A great week of training!

Just under 5 weeks until I head to the Amazon!!!....

Its been a week since my last blog post and after a few tough runs I'd decided that I needed to up my mileage and hill training. Thankfully it's been a really great week and that's exactly what I managed to do... here's a quick summary:

Monday: 16km running up and down hills on the trails of Box Hill

Tuesday: 31km run along the Thames Path

Wednesday: 21km along the Thames Path

Thursday: Gym session with lots of squats (good hill preparation!) and then 13.5 km run

Friday: Rest day and Thai massage

Saturday: 60km along the Thames Path

Sunday: 8.5km slow run

Total distance: 150km

I set out in search of some tough hills on Monday and took the train out of London to Box Hill (Olympic Cycling venue). I was really pleased to find the perfect training in the form of the hills of the North Downs Way on Box Hill. I ran for 2 hours up and down the trails and it's definitely a run I'll be doing lots more in the Jungle Marathon build up!

Here are the Olympic rings positioned on the top of Box Hill and the great view from up there:

On Saturday morning I set out with energy gels, electrolyte filled water bottles and high energy jelly beans with the goal of running 60km along the Thames Path. The furthest I'd run up to this point was 50km and that was a real struggle. It didn't help that I'd had a deep tissue massage the night before and I was struggling to get out of bed as a result. 

I set off at a bit of a sluggish pace, but soon got into my stride. I was really happy with how I paced the run and I went through the marathon distance (42km) at an average of 12km/h (3 hours 30). However, shortly afterwards I felt a sharp twinge behind my left knee. I stopped briefly to stretch my hamstring and drank lots of water in the hope that it was cramp, but unfortunately the pain persisted. I managed to carry on running, but had to slow the pace. Then the rain came down... really heavy thunderstorms made the last 15km slightly unpleasant (the only good thing was that I had the path to myself!) 

I finished the run in just over 5 hours and I was really pleased to know that I could have carried on running. My average pace dropped to 11.5km/h because of the injury niggle, but I feel confident that I'll be able to do the double marathon in 7 hours, which is the pre-Jungle marathon goal I set myself. 

The last few km were so wet that it was like running through a stream... my feet took a bit of a battering, as you can see from the photo below. It's definitely time to start looking after my feet better!

I went out for an easy run this afternoon to see how my hamstring was. I only ran for around an hour, but could definitely feel that something wasn't quite right. The last thing I want is to get injured so close to the race and so my plan is to take things a bit easy over the next few days! I'll make the days productive by sorting out lots of the equipment and food that I need to take with me and do some more research into the race. I've been reading Mark Hines book about the Jungle Marathon- a fantastic read, especially for anyone interested in the competing in the race. I've got to a bit about lots of competitors going on drips and others dropping out of the race and being taken to hospital in the middle of the night- scary stuff, especially considering that the nearest hospital is 24 hours away!

Hill training in Wiltshire!

My good friend TJ invited me to the Wiltshire countryside today to do some proper hill training in preparation for the hilly Jungle stages.

Although a fantastic experience, today's training session has really brought home the enormity of the Jungle Marathon challenge.

I'm sat on a train back to London completely exhausted after running up and down hills for hours on end in the baking heat. However, far from being satisfied for having completed a tough training session, I'm worried... The thing is that today is nothing compared to what I'll be doing in the Jungle- there I'll be doing similar (if not harder) courses in 40+ degrees and 99% humidity. I really struggled today and I need to rapidly improve my hill running.

I've had some really tough and gruelling training sessions this week, but it's not enough. Next week I have to up the mileage, up the hills and up the pain if I'm going to do well in this race. 

Now time for an ice bath and an early night! 

Me in Wiltshire

One of today's hills (legs are full of scratches and bites)

UVU Jungle Warrior training!

I planned to have an easy training day today and so I thought I'd try out the 'Jungle Warrior Camp', which is a collaboration between Third Space Gyms in London and the race sponsor UVU. It was taking place in the pokey dojo and the usual instructor was on holiday and so I was expecting it to be a piece of cake. How wrong I was!!!

Courtesy of our trainer Carl Wilson, I discovered the delights of Tabata interval training. It consists of 20 seconds of ultra-intense exercise, followed by 10 seconds rest, repeated 8 times. After doing this for squats, burpees, push ups, lunges and a bunch of other evil exercises, I was well and truly broken. 

It was a completely different type of workout to what I'm used to and it seriously hurt! It's definitely a class I'll go to every week now. It's available to the public too for £10 and so drop me a message if you'd like more details.

