South Downs Way 100 Preparation

It's 36 days from now (15 June) that the South Downs Way 100 starts. For those of you not in the know, this is a trail / path between Winchester and Eastbourne in the South of England and is 100 miles (160 km) long. The event organised by Centurion Running and the intention is to finish it within 30 hours.
It starts the 15th June at 0600 so you should be done by the 16th of June 1200. If you finish within 24 hours you will get the buckle that proofs you did it in one day. Which is what I am aiming for, but if I finish in 29 hours and 59 minutes I will be equally happy.
Why do I want to finish in 24 hours? This would enable me to register for Badwater Ultra and/or Spartathlon.

The above picture is courtesy of http://www.britainexpress.com/countryside/national-trails/south-downs.htm

I believe that I have secured a pacer for the last 30 miles. Thank you Wayde.
I also believe I've secured a sleeping place the night before. Thank you Jackie and Ollie.
I now need to work out how many dropsbags and what to put in them.

Despite it's going to be hard, it's going to be different from the MdS. It's a one day event, I don't really have to carry food, just water. There are about 15 aid stations with different distances. So it will be a case of running aid station to aid station. A good indicator will be going through aid station 2 which is 22.6 miles in and about 12 miles from aid station 1. So getting through that will mean less than 80 miles to go.

Tomorrow the Transvulcania starts in Las Palmas and like from last weeks runners in the Giant's Causeway I will draw motivation from that. As well as all the stories that you can leave on my Facebook page or in comment of this blog. Or twitter them if you are a person of few words.

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Interestingly is that finishing the SDW100 would give me 4 UTMB points, together with the 3 from the MdS I can actually enter the ballot. Which I may do. UTMB, despite being iconic it is not really on my list at this moment in time.

So as it's called preparation, what am I doing:
I've so far secured a pacer from mile 70. Which is important as it's 50K to go through the dark.
I've been running on the South Downs Way, Winchester side twice now c.10 mile in. So that part I'm comfortable with.
I hope that I can actually do some running at the Clayton Windmills area as that is the last 30 miles, which means when it's dark and it's the where people get lost part.
I've been running in the hilliest (not very really) parts of Richmond Park, but if you run up and down them enough, it will start to hurt. And it's around the corner, Clayton Windmills is 70 miles and Winchester is about 40 miles so quite a distance for a run. But very beautiful, so it's worthwhile going there.
And I just run, or swim or go to the gym. Whatever, makes me get up and move.

For the rest there isn't much I can do. But I'm drawing motivation from others, as I said.

So for now, going to watch some tv and rest.

Speak soon

Part 4 of the new year

Well I guess it is really coming closer. I've sorted my food. An eclectic mix of Mountain House www.mountainhouse.eu, Expedition Food www.expeditionfoods.comand and Reiter Travel Lunch. Using some stuff I had and ordered some new. Mountain House 2*1190 calorie spaghetti and a load of high energy breakfasts from Expedition Food.

Now I need my snacks. I am talking with makers of bounce balls www.bouncefoods.com and the makers of chimpanzee bars http://www.chimpanzeebar.com to see if they are so friendly to donate some food in exchange for wearing their flag on my bag or shirts.

I also decided on my shirts (Under Armour Heat Gear) and have ordered a 2XU short/compression tight integrated. Not sure about the 2XU one, depends on how tight. Would have liked to try a Salomon one Exo S-Lab Twin Skin Short but out all are out of stock.

I have decided on my shoes The North Face Hayasa and I will go to the recommend Clapham cobbler. Recommended by two well known MdS runners, namely Simon Martin and Wayde Edwards. I was thinking of putting middle nick names for them but couldn't think of any.

The main item not decided on is my sleeping bag. Yes I have one but I doubt that even with a silk liner it will do.

I've taken up sleeping in the spare room with my Klymit mat and Bench Mummy sleeping bag as part of the training. Not comfortable yet with my Klymit. So that has to improve otherwise I may re-think.

Hot Bikram Yoga has commenced again. I've added treadmill running and have been able to be on a treadmill for 50 minutes with a 10k bag. It's not the 10k bag, it's the boring as hell treadmill that is the issue.

I'm lucky, my doctor will do my ECG and form, however I am not as lucky as other people who'se doctor isn't charging. But can't complain, saves me a trip to Stevenage.

I've also got myself a cheap £8 mp3 player with 8Gb and normal battery. For when I need a boost. I did ask some old pro-cyclists for some boost advice but they could help out in the desert.

I've seen a really light weight (57 gr) jacket that is on my list. For those chilly nights.

I'm doing probably not enough running, but it's augmented by lots of other activity (Cardio, Yoga, Pilates, Weights, Cycling, Swimming (not a lot)), so I'm quite comfortable that in about 66 days I will be there and ready.

So for now, another episode done and some more browsing for stuff I need.


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