Mountains, Dunes and Hot Yoga

Most of my recent training has been in the gym, doing as much low impact exercise – walking on a steep incline on the treadmill, or on the elliptical cross trainer.  I think it has managed to maintain my fitness as much as I could have hoped for, though obviously it’s not ideal.  Having said that, either way I will be doing a lot of walking in the Sahara, and the elliptical cross trainer movement seems like a good approximation for running in sand… so hopefully there has been a bit of a silver lining!

It was A LOT windier than it looks!

I've had the last two weekends up in the Lakes where I've been doing some fast walking with a pack up mountains.  The first Saturday outing was over Grisdale Pike and behind VERY windy – I almost got blown off the top!  I got some ITB twinges but they weren't bad considering, given the wind though and me building confidence in my legs again I decided not to stay up high for too long (the gusts were making me land in odd positions on my legs) and not to push my luck.  So I didn't go too far but got some good ascent in and resistance against the wind over the three hours or so I was out.

The next morning I went to a local smaller hill called Barf which is next to Bassenthwaite Lake and has some good scree up the first couple of hundred meters which I did (almost) five reps over an hour up to a white painted rock call the Bishop (I was running out of time and didn't want to push my ITB).  I felt very good and strong and fitter than I had expected which was a good boost.  I hand only slight ITB twinges but not bad really considering I was actually running downhill. No problems on the uphill at all, so hopefully I should be good at getting up things – might just be slower than others going down.

Last weekend I drove up to the Lakes on the Saturday morning and parked at Seathwaite and went over Styhead Pass to Wasdale Head, incorporating two or three hundred meters of ascent on scree low down on Great Gable (I could really feel my calfs going up the steep scree).  The cloud was low and it was very gusty so I decided it was best not to go to high and focus on the training.  I came back via Sprinkling Tarn, being tempted to go up Scarfell Pike which felt very close, but I was running out of time again – and best not to tempt fate with the leg at this point!  Again some ITB twinges going downhill but not too bad really. 

I did all of these sessions in my smaller pair of my Brooks Cascadia I’m using for the MdS – so some good exercise for the ankles.

The view was stunning!

On my way back south on Sunday I took in a trip to Formby beach – my last opportunity before the MdS and I wanted to test out my legs in the dunes and test out my gaiters.  I got some (ok a lot!) very funny looks in the car park in my gaiters with my Raidlight bottles and pack – given the location I must have looked very strange.  I would have thought I’d feel self-conscious, but as in the gym with all my layers on, I weirdly quite like the attention, even though everyone thinks I’m potty!

 It was a lot of fun as always and I actually managed to get some running in which was good for my confidence.  I did start to feel my ITB after an hour or so of running up and down dunes but after a couple of minutes walking it loosened out nicely.  I got some good reps done up and down dues despite the wind trying to blind me with sand and I found some nice people to take a couple of photos for me…  My MdS shoes were nice and comfy, if a bit loose, with my toe socks and X-socks metal.  The gaiters kept the sand out well, despite running through some knee deep fine sand on the dunes.  The front of the gaiters did start lifting off the velcro a bit but never got to the point where any sand got in.  I think this was probably my fault for attaching the Velcro from the back first and working forward as my shoes are at the lower end of the size range so stretching the elastic creates some slack – just a question of learning.

I managed to get some poor man who was trying to enjoy the view to take this - I think he thought he should call the men white coats...

In other news I’ve seen the Physio a couple more times and the effect feels positive – I just need to re-build my confidence in my legs; most of this experience is psychological after all.

I’ve started getting into the Hot Yoga properly now, building up the number of sessions I’m doing each week (3 last week, hopefully 4-5 this week and 6 next week…).  I wouldn't really call what I’m doing proper yoga (I’m rubbish at it) but the stretching and heat are good.  The studio I’m going to uses radiant heat panels rather than air conditioning which heat the body rather than the surrounding air, so while the air temperature might not be as hot as say in Bikram yoga, it does get the core body temperature well up!  I've also been combining this with my ‘Michelin man’ sessions at the gym first to de-hydrate a bit and get the core temperature up for a good period before going in.  I certainly start sweating a lot quicker having done the exercise beforehand!  I’m thinking of maybe extending the heat element by wearing a black long sleeve top and maybe leggings but bit by bit!  We’ll see how that goes! 

3 x 25 Miles Back-to-Back

It’s been a relatively quiet period since the Pilgrims Challenge, with me trying to rest my ITB hoping it will sort itself, and getting a nasty cold which wrote off training up in the lakes.  I've started doing some hot yoga, which I had planned to do anyway as party of an attempt to acclimatize to the Saharan temperatures, but which is also really good for stretching things out.

I had planned to do a big three back-to-back session last weekend (aiming for 3 x 25 miles) and started out with 5-6 kg on my back on the Saturday, planning to run up to Hebden Bridge from Salford up the Rochdale Canal (28.5 miles), extending the run I did last year.  I could feel my ITB twinging from the beginning but it didn't seem to get any worse so I kept going. Then at 18 miles-ish I felt it go properly and so that was the running finished for the day.  I kept going, walking as fast as I could manage, up to Walsden (22.5 miles and 4.5 hours on the move), from where I caught the train back down to Manchester – frustrating but at least the scenery was beautiful, particularly the part I hadn't done before over Littleborough Summit to Walsden. Not an entire loss!

At this point I gave up trying to push things any further by running the following two days, which would have just made things worse with the leg, and so I decided to do the sessions in the gym instead.  Not quite the adventure that I had hoped for; on the Sunday I had planned to run up the Ashton Canal up to Diggle where it (called the Huddersfield narrow canal at this point) goes into a tunnel under the Pennines.  Anyway I got 4.5 hours done in the gym on the Sunday and another 4 hours on the Monday, alternating between fast walking up a 10% gradient (at first at least!) on the treadmill, and time on the elliptical cross trainer with the same pack as the first day (30 mins each and then repeat).  This was the best thing I could think of that would be low impact and minimise aggravating my ITB but still get the extended period of exercise in.  I think it worked but it was VERY boring!  I wasn't as sore afterwards as I expected – I don’t know if that was as a result of the reduced impact, or if the intensity was lower – hopefully the former!

Anyway I think I am going to have to restrict my exercise to the Yoga and this gym work over the next few weeks to let my ITB heal; and spend lots of time on the foam roller!

In other news, I now have my shoes back from the Shoe Healer with the Velcro on and my Gaiters fit nicely – just need to test them out now.  Otherwise I have procured all of the main things (I think!) I need, except for the camera and sunglasses. Need to whittle everything down now to get the weight down now….