatable pillows (p118) and tweezers for foot reparation (p180). There is a suggested kit list (p258) to be used in conjunction with the MdS mandatory list.

As well as these key points the book is full of information that others may not have already picked up on, but more importantly it gives a real feel of the atmosphere of the event and the reader gains a real sense of what to expect from the environment and conditions. It communicates the low-down and dirty, infantry-style way of living that must be adapted to for the week. I would highly recommend that this be read from cover to cover by anyone contemplating participation in MdS.

Lots going on!

Sleeping System:  I received the sleeping bag in the post and managed to roll it up with my Multimat and get both into the Multimat stuff sack together. This is great for compression, but raises some packing issues. In my basic training days I was taught by ‘Shifty’ never to use the stuff sack and let the loose doss bag squash everything together to make a silent mouldable pack. Being quiet was essential for covert soldiering, but is not for this race. Making a comfortable pack IS essential – deciding on how I will pack the main section of the backpack will have to wait until I have a better idea of the available space, what other padded items it will contain and how many lumps need concealing.

Food:  I have spent a lot of time researching foods and have been collecting samples of anything with more than 350kcal/100g. The best option for meals seems to be freeze dried ration packs, which will use up a litre of my daily water ration, but means I could account for all 14,000kcals demanded by race rules with 17 portions at 3.2kg. Expedition Foods produce a variety of meals (with a 15% discount for MdS competitors when bought from Racing The Planet) that boast 800kcal for between 175 and 205g.

Other Kit:  Whilst browsing the ‘Racing The Planet’ website I found some great items, such as tablet towels, which are the size of a Paracetamol, but with a few drops of water expand into a flannel – together with the soap leaves I bought; my admin kit will weigh next to nothing. A friend of mine (cheers Max) recommended the Solar Technology ‘Pico Freeloader’, which claims to give 30 hours of phone standby time from 30 minutes charge. At £17.99 I thought it was worth investigating, as 240km is a long way without MP3! I emailed the company and told them about my challenge and they responded by donating £100 to the trust!

Fitness Regime:  Now back in Kingdom with my two girls; I am back into full training. I’m up at 0530hrs for an hour session before work every day and then straight to the gym for another hour after work. I am back to long runs at the weekends and hope to build up to a full marathon carrying 10kg within the next two weeks. My weight has dropped to less than 90kg and my watch and clothes feel looser by the day. Another three kilos and I’ll be at my original weight when carrying my backpack!

Sponsorship update:  After a furious burst of £730 coming in over the first 48hrs, the flow of funds has steadied and after just over a week the total is at £1100 including gift aid. I am astounded by some of the individual contributions the trust has received and truly touched that I have already had such a response. Thank you all for your generosity so far. I understand that many of my supporters are waiting until I am on the plane or even have finished the race to pledge financial support to make sure I actually do it. Whether you donate today, or on the sixth day of the race; your support will be greatly appreciated and always remembered.

Trainers, Gaiters and Glue (plus some sand!)

After being given the Inov8 315 trail running shoes I intend to use for the race, I wasn’t too heartbroken at having to cut chunks out of them and glue lumps of Velcro onto them. I spot tested Araldite, Bostik and Atwell seam sealant, gluing half inch squares of Velcro onto a bit of open space on the heels of the shoes. The Bostik was a mess and took ages to stick, needing to be held down for nearly 5 minutes. The Araldite set almost immediately and the Atwell was a happy medium. The following day I tried to pull the squares off. The araldite was like rock, but as soon as I tugged on a corner of the Velcro that was not submerged completely; it came off with ease. The other two put up more of a fight and the Bostik took the surface off the leather effect upper and the Atwell stripped the rubber surface, but not the faux leather. I opted to use Bostik for bonding the Velcro to the shoes and use a ridge of Araldite to prevent the Velcro edges from peeling up.

I put the shoes, Velcro, glue and gaiters to the test at Ban-Ban Sands, what would be a beautiful spot, had the locals not used it as a perpetual tip. Chris was kind enough to accompany me and act as photographer to try and get some shots for potential sponsors and, of course, this blog! I completed a series of short hill-reps and a few circuits of a small plain. Chris took some good shots and I was suitably feeling the effects of the sand draining my legs. I felt a bit weak at this point, so thought I’d redeem myself by asking Chris to drive back to the road and following ‘on the hoof’. It was less than a km, but was heavy going and I felt like I was going backwards. The key take away from this is that I will have to manage my expectations on any legs of the race that are over loose sand, also I need to train for long periods to get used to it. Hill-reps on the dunes will not necessarily be representative of what I want to achieve on the race, I fully intend to walk up all steep hills, but it will develop the muscles needed.

On returning to the flat I had a look at the Velcro seals and the Araldine had cracked in the obvious places either side of the fore-foot bend. Cracks are fine, but these will need to be monitored and spare adhesive will need to be included in the emergency pack for the race.

Jim's Trust

The best news over the festive period is that my chosen charity has accepted my MdS participation as an official event. The Captain James Philippson Trust Fund was set up in memory of my friend Jim who was killed whilst deployed on Operation HERRICK 4 in 2006. Jim was a member of a quick reaction force that had embarked on a rescue mission to come to the aid of a patrol that I was a vehicle commander on. We had been ambushed by Taleban forces, and Jim’s patrol got hit by another group of enemy whilst making their way through the back streets of Sangin to come to our aid. I have had some lovely emails from Jim’s Mother, and donations can now be made through the link (use the donate hyperlink and select: ‘IAN – Ian Flannery – Marathon des Sables’ at the bottom of the form). Now I have the method of donation in place; I can really start plugging for donations, so watch out for me knocking at your door, or at your email/Facebook in tray!

'Gucci' bits of kit

After a couple of weeks of fairly full on training; I decided to give my legs a bit of a rest whilst back in the UK with my girls for the Christmas break. I have moved my efforts towards researching and purchasing the equipment and food. I have had little success getting free donations of the specialist desert racing kit from racekit.co.uk and up and running in Harrogate, as almost all of their customers compete in support of some charity or another. I paid a visit to Cotswold in Harrogate and was delighted to find that the manager, Stephen Metcalf, was able to provide support. Stephen offered answers and advice to many of my questions and was particularly knowledgeable on food supplements. I left the Cotswold store with Inov8 315 trail running shoes, a ¾ length Multimat self-inflating air mattress (320 gram and compresses to well under the compression sack/packaging size), 4 large sachets of energy replacement powders (mountain fuel range) and did not pay a penny! Stephen also gave me a tube of Outwell Seam Guard to test as an adhesive for attaching the Velcro for my gaiters to my new trainers – I will let you know how well this works, early indications are good, but it will need testing out on the ground in the sand. Needless to say I was extremely happy to receive Cotswold’s support, and Stephen also offered to add a link to this blog on the Harrogate store’s Facebook page. Many thanks to Stephen, his staff and Cotswold.

The meal packs that Cotswold offered were not the freeze dried variety. Hydrated meals are too heavy for the MdS, so I have had to look elsewhere for main rations. Expedition Foods have an 800cal range of freeze-dried meals which are all between 160 and 210 grams. I have filled in an application form online for sponsorship (see link in essential URLs) and hope that they will have a fresh sponsorship budget for the new year!

I spent a long time researching sleeping bags, hoping to find the holy grail of a 400 gram, 1 season bag, but was unsuccessful. I did find a 2 season bag; Gelert X-Treme Lite 600, as now advertised in my Amazon Associates link, below right. This bag offers a bit more comfort, should temperatures fall below the predicted 14 Celsius.

I've got nearly all of the mandatory items from the specified kit list, just need to find a venom pump and a mirrored piece of card!