Marathon des Sables

Entry for June 01, 2008

It was an interesting training walk today. I added weight to the pack to start getting used to having a weight of 15 to 20kg. I also increased the distance to 20km.

Hmmm - I shouldn't have done both on the same day. My shoulders hurt, I have blisters on my feet and I'm a physical wreck. But it was a good walk. Next time however, it'll be back to 15km, but with the extra weight in the pack. I'll keep it at 15km for a while.

Sugar wise, I made some mistakes during this walk. I am practising with the food as well as the other things and, being a longer walk, I was eating dried apricots. I went through almost 200g of them. My sugar during the walk was fine, without any fuss at all. 200g of dried apricots will do that. However Sunday night / Monday morning I could feel that the sugar was a little high. Tuesday morning, around about morning tea time, my sugar dropped suddenly. I was able to catch it with my emergency lollies but it was not a good situation, as I was at work and needing to function. I'm presuming that the problem was that I over did the apricots on Sunday, leading to a high level. Then Tuesday morning I had the low that sometimes follows a high.

Either that, or it's just the slight winter "bug" that I have that has led to wobbly sugar.

Training - 4 hours (and 5 minutes) - 20km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 2 units in the morning and by 1 unit in the evening

Courtesy of Darbaroud - http://www.darbaroud.com/index_uk.php

Entry for June 07, 2008

Today was a brilliant walk. I did 20km, but with a lighter pack.

I set out just before dawn and paced myself carefully. It was all very calm and peaceful and the walking was brilliant.

The pack is fantastic, the boots are brilliant; it's all coming together well.

Training - 4 hours - 20km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 2 units in the morning

Entry for June 09, 2008

Today was a 14km walk, but with the heavier pack. I'm gradually learning to slow myself down and not go charging off like a bull at a gate.

The weather was overcast, but quite mild and no wind. I learned that if I pull one of the adjustments on the pack a little too hard, I'll cut of the blood supply to my arms. With the pack at about 11kg, it definitely makes a significant difference. I am aiming to raise the weight to between 16 and 20kg over time.

The next walk will be 20km with the lighter pack.

Training - 3 hours - 14km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 2 units in the morning

Entry for June 12, 2008

Well, things are starting to get interesting. One of the local papers is showing interest about doing a story. It may happen in the next couple of weeks.

Entry for June 15, 2008

Excellent walk today. I was right in "the zone", and everything felt just right.

I found an adjustment on the pack that was essential to know about. It's a little embarrassing that I didn't already know about it, so I'm not going to say what it was. However I've found it now and the pack now fits like a second skin.

I realised this morning that I need a way to judge how my sugar is going while I'm walking. I came up with the idea of having some mental gymnastics, such as running through the 2 parts of "Peter Piper", or "Sally sells sea shells".

I have two requests for you.
1/ Take 2 minutes to click on the email button at the top of this page and send me a note to tell me that you've been on this page
2/ Send me some ideas for some mental gymnastics. I'll appreciate it.

Training - 4 hours 15 minutes - 20km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 2 units in the morning

Entry for June 21, 2008

Today's walk was another brilliant walk. And the lesson today was about managing adversity.

The weather was an example of what many in other parts of Oz consider to be a typical Melbourne day. I had a combination of cold, rain, wind, dry, all mixed up and presented every 7 minutes. I even almost had some sun. So the adversity this morning came from the poor weather, which meant I was doing a Homer - poncho goes on, poncho goes off, poncho goes on ..... you get the point. A very interesting affect of this was that I completely forgot about the heavy pack and the distance, so before I knew it the walk was almost over and the heavy pack was no problem at all.

A result of today's experience is that I will be buying one of the expensive ponchos I saw a few weeks ago. I've got two Melbourne winters to train through, so I'll get my money's worth from it.

I'm tossing up whether I should increase either the weight or the distance next weekend. I haven't decided yet.

Training - 4 hours - 20km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 2 units in the morning

Entry for June 29, 2008

I upped the ante today, doing 24km and raising the weight by about 3kg. The weather was pretty ordinary being overcast, threatening rain and lots of wind. Urgh.

The main concern today wasn't the weather or the weight or the distance, but the sugar. I haven't entirely figured out what I need to adjust, but by 15km I was walking along with double vision. It's a little disconcerting, let me tell you. I ate quite a few apricots, but they didn't fix it. After 3km of double vision I finally decided to stop and have a fruit juice. That was the rocket fuel I needed and the double vision was gone within 5 minutes.