It's gonna hurt!

I've been lucky enough to be put in touch with a really cool guy called Darren who has run the jungle marathon twice before. He's given me some great training and equipment tips and some really good words of advice. One bit of advice really stuck: "it's the competitors who are mentally the toughest who do the best and you're gonna get through this if you realise now that it's going to hurt like hell regardless and you're gonna be a mess afterwards!"

This is the week that I'm going to really up my training. The jungle course is apparently very hilly and so I'm going to hill train as much as I can. I ran up and down Primrose Hill 20 times last night followed by a 10km run and this evening I ran 25km in just over 2 hours.

I plan to do the hill reps again tomorrow and on Saturday I'm planning on doing a 60km run!!!

Here's a photo from this evening's run by Albert Bridge in Battersea :)

Friday night marathons

It's 22.30 on Friday and far from chilling out and enjoying the warm evening, I've just got in from running 26 miles along the Thames path. I ran it in around 3 hours 10 minutes and so I'm really pleased with the pace and it means that I can have the day off tomorrow for the Olympic footy final! I've really got to start paying more attention to nutrition though as 3 bottles of lucozade sport every time I go running can't be good for me!

Squeezing in training wherever and whenever possible!

I've found myself going everywhere with my running gear in a back pack, trying to fit in training runs! As I had tickets for the Olympic Games athletics yesterday evening and I was working in Surrey in the daytime, I jumped off the train home a few stops early so that I could squeeze in a run!

CNN votes Jungle Marathon 'The toughest endurance challenge in the World!'

http://www.cnngo.com/explorations/escape/worlds-toughest-endurance-challenges-152211

Preparing for the 100km stage!

As I mentioned in an earlier post, only 14 people finished the 100km stage in last year's race. I suppose this isn't surprising considering that it's 2 and a half marathons in 1 day! I think that this is where huge amounts of time can be won and lost in the race and so I am going to prepare as much as I can for this stage. Ideally over the next 6 weeks I will do a 50km run, followed by a 60km, 70km and 84km run and I'd aim to do all the runs at 3 hour 30 marathon pace (12km/h).

On Saturday I ran my first ultra-marathon. An ultra-marathon is any distance over the marathon distance of 26 miles and I managed to run 30 miles (50km). It was a long and lonely run up the Thames Path, but I managed to make a few friends along the way to pass some of the time. It took 4 hours and 10 minutes and I was pleased that I managed to run at 3 hours 30 minutes marathon pace. It had been a really tough week before the run as I had moved house and had a busy week of work and so it was great to get a long run like this under my belt. As you can see from the 2 videos attached, I was really struggling and there is still a long way to go before I'm in Jungle Marathon shape!!!

Running a marathon!

I discovered that I would be running in the race at the beginning of June, which left 4 months of training, as the race begins on 4th October. Although I'd been staying reasonably fit by going to the gym, my last competitive marathon was back in 2007 and so there was a lot of catching up to do in a short space of time. As the race will be self-sufficient (I'll be carrying all my food and equipment on my back), I decided that I would do all my training with a back pack in preparation. There will also be lots of water crossings and so it's important that i get used to running with wet feet. I will therefore wet my feet wherever possible during runs.

I set myself the challenge of getting up to marathon distance as quickly as possible. After building up my training over the first few weeks, I managed to run my first marathon on July 5th and then another the following weekend in 3 hours 20 minutes.

Although well short of my personal best, it was a huge confidence boost to have built up to a marathon in just 4 weeks. Here's a photo from mile 22. I'm wearing prototype UVU jungle gear that's been specifically designed to suit the jungle conditions. I'm fortunate enough to be one of the first athletes to run the Jungle Marathon in such specialised gear.

As you can see I'm stood in water to get used to training with wet feet!

Selected to be a UVU Brand Athlete!

My name is Duncan MacRae and I've been fortunate enough to be chosen to represent performance clothing specialists UVU in this year's Jungle Marathon!

Its the equivalent of 6 marathons in 6 days across the Amazon Rainforest, where temperatures will reach 40 degrees and humidity is up to 95%!

I'd been looking for a challenge for some time and in a twist of fate I was chosen as a model for a UVU photo shoot. Upon discovering that UVU are sponsoring this year's Jungle marathon, I became obsessed with the idea of entering. CNN voted the race 'the toughest endurance race in the World' and only 14 people finished the 100km stage in last year's race- this is certainly going to be the toughest thing I've ever done and I'd like to share my journey by writing this blog!