Last week of training before Brazil!

Another round of vaccinations left me with two dead arms again and another less than perfect training week. With the race so close I wasn't too concerned about training less as I didn't want to be worn out for when the race starts.

However, I did squeeze in a Tabata interval session (see earlier blogs for details) and this involved 480 body weight squats and 480 lunges... needless to say I couldn't walk the next day, but still a great session to build confidence before the race. 

Once again the focus of the week would be heading down to Dorset to re-run the Dorset Doddle Ultra-marathon course. Storms were predicted and it had already been raining for 24 hours.

I set off from Weymouth and even the kite surfers were struggling with the strong winds. My new shoes couldn't find grip and a number of times I found myself either on my backside or slipping down hills. The going was slow and 5 hours in to my run I was losing daylight and the winds were picking up. I had only passed about 3 people on the footpaths all day, which gives you an idea of how horrible the conditions were. It became too dangerous to run as I was running along the cliff edge and so I had to cut the run short. I ran for about 6 hours and only managed 28 miles, but it was a gritty and dangerous run and the perfect way to end my preparation for the toughest footrace in the World!

The Dorset Doddle

Mark Hines, the author of The Jungle Marathon book, told me that if I could tackle the hills on the South West Coastal path in Dorset, then nothing in the Jungle would be a surprise. As I was growing concerned about my lack of hill running experience and preparation, I decided that heading down to the coastal path was a must.

Unfortunately, my week's training had been less than ideal, as I was suffering after having lots of vaccinations ready for Brazil. With 2 dead arms and a weakened immune system, I had taken my week's training easy, but set myself the challenge of the coastal path at the weekend.

After a 3 hour train ride from London I arrived in the seaside town of Weymouth with the intention of running along the coast to Swanage. I chose one of the toughest sections of the coastal path to run along and I later discovered that the route I ran is actually the route of an ultra-marathon called the Dorset Doddle (a doddle it wasn't). 

There are so many hills along the course that it's the equivalent to going up and down Mount Snowdon and Ben Nevis (2 of the highest UK mountains) in 1 run. Thankfully it was a beautiful day and so it was ideal for heat training and the scenery was breathtaking! 

Despite running low on water a number of times, I finished the run in 6 hours 30 minutes. The winner of Dorset Doddle tends to take 5 hours 30 minutes and so my time didn't seem too bad considering I had a 10kg back pack to carry. 

Hills, hills and more hills!

Monday- rest
Tuesday- rest
Wednesday- 40x Primrose Hill
Thursday- gym session
Friday- 24km
Saturday- 21km at Box Hill
Sunday- 23km at Box Hill

After last week's high mileage, my goal this week was to run up as many hills as possible! The jungle course is notoriously hilly and I've been told that this year is going to be hillier than ever.

After a great session on Primrose Hill (see previous blog) I hit the gym hard on Thursday, doing more Tabata training. When you're short of time there's no better way to maximise your work out. As I've mentioned previously, Tabata interval training involves 20 seconds of intense exercise (such as push up), followed by 10 seconds recovery, repeated 8 times.

I did 2x squats, push ups and lunges + one extra squats, which took just 42 minutes. It really hurt, especially after Primrose Hill on the previous day and hopefully sessions like this will improve my strength on the hills!

Living in London isn't ideal for hill training and so after a flat 24km run along the River Thames on Friday, I headed out of London to Box Hill for my weekend runs. The trails on the North Downs Way are the closest thing I have found to how I imagine the jungle trails will be and my average speed of  9km/h (compared to 12km/h on flat ground) shows how hilly the course is. I ran up as many hills as I could find and repeated this run on the Sunday as well!

Hopefully my body is starting to adapt to hill running. It's definitely going to remain the focus of my training until I leave in 2 weeks. On the advice of Mark Hines (author of The Jungle Marathon book) I have decided against running the Windsor Ultra (75km along The Thames) as the course is too flat. Instead I will head down to Dorset to tackle the hilly paths of the Jurassic Coast!!!

The beautiful North Downs Way at Box Hill

One of the hills on the North Downs Way

40 times up and down Primrose Hill!

Hill training is a form of interval training, as you work hard on the uphill climb and actively recover on the way down. It can increase your lung capacity, improve muscle strength and it definitely tests your mental strength!

Primrose Hill in Regent's Park is one of the few places in Central London suitable for hill training. It provides a great combination of elevation and distance and hopefully there won't be too many steeper hills in the jungle! I picked a hot and sunny Wednesday afternoon to tackle Primrose Hill and whilst most people were sunbathing, I set myself the challenge of running up and down 40 times! The most I'd done before this point was 20, but hill running is definitely my weakness and so it was time to take drastic action! 

An hour and a half later and after lots of funny looks I hit my target of 40 repetitions! My legs felt like jelly, but this was a great confidence boost and a sign that my hill running is improving! 

A 17km run home rounded off a great day's training!

100 mile week!!!

After the slight injury niggle that I wrote about it my last blog, I'm really pleased to report that that I had a great week's training. Unfortunately there was no time for any hills, but I upped the mileage to 100 miles and ran another 60km on Saturday!

Sometimes rest days are just as important as trainining days so after running my first 60km I decided to take 2 rest days to allow some extra recovery time. It seemed to do the trick as I've had no injury worries since :)

On Tuesday I visited Kew Gardens (The Royal Botanic Gardens) for a day out. I was particularly keen to experience the 'tropics zone' in the Palm house to see some of the Jungle plant species and also feel the heat and humidity there. It gave me a good idea of how humid its going to be and even walking up a small flight of stairs to see the 'canopy' was hard work!

I ran home from Kew, which was around half a marathon and then I followed this up with another half marathon on Wednesday.

I then ran a slow 36km around Hyde Park on Thursday and followed this up with a nice cold ice bath!

Apparently ice baths speed up recovery by draining the blood from the legs and then when you get out of the bath and warm up, fresh oxygenated blood fills the legs.

I had another rest day on Friday with a massage, before the dreaded 60km on Saturday! I followed exactly the same route as I did the week before and this time I stayed much better hydrated (I drank 2.5 litres of fluid made up of 3 0.5L electrolyte waters, a lucozade and a powerade). 

Even without high energy jelly beans I knocked 25 minutes of my previous time (finishing in 4 hours 45 minutes and averaging 12.6km/h, which is 3 hours 20 minute marathon pace) and that included wading along the flooded river bank in Richmond- excellent Jungle preparation! 

I also got chance to test some of the UVU gear that is similar to what I'll be wearing to race in! It's all top secret as it's not been released yet, but I can tell you it does some really cool temperature regulation stuff!

I decided to train on the Sunday as well rather than resting- I have to get used to running far on consecutive days and so I ran another half marathon on the Sunday. 

A really good week's training, but now my focus has to be on hills! With just 3 weeks to go until I fly to Brazil, I'm going to put myself through some really tough hill training sessions rather than long runs!