Monster Training Tips!

Hi Bloggers,

We have a guest blog tonight from Ian who is chief coach and guru to the Monster Blog Team! He has raced the West Highland Way several times, does the three peaks race and another rather extreme event involving running up hills and sailing over stormy seas. He is extremely unreasonable and is motivated by cruelty.......read it and weep. (PS Glad I never succumbed to the poles!).

Deputy blogger

Ian's Top Tips!

I wouldn’t normally presume to give advice but, as I will be recovering from an operation and can not join you, Lee has asked me to pen a few training/fuelling/kit suggestions, in the hope of making your challenge less challenging and your monster less monstrous. My credentials? Chiefly partiality, prejudice and ignorance, along with some hill running, ultra-distance racing and long distance cycling.
So, here from my armchair, are my thoughts, principally empiric but also gleaned from the literature and discussions with fellow competitors.

The Bicycle
Hopefully any hire ones will have quick release saddle adjustment but it may be worth packing an adjustable spanner. When seated centrally, your instep should sit flat on the pedal with your leg fully extended. This means that when you pedal with the balls of your feet, as you should, the legs are just short of their full extension at the bottom of each stroke. You want stiff shoes for cycling – proper ones have rigid soles (and are hopeless for walking unless you want to impersonate a duck). Trainers are not good or efficient for any distance. Perhaps a trusted pair of harder soled, comfortable, fashion ones might be better if you don’t own cycling shoes. Before I bought my first “proper” ones I used a pair of stout brogues. Tyre pressure should be the highest the tyre allows (maximum figure is moulded on the sidewall) both for efficiency and as a safe guard against punctures. (Have you a spare tube and the means of removing wheel and tyre?) Racers roll at more than100 lb per square inch. Most bikes sit at around 30 psi! Guess which is the easier to pedal. If you have a choice, avoid the heavy, broad, low pressure, knobbly tyres beloved by the muddy fraternity. They are best left for tractors. Similarly, the stiffer the bicycle the better. It is not coincidence that the Tour de France riders use lightweight, suspensionless machines with incredibly skinny tyres, hard saddles and “drop” handlebars. With the huge distances they have to cover at speed in three weeks, comfort and efficiency are paramount.

The Walk
This is where you change into your trainers, or any comfortable, everyday shoes. Unless it is very wet and cold, or you wear them all the time, boots could be a bad idea. Socks need to be broken in too. Don’t keep new ones for the day as there is a likelihood they will be tight around the cuffs and you may get a painful build up of fluid around the tendon at the base of the shin. Many ultra runners cut the fronts of their new socks to sever the elastic built into socks.
“Smart Wool” socks are excellent.

Blisters? Once they have developed and burst they are best ignored until you have finished. The brain will blank out the pain. If you are aware of the skin rubbing, before it breaks, you may find “moleskins” (from a chemist’s Scholes foot department) prevent further damage. Scissors are required, as you cut to size and shape. Conventional plasters are too bulky.

Walking poles. My advice is; if you encounter any of these throw them into the canal. Try to ensure the owners are still attached. They are the greatest single (or paired) nonsense foisted onto a gullible public, other than “weapons of mass destruction” and “all terrain” perambulators. When Chris Brasher spread the myth about saving wear and tear on knees, he was making it up on the spot and ommitted to mention that he was marketing the rhythm destroying, soul destroying, unnatural, constantly getting in the way, peace wrecking, never the right adjustment, arm wearing, hand blistering, what do you do with them most of the time, gimmicky, fashion accessories. OK, if you have an injury a stick might help. Better still, an electric wheel chair or a motorcycle.

If you feel yourself flagging, swing the arms (unless you’re stuck with poles) to give some momentum and sort the breathing. Lead from the hips. Imagine a line attached to your groin area pulling you forward. This may work better for the chaps! Jog from time to time to change the muscle activity. For those of you wishing to finish before nightfall on the Saturday, try the sainted Baden-Powell’s “scouts’ pace” (campfire yarn 5). You walk for a set time (eg 10 minutes) and them jog for the same length of time. You are 50% faster.

