Saturday 2nd Feb - 30 miler
Decided to get the 30 miler over and done with as soon as possible on Saturday so I began the long slog at 6.30am. It started out dark and cold but soon the sun came up and it turned into a gorgeous day. I ran over to Richmond Park and met up with a mate of mine and we did two laps together. I left him having run 24 miles and continued on back home. By this stage I was tired but mentally I was shot so the last 8 miles were a real grind. With a mixture of running and walking I managed to get home for lunch, 32 miles to the good, and settle in to watch the 6 Nations - all in all a complete waste of a day, but good to have got in done!Looking forward to slightly less miles this week.
Walking is boring! 10th Feb
A relatively easy week of running this week - just 36 miles, but the tough circuits on Tuesday night made it a lot more uncomfortable. Did my first "sweat run" in the gym. This involved a jacket and wooly hat and running hard for an hour - obviously got the odd looks that I deserved!The main exercise of the weekend was a long walk as I have been advised to practice walking as well as running as we will inevitably walk a fair bit out in the desert. I hate walking, and I hate doing it even more with a 20 kg pack on. By the end of the 5 hours and 18 miles the straps were really digging in and I had had enough, and the only saving grace was that the weather was glorious. Despite it being long and lonely it was a really useful thing to do. I woke up on Sunday with a sore back and painful legs in different places from the usual running aches, so clearly walking works different muscles - something else that now needs conditioning!We're running on fear now as we have just 48 days to go. The big run for this week is the overnight 50 miler. The plan is to get the train to Maidenhead after work on Friday and run through the night along the Thames path until we finish outside St Thomas's hospital at about 9am. In a sick sort of way I am actually looking forward to it! An imminent pyschological evaluation is needed methinks!
The 50 Miler - 17th Feb
The 30 minute train journey from Paddington to Maidenhead after work on Friday gave Jimmy and I just enough time to properly contemplate what we were about to do, and we both concluded that this little adventure was truly idiotic! In order to try and recreate the physical and mental exhaustion that we will undoubtedly experience in the desert, we attempted to run 50 miles through the night, using torchlight, carrying heavy packs and finishing outside the Neonatal unit at St Thomas' Hospital. Having met Duncan and Pete, two other lads doing the MDS this year, we set off at 7.20pm and headed straight to the Thames Path. Our plan was to run for 30 minutes and walk for 5, and this seemed to work pretty well by the time we had completed 20 miles and we stopped for some dinner at Midnight.
Personally I was struggling from the start with tight hips, but I was content to just plod along as the pace (thankfully) was not exactly electric. We nailed 30 miles and with just 20 more to go I was quietly confident that we would finish well within our 12 hour estimate. It was on mile 33 however that the proverbial wheels came off. Jimmy picked up an injury to his right knee, and in my attempt to sympathise with him, I began to feel a lot of pain at the back of my left knee. Try as I might, I just couldn't run any further, so we were forced to walk the last 17 miles. 
It was about 5 o'clock in the morning so still dark and frosty, so without the heat we normally generated through running, we soon began to get very cold. It was agony knowing that we were so close yet so far from the end. We were averaging just 4 miles an hour and it felt even slower as we crawled past well known landmarks such as Richmond, Putney and Fulham that we would normally breeze through. In the end it took us 13 hours and we covered 51 miles. Our feet were bruised, knees throbbed, and for some reason our hands were really swollen (I still don't know why?!). Undoubtedly it was tough, and physically there is still a lot of work to do, but mentally I hope that it was a useful exercise and that we are now stronger because of it - God knows we will need to be in about 38 days time!
Easier week - 25th Feb
After the pain of the 50 miler, I decided it best to take it relatively easy this week. Although the legs recovered pretty quickly, the pain and cracks made it clear that the hips and knees needed a bit more time. (Jimmy will update you on his condition in due course!)So it was a week packed with plenty of stretching, swimming and a couple of runs. With just a 13 miler on the Saturday it was an easy weekend. I was due to do another 13 on Sunday, but I'm afraid that the lure of the sofa proved too strong, but I made up for it this morning by running 16 miles before work.It is all getting very real now. A lot of the kit is beginning to arrive, and the days for training are rapidly running out. The training peaks over the next two weeks. We've got just 18 running days left in which we'll cover 230 miles. That seems a lot but somehow I wish we could do more!Hope to see you at the party on 6th March if you can make it.
The 30 minute train journey from Paddington to Maidenhead after work on Friday gave Jimmy and I just enough time to properly contemplate what we were about to do, and we both concluded that this little adventure was truly idiotic! In order to try and recreate the physical and mental exhaustion that we will undoubtedly experience in the desert, we attempted to run 50 miles through the night, using torchlight, carrying heavy packs and finishing outside the Neonatal unit at St Thomas' Hospital. Having met Duncan and Pete, two other lads doing the MDS this year, we set off at 7.20pm and headed straight to the Thames Path. Our plan was to run for 30 minutes and walk for 5, and this seemed to work pretty well by the time we had completed 20 miles and we stopped for some dinner at Midnight.
Personally I was struggling from the start with tight hips, but I was content to just plod along as the pace (thankfully) was not exactly electric. We nailed 30 miles and with just 20 more to go I was quietly confident that we would finish well within our 12 hour estimate. It was on mile 33 however that the proverbial wheels came off. Jimmy picked up an injury to his right knee, and in my attempt to sympathise with him, I began to feel a lot of pain at the back of my left knee. Try as I might, I just couldn't run any further, so we were forced to walk the last 17 miles. It was about 5 o'clock in the morning so still dark and frosty, so without the heat we normally generated through running, we soon began to get very cold. It was agony knowing that we were so close yet so far from the end. We were averaging just 4 miles an hour and it felt even slower as we crawled past well known landmarks such as Richmond, Putney and Fulham that we would normally breeze through. In the end it took us 13 hours and we covered 51 miles. Our feet were bruised, knees throbbed, and for some reason our hands were really swollen (I still don't know why?!). Undoubtedly it was tough, and physically there is still a lot of work to do, but mentally I hope that it was a useful exercise and that we are now stronger because of it - God knows we will need to be in about 38 days time!Easier week - 25th FebAfter the pain of the 50 miler, I decided it best to take it relatively easy this week. Although the legs recovered pretty quickly, the pain and cracks made it clear that the hips and knees needed a bit more time. (Jimmy will update you on his condition in due course!)So it was a week packed with plenty of stretching, swimming and a couple of runs. With just a 13 miler on the Saturday it was an easy weekend. I was due to do another 13 on Sunday, but I'm afraid that the lure of the sofa proved too strong, but I made up for it this morning by running 16 miles before work.It is all getting very real now. A lot of the kit is beginning to arrive, and the days for training are rapidly running out. The training peaks over the next two weeks. We've got just 18 running days left in which we'll cover 230 miles. That seems a lot but somehow I wish we could do more!Hope to see you at the party on 6th March if you can make it.
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