My last post and update was just over 3 weeks ago after returning from back to back weekends in the USA, which on reflection was one weekend too far after a gruelling slog of a hike in Boston. Now where the hell does time go!? I am currently sat in Heathrow Terminal 5 with 2 hours until my flight and going to tell you how the last few weeks have been in recovering from Boston/Miami, preparing for the huge kit list we have to take with us and also tapering.

So lets review my training plan, back in July i set myself a very aggressive training plan that at times would have me training 6 times a week. I wasn’t going from nothing but was only doing 1 or 2 activities a week, so to jump to 6 was always going to be a big ask. However i thought if i document the plan and one that was going to be tough to stick to then guilt would set in when i missed a run or a ride or strength session and ultimately spur me on to do more.

Original plan had me set out to do 109 individual activities or training sessions of some sort. During this time i made sure i was flexible with still being social and getting some DIY done. Although one weekend on the decking build i still managed back to back 10 mile runs, was impressed with that. I also picked up a calf strain at one point which set me back a couple of weeks and made me miss a few sessions. This was just prior to heading to Boston and meant i had to take it a lot easier than i had planned, almost to the point of a mini taper within the plan before i actually got to the proper taper time. You also have to factor into this a family holiday and 3 weekends away overseas. However i never let them get in the way and took the running shoes with me at every opportunity to get those vital miles in where i could.

So…several months later, how did i get on against plan!?

109, became 100 after all the changes and injury. I managed to complete 57 activities in this time, so its been just over 20 weeks since i made the plan which means i did on average, just shy of 3 sessions a week!

If you look at my fitness trend which i pulled from Strava tonight, it highlights that my fitness level is up 269% in the last year, some might even say I’m peaking at the right time! It’s a little lower over the last week or so, which is natural and expected when tapering, however ill tell you more about that later. For now ill just bask in the fitter version of myself that currently weighs a lot less than when i started out.

This last couple of weeks have been full on, not just with getting ready for the event, but life admin has also been at a high, works busy, lots of purchases (mainly for the trip) have been made, returned, exchanged. Also had to do the small thing of buying a new car, one less thing to think about when i get home.

The Kit List

When i booked this adventure race I didn’t truly appreciate just how much kit i would need to take with me! Now I’ve had a go at most things, so when the mandatory kit list below was sent through i knew i could tick a few things off, yet also had to make a number of purchases (not that I’m complaining, love a little treat) to have everything covered.

So what’s the first thing you do when you get such a list, its to make your very own! I’ve had the below on my training plan sheet for a number of years now, although this one had to get expanded for multi event and multiple days. A lot more to plan for than a week cycling the length of the country thats for sure!

From the next few pics you can see just what that sheet looks like in reality, along with what outfits I’ve chosen to wear during the running and cycling days!

So the final week and tapering!

This is the first time i have had to taper from several months of training and it just feels weird! I had originally planned to taper from a few weeks out, but with the injury i was unable to get to the distance i wanted within training, so i decided to taper from about a week ago after an 18 mile run. Tapering is designed to reduce the effort yet maintain fitness levels, meaning i should be fighting fit come race day! Well thats the theory anyway, not sure what a 16 hour flight, 2 hour flight and 4 hour coach trip will have to say about that! However i took my plans advice and stuck to short sessions, nothing too strenuous this week, a massage to break down the legs and flush out any knots and ease into it. Had a final little 5km run with Ruby earlier and the next time i do anything will probably be when i get there on Friday, but even then it won’t be more than a mile or so just to get the travelling out the legs!

Leading up until tonight I’ve been spinning multiple plates, so to say I’m looking forward to getting on the plane and switching off from the outside world for 16 hours is an understatement! Ill update again later in the week when on the other side of the world!

Gulp…

Where does the time go!? My last post was 4 months ago when I took you through my training plan and what the last 4 months held in store for me and my training plan. Let me take you through what I’ve been up to in that time, did I stick to the plan, did I do anything differently and what’s in store for the final 4 weeks.

When I created the plan I had quite a lot of emphasis on being active and doing several sessions a week, spread between rowing, strength work, cycling and running. Now we all know that I probably had more of a fear of the running due to my previous longest run only being 15 miles and Patagonia needing me to run back to back 20+ mile days. Therefore some weeks I haven’t managed to do as many sessions as I planned to, but always made sure I was on track with my running. It’s not all been plane sailing as I had a little calf strain around September that limited some of my back to back running days at the weekend. Nothing that a little massage from an old physio friend that I have couldn’t sort out.

If we look at my Strava running totals over the last few months you can see I was trending in the right direction until I hit the calf snag. Now let me tell you why there was a big blip in the early stage of October.

For those of you that don’t know, I am heading to Patagonia with a friend. Jamie and his family live over in Boston, I have been fortunate enough to be able to get out and visit Jamie a couple of times in the past. So when I knew we were doing this together and knowing Jamie’s experience at long distance running I wanted to see if I could get over and visit him for some training. I booked and flight and said we would sort the rest at a later date. Well…Jamie already had a plan!

