The Marathon des Sables

Craig - support from you and others really keeps me going. Glad you are enjoying the write up. It's amazing what we will do for our kids and here we can really show some mutual inspiration, what you guys are doing for Holly (and ultimately others) is amazing stuff.

I shall take this opportunity to plug http://raceagainsttime2009.wetpaint.com/ :)

M8. I never doubted for a single second that you would do it and I wasn't wrong. I have no idea about the shit that musthve been goin through your head a times but I suppose thats what ultra running is all about. Really enjoying your blogs and taking insparation from your achievement. 8 months ago 13 minutes nearly killed me! Now I can do 2 hours, all because I promised a wee girl I would. What u have done shows that I can and will keep that promise. With a little help!

Congratulations you hard-arse marathon man!

Glad you made it in one piece! We'll be in touch - in fact we're in Ferriby on Easter Monday if you fancy meeting up for a good ole' well deserved ale?

Safe journeys & hope to hear from you soon!

56 year old new runner never ran this distance before (no. 57) really enjoyed it. Did the lincoln 10k last week but your marshalling and signing was very very good also the support to us back runners. Thank you

Well done Mike, we knew you could do it, can't wait to see your tan.

Love

Neil & Mada

He's done it. The dreaded stage three under his belt and again he improved on his ranking and increased his average speed.

I've emailed him again but please let me know if you hear from him how he is!

I didn't think I'd be the only one monitoring the MdS website. Glad to hear Mike has been in touch and is in good shape and spirits. Please keep us updated.

Hi Mike hope things are going well Fridays at Cuckoos not the same without you - when you get back your first friday lunch is on the house. Take care of yourself sure you will do your family and yourself proud. x

For anyone that hasn't checked the Marathon de Sables website, here's an update.

Day one had to be cancelled due to heavy rain, it says they were hoping to get underway on day two (Monday)but so far there are no updates online to confirm this has happened.

Mike, thinking of you, guess you must be gutted after all your preparation. Hope for better news later today.

No, it isn't a lot (and only a few drinks will increase this, the rest of the drink is easy to stomach carbohydrateless electorlytes), to loosely describe the process (and highlight how little 2360/day is!) ...

My BMR comes out at around 2500cals/day. Running on the road with no pack burns approx' 1cal/kg/km. So, 1*80kg*250kg = 20000 cals for the weeks running effort, lets (very) conservatively add 25% to that to account for sand/backpack/hills, thats 25000cals for the running. Lets add the daily BMR for the 7 days (7*2500), 17500 so total calorie consumption is 37500.

So I need to find approx' a whopping 22000 calories from me...

body fat = 3500/lb, which means I need at least 6.2lbs of body fat to serve my needs during the race.6.2lb = 2.8kgs. 2.8kg is 3.5% of my body mass. So provided I have the base level of 4% & and extra 3.5% body fat I should be fine.

Realistically total energy consumption could up as high as 50000+ so here is hoping I have at least 10% body fat, muscle catabolism is painful and inefficient!

2360cals/day doesn't sound much, I suppose the powder drinks will crank that up quite a lot?

Glad you love the pack mate and a great post. It took me a while to get comfortable and find the right way to wear mine, but it's there now... Here's hoping that all my kit fits in it :)

I fly back to the UK on Saturday... yikes!

Grea running with you on Saturday mate. All the best matt, p.S. my email address is matt_hart[at]hotmail.co.uk

That did make me chuckle!! Great weekend had by all!

This sounds a great idea and maybe we should look to include noodles in our expedition food. We actually manufacture freeze dried meals. What expedition are you going on and when.

Could we help you with anything?

If so my email address is rob)be-well.co.uk

Fat bastard! Only joking.. sounds good. I'm considering those noodles as my brekkie to be honest... still need to experiment!

I can't believe you liked the beef & potato casserole!?!? Sweet & Sour Chicken all the way!

I should have had some jabs before I went to China ... but I just took the risk.

The last time I was in anything like 40C was in July, the last time I saw amything like 45C was in 2003 ... camping this weekend we had a delightful -9C ... boy am I going to feel that heat!

Jabs? Stuff them... I think I had everything nder the sun last time I went away for a prolonger period of time. So is th country still paralysed? Same old excuses from the UK hey. The fires over here are really bad now... it's horrendous when you read what has happened...

Still cycling and swimming... it's so dull sat on a bike in the gym though... but c'est la vie! It's going to be a rude shock for you guys when you get to Morocco isnt it? At least I know what 40 degrees is like :)

Morning/Afternoon/Evening :)

I think what you are doing is about enough as it's not something you have been doing/done much off before, so long as you are setting at the right heart rate and it's too high or too low.
You may want to poke it up a bit as you progress like you plan, just thinking about my commute I do about 20 miles in just under an hour (2 * 30 min sessions), bit faster if the lights are in my favour and the traffic is light.

The best advice I can give though and this may be especially important with you rugby background is to stretch you quads frequently, cycling can cause them to tighten up and interfere with the movement of your calf muscles and can lead to various injuries.

Don't worry about the pack. Your help is appreciated :)

Anyway - beg/borrow/steal yourself a real bike and head up to them Blue Mountains for some top notch sessions ;) Looks like we are in for a nice dumping of snow next week or so... may have to adapt my training a little... has the SA heatwave reached Sydney?