Now I have to work out what needs adjusting. I can't have the fruit juice during the actual event, so I can't risk getting like that. My first thought is to reduce the morning dosage by another couple of units and eat a few more apricots earlier in the walk. It makes sense, but only time will tell if this is what I need to do.

Next week I'll do the same walk under the same conditions, only walking in reverse direction instead.

Training - 4 hours 45 minutes - 24km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 3 units in the morning and 2 units in the evening

Entry for July 05, 2008

Today was maybe the best walk I've done yet. The weather was almost perfect and I felt good for the whole walk.

I had a little run-in with a dog, but the sunglasses got it again. They don't like my sunglasses, that's for sure. I enthralled two herds of cows, who insisted on following me along the paddock fence. And I saw three kangaroos grazing on the grass in an orchard. Life is good in outer Melbourne.

My sugar was fine this morning. I reduced my dosage by 2 units compared to last week, which means a total of 5 units from normal, and everything seemed better. I'll consider dropping by another 2 units next weekend, but I'll decide closer to the time. I did feel much better during the walk and after, with no adverse affects at all.

I think I've got the pack fully sussed. So long as I keep it adjusted, it fits like a glove. There's no lower back pain, no shoulder pain - I'm up to roughly 12 or 13kgs. I'll raise the weight again in a month or two.

Training - 4 hours 40 minutes - 24km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 5 units in the morning and 2 units in the evening

Entry for July 13, 2008

The sugar was not a problem at all today. I've dropped it by another 2 units over the top of last week and I think this might be the correct level for this distance.

I had a wide range of weather today from still and cool, through cold and windy, still and sunny to windy, cold and raining. There was nothing consistent about the weather today.

The pack was excellent, the weight not being any problem. The problem today was that I've suffered my first injury. I haven't figured out yet exactly what it is, but my big toe on my left foot is very, very sore indeed. The boots are fantastic and enabled me to continue walking with little problem, but now I'm home it's killing me. It might be bad enough that I can't walk this week.

These boots are so good that I wouldn't be surprised if I could still walk if I had a broken toe.

The injury is going to be any one of a strain injury, a touch of arthritis or possibly even a touch of gout. I have no idea what it is; I just know that it hurts.

Training - 5 hours 5 minutes - 24km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 7 units in the morning and 2 units in the evening

Entry for July 16, 2008

The TOE update. :-( ( sigh )

Wow, my toe is really sore. It might not sound like much, but I might not be able to train for a couple of weeks. I'm trying a few things, like strapping it up, but so far I'm still hobbled.

I know! It's devastating, isn't it. But hang in there; I'm working on it and will keep you informed.

One exciting piece of news is that I've received another "comment" on my Enough Rope proposal. I don't know how many I need before they ask me on to the show, but there's 5 now. Maybe soon. You can read the comments at Enough Rope.

Entry for July 19, 2008

I've been brave, taken a gamble and gone for a careful walk. But in a concerted effort to avoid making my toe worse, I have made it a shorter distance (15km) and a light pack (about 5kg). And what a revelation!

By walking carefully, concentrating on not hurting my toe, it's changed the whole dynamic of the walk. Believe it or not, I finished in a faster time than I normally would have. Plus I feel like a million bucks after the walk, instead of dragging myself around like I'm half dead. It's quite extraordinary.

I'm going to maybe go for another 15km walk tomorrow, but I haven't decided yet.

The lesson today is that it could be worthwhile taking a week break at times through the training. A fresh start has benefits.

Training - 2 hours 50 minutes - 15.3km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 5 units in the morning and 2 units in the evening

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Entry for July 26, 2008

Today's walk, which I finished only 30 minutes ago, was quite a strange mixture. Obviously I was extra careful about my toe, which appears to be improving, and had only a light pack as a consequence. The early part of the walk, in cold, still, pre-dawn, was excellent. But then about half way through I started to suffer various little twinges. I worked out that I should have started the apricots earlier than I did, so had to catch up with the sugar just a tiny tad. Sadly that put a dampner on the rest of the walk, so note-to-self - DON'T DO IT AGAIN.

By the time I had concluded that I wasn't doing well, I decided to stop and sit for a rest. I did this twice, so thought my time was way off. However when I got home I discovered that I was right on time. What a surprise.

My toe did well, my sugar did well overall and generally I feel OK. I rate this walk only 5 / 10.

Training - 4 hours 50 minutes - 22.5km
Medication - reduced normal dosage by 7 units in the morning and 2 units in the evening