You might consider carrying a supply of anti-inflammatories. I often use these as a matter of course during events BEFORE DIFFICULTIES ARISE. 400mg Ibruprofen is pretty good, unless you have stomach problems. An occasional contra-indication is shortness of breath, so try them first.

A useful psychology is to not contemplate the size of your task, on the day. Make targets such as the next checkpoint or whatever. If you tire, the targets should steadily be reduced – the next junction, the next bend and ultimately, the next step.
And, best of all, enjoy the view and chat to a chum – you may have to listen to them too.

Training
Training is all about clichés. “The hardest step is the one over the threshold.” “The most difficult move is putting your shoes on.” “Just do it.” Etc, etc.
At this stage I expect you are wanting to run/cycle/walk more than days than not. Or, stay in bed and read Ernest Shackleton. Then you will know that you can do anything. “Foritudine vincimus.”

Food and drink
As Tom Bourdillon commented during the first ascent of Everest in 1953, “The most important thing is that there is some.”
I would go for your normal favourites.
For endurance events, the current received wisdom advocates carbohydrates. Easily absorbed and converted sources include white bread and low fat rice pudding. Fats, cheese and chocolate etc, take longer to be of use and slow the passage of carbohydrate. Ultra-event runners who find it difficult to eat, drink a long chain carbohydrate concoction made from corn starch. Unlike carbohydrates such as sucrose and glucose, which can give unhelpful surges of insulin (rapidly leaping from hypoglycaemia to hyperglycaemia, both of which leave you feeling depleted), the stomach is tricked into accepting large quantities of evenly released energy. It is best bought as a powder (bland or flavoured) and mixed with water, in advance, perhaps using a food processor. Sachets of gels are also available but are less easily absorbed and require a good dose of water taken at the same time (they are also more expensive). The main brand is “Leppin” available from “Run and Become” (an inspiring shop) at 66 Dalry Road, just west of Haymarket (Edinrurgh).
There are electrolyte replacement drinks too (Staminade, Gatorade), but unless it’s extremely hot and you are travelling very fast they will be unnecessary, especially if you are eating normally. I have a theory that food assists the function of Leppin, as it helps to convey the drink to the gut where much of it will be absorbed. This is better than having your huge surge of energy a couple of day after you have finished!
The above supplements are mainly used by athletes who may be expending 12,000 calories in a 24 hour 100 mile run. If you are stopping to eat or can eat on the move, they are less important.
Those who struggle to raise an appetite might prefer something light such as tomatoes, melon, dates, squash/pumpkin soup. Bananas are supposed to be the perfect energy bar. They come in their own biodegradable wrapper. The ultimate gimmick is the lockable “banana guard” and, yes, there is a website. They come in different colours to compliment the walking poles. There is even a luminous one so that you can locate your fruit in the dark. When the orienteering world championships were held in Scotland, the whole of Inverness-shire, Perthshire and Moray sold out of bananas in a weekend.

Beware of too much fluid! Unless you are close to dehydration you will become less efficient (and pee all the time) if you keep using that other recent fashion accessory, the drinks bottle. Forget the urban myth of 8 glasses a day (that is for whiskey). For women, your body weight in pounds X .31 gives a recommended figure in fluid ounces. Sweaty men need a little more (X .35). Obviously if you are working hard you should increase your intake, but not by as much as many believe. On a long, hard run I rarely exceed 500mls per hour. If I am out for less than two hours, drinking is usually counter productive. Stalkers still believe that drinking water on the hill slows them down. They prefer to wait until they have finished the day’s work. Incidentally, a number of (female) marathon deaths has been attributed to excessive hydration – HYPONATREMIA. For some reason, only skinny, female, mediocre competitors seem to succumb. Perhaps the dilution is less relevant to stouter runners and the fast ones like Paula Radcliffe don’t have time to drink much.
Basically. eat and drink whatever you like.

GOOD LUCK and, if the going gets tough, remember it’s supposed to be a bit hard!

Ian

PS Happy to do one to one consultations in the shed at no 9 (bring your own cigs)