We, the MdS 2013 group,
received the official dates for the race. It has now dawned on me that it is
real. We will be flying out of London to Morocco on Thursday the 4th
of April and will return to London on Monday the 15th of April 2013.
This means that there are only 45 weeks and 6 days left until the race starts.
For many 45 weeks may sound like
a long way off but when one prepares to run a multi-stage race of 250km’s this
is not a lot of preparation time, and if you have a torn calve muscle that is
healing slower than you think it should, as is the case with me, every day lost
feels like a week.
Here are some of the things that
I will be doing in preparation over the next 45 weeks?
(1) Increase
my weekly running total to 200km’s: this will consist of a long run of 48km’s
per week and five 30km runs per week. The long run will be a single run on a
Saturday while the shorter runs will be a combination of 10km, 15km and 20km
distances split into morning and evening runs,
(2) I
will spend 10 to 20% of the weekly distance practicing to walk at between 6,5
and 7,5km/h,
(3) I
will increase my race-pack weight to between 10 and 12kg’s,
(4) There
is the matter of finalizing my race diet, getting used to eating the specific
foods in the correct quantities and at the appropriate intervals,
(5) Optimizing
my running kit consisting of, shoes, clothes, race pack, technology, sleeping
bag, sleeping mat, walking poles, medical kit etc.
But above everything else, I now
have to get my calf muscle sorted. I need to be able to get back on the road
logging some serious miles.
The next major event will be the
Washie 100 miler which takes place at the end of July 2012. My aim with this
race is (1) to carry a 10kg race pack, (2) experiment with in-race nutrition,
(3) experiment with run / walk combination strategies and (4) measure various
physiological responses such as heart rate, blood pressure and body temperature
at regular intervals. I am not running the Washie as a race, but participating
in it as an organised experiment. The real question is whether I will be able
to complete 161km’s within the allotted 26hours with a 10kg pack on my back. To
be able to do it I will have to average 6.19km/h which under normal conditions
is not too difficult to do.
However, there is a rule of thumb
to predict marathon running times with weight. The rule is that a 4kg weight
will make you run 1.4 times longer. Any weight over 4kg’s will add an
additional 25 minutes per kg to your running time. My marathon pace is around 7
min 51 sec per km, with 4kg’s it is predicted to be in the order of 10 min 59
sec per km plus 3 min 34 sec per km for the additional weight. With the 10kg
weight I am predicted to take 14 min and 33 sec per km or run at an average of
4.13km/h. The prediction, therefore, says that I will only be able to complete about
107 km’s of the 161 km’s in the allotted time. Part of the Washie experiment is
to challenge this rule of thumb by applying various strategies and to plot an
accurate prediction curve that applies to me.
There is less than 10 weeks left
until the Washie takes place, and hopefully, my calf muscle is totally healed
by the end of May so that I can add the training distance required.
Thanks for visiting my blog.
Genis