The New Hampshire Presidential Traverse

On one of our catch up’s prior to me heading across the pond, Jamie asked if I was up for a challenge and adventure. I’m never one to turn down an opportunity to push myself and little did I know what Jamie had in store for us. The New Hampshire Presidential Traverse is a 22 mile hike across the White Mountains that see you climb and summit 8 mountain peaks.

I knew it was going to be a challenge and a rough day when Jamie was explaining that we would need to see how the weather would be to decide if we were doing it. At this time of year that area of the country can have sunshine, rain, wind and snow! The plan was to head up the night before, stay over and get on the path for 5:30am! After some research on when the local Dunkin Donuts was due to open, we scrapped that plan and got some food before we started at 6!

I took a lead for the first few hours as I knew the other guys were not just fitter than me, but also used to hiking in these conditions and terrain. So with me leading it meant I could control the pace and attempt to keep my heart rate low enough that I wouldn’t exert too much energy. Wishful thinking as I was super hot! My first real time hiking with a rucksack of kit, and I choose to do it on a 22 mile mountain hike! As we were climbing for those first few hours, we were in darkness, under the stars, feeling the rain, then the snow and also amongst what looked like a scene from Narnia!

As we were climbing we saw a number of others coming down the path, saying that it was a white out at the top and therefore very dangerous to progress across the mountains at such a high elevation all day. We decided to push on and judge for ourselves, we were already a few hours in at this stage and I know the guys really wanted to get this completed, not just because we drove 4 hours to get there! Once we got to the first clearing in the trees people must have looked at us and thought we were mad. An American in his shorts and 2 British guys in a base layer and t-shirt! Where as everyone else watching us and looking on we’re already full on kitted out like they were about to be snowed in for weeks! The final climb to the first peak required us to put ice spikes on, another couple of layers and some gloves. Jamie threw his toys out the pram when he struggled to feel his fingers, big time sulk on the climb, touched the top and just headed back down! Well he missed out, the fog cleared as soon as we got above the clouds and the views were amazing!

I knew from seeing this view that the day was going to be filled on great scenery and tough climbs! We pushed on and got up the next climb in pretty good time. It was when we went up the third climb that I was starting to tire and needed to get some energy in me. I was slowing and also making some silly errors on a very very hard terrain to climb. It was relentless all day and full of large steps, small steps, scrambling on hands and knees and tough tough challenging descents. We knew that getting to the top of Mount Washington was a big step as it was half way in distance and majority of the elevation complete, we got there in 9 hours, yep 9 hours in and only half way! That’s 11 miles in that time, so that tells you just how slow and steep the day was!

It was when I saw this sign that Jamie decided to tell me that Mount Washington is actually, statistically the most dangerous mountain on the planet for fatal accidents. This is mainly due to how accessible it is, and from that sign, just how ferocious the winds can be!

The next 6 hours or so we’re going to be a tail of two halves! I had to change my socks at the stop halfway as my feet had got wet a couple of hours before. The first 3 hours were cracking, the sun was setting, was managed to see some of the fall leaves in the distance and the sun picking out the amazing colours. The next video will show just how stunning it was.

After this, the sun started to set and set quick! We had a final 3 hours of descending by head torch and I was nearly running on empty. My body was trying to give up on me and my right thigh and hip flexor was gone! I think I had to pretty much drag it and carry it down the final 2 hours and they were slow slow going! Hats off to the patience on Jamie and Brodie as they were sticking with me the whole way. I reckon they could have finished an hour earlier if it wasn’t for me. However we got it done and it took us 15.5 hours! The shame was we missed out on seeing the sun actually set on the tree lined mountain side. We were passed by some incredible people on the hike, some young guy that had started 4 hours after us and more than likely finished a couple hours before us! Oh the joy of being young! It was an epic adventure and well worth the blood sweat and tears along the way!

As you can imagine we had a lot of discussions throughout the day and one of them was how many steps we would do! I took a wild stab at 60k where as Jamie and Brodie went for 42k and 35k respectively. I only came up 4k out with a total step count of 56k! The next video comes from Relive and shows just how tough the day was.

Whilst I was in a Boston I also managed to get out for a cheeky 5km and a private kayak lesson before the hike. The 1.5 hours on the river learning about kayak technique was invaluable! I really think without this lesson I would have struggled out in Patagonia, yet the things I picked up will help me be more efficient and safer on the water!

The trip was great for my training, although it wasn’t running 22 miles, it was 16 hours on my feet and over double the elevation that I will need to tackle in Patagonia. So an experience that will always be in the memory bank and something I will draw on during the tough times ahead!

For some reason, I then thought it would be a great idea to head out to Miami the week later for a weekend visit! At the time I thought I would be fine and had even planned to get a long run in. However in the heat and only a week after the hike, my body was needing some rest! I think it was maybe a step too far for my ageing body!

I’ve been back a week and managed a 18 mile walk/run at the weekend, mixing a first 4 mile walk of the dog with a run/walk after. Trying to get more time in the legs than distance at the moment.

My original plan had suggested that this weekend would be my biggest in terms of distance. Now I still plan to get out for some lengthy runs, but I might actually mix it up with a brick session of run, bike and then another long run on Sunday morning, making the most of the clocks going back and a lighter morning.

The weeks that follow this will probably ease off the running, up strength work and time on the bike. I have a half marathon around Richmond on the 6th November, which I might use as a final long run, park somewhere a few miles away, run there, do the event and then run back to the car maybe. Then slowly taper off to the event week.

So that’s a little bit about what I’ve been up to and how I’m getting on. Hope you enjoyed the read, next update will be even closer to the start!

So we are officially 5 months out from Glacier to Glacier…yep let that sink in a minute, I sure as hell did!

Over the last couple of months, my training plan hasn’t been set in stone and I’ve neglected it a little bit. Now I can make up excuses if I need to but its not really about what has happened, its more about what i do with myself moving forwards. My dog had an operation a couple of months ago and getting out the house for a normal walk and getting my steps in has been limited only until a couple of weeks ago. I was starting to feel a little guilty if I was leaving the house to go do exercise when the pooch is still on a lead and unable to get out for a run herself. However, since a little glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel and the vet telling us she can now walk as far as she wants (still on the lead), I’ve been able to get my step count back to where I would like to see it. One thing that resonates with me is the saying,

What gets measured, gets improved

Peter Drucker

I think my average daily step count has gone from low thousands to over 12k per day since the green light from the vet, who knows what it will do when we get to go off lead again! Having all the data on my wrist with my Garmin Fenix 6 (I know don’t judge me, a new version is out and I don’t have it!), I am able to see where I am at during the day to know whether I need to take the pooch out again, or go for a stroll myself.

So, now that I am starting to feel a little more organised with getting up and out the house with the dog, I thought it was about time that I looked into making my training plan for Patagonia later in the year. Now i always create a training plan for any year when I have a number of races in the diary and want to focus on something. This year is no different, so I set about creating the plan.

As you can see from the plan, i have a lot of sessions that I “plan” to do! Now this is purely to hold myself accountable to getting fitter and stronger in order to successfully complete the adventure race in November. Without this, I would be aimlessly trying to get some miles in on foot and might not feel the guilt if I have a low week or miss sessions. Now the plan isn’t going to correct all of that for me, I still need to be the one motivated to meet the plan set out, but I won’t be beating myself up if I miss 10-15% of these sessions across the next 5 months. It’s the direction and supporting plan that will help drive overall consistency in my training during this summer period.

At the moment the plan is loose and will need some tightening up as I go along, for example I will need to ride some weekends longer than my current 45 minutes a week Watt Bike session on a Monday. Likewise I will also need to go hire a kayak from time to time to build up my endurance at sitting in a kayak for hours to build up core strength in the sitting position. What I did however need was the plan aimed around running.

Running

In signing up for this Glacier to Glacier event, it will set new records for me. Not only will day 1 be the furthest distance I will ever run, day 2 will then go and break that record again! So in order to not fail at this I need to focus on improving my running distance across the next several months and build up slowly to get to goal distance.

I read a number of marathon training plans in order to understand how many miles I should be getting in during the weeks and months in build up. However what I have to do isn’t really covered by these plans. I need a plan to help me get to 20 miles distance, but then get up the next day and go again! With 15 miles being my previous longest run, I know I can get there but will need to make it interesting in order to not get bored during training. So the running plan has been supported by conversations with a friend who has previously ran ultra marathons and Marathon Des Sables, an event which contains back to back to back marathons, oh and in the dessert for shits n giggles too!

I am pretty confident of the plan and where I have ended up. I also hope to take Ruby out with me at the weekends from August onwards, she will be a year old by then and my training running buddy on the weekend!

Strength & Recovery

I have also been looking into my other training methods and recovery. I am currently working on a DIY project at home of converting my garage, well a portion of it, into a home gym. I want to shift some of my previous HIIT focus into strength training. Inevitably, the older you get the more you need to look after yourself. So its a good time for me to look at strength work and building muscles to support joints through what will be a demanding summer. The gym will be finished over the next few weeks and will have free weights, rowing machine and of course another dog bed for Ruby.

On top of this I have just purchased an Ice Bath for the garden and aid in my recovery. Been thinking about this for a while and off the back of me creating the training plan and seeing how busy it is, especially with back to back runs at the weekend, i really want to make sure my body recovers as best as it can. There are also many other benefits to cold water therapy, so maybe ill do a little post on that when it arrives and I take the plunge!

Well that’s all for now on the updates, time to get into the swing of things with the training and get cracking!

Don’t forget if you would like to sponsor us for this mad crazy adventure, then head over to Just Giving and make a donation.

If you need me over the next few months, ill probably be training…