Namibian Viking

I cannot believe my unfortune… I have been flat out in bed during the weekend. A tummy bug has put a dent in my preparations!

I guess I should be careful what I wish for, a couple of weeks ago I told some friends it would be good if I could loose a couple of kg before the race, so that I could race lighter. Well mission accomplished, but not really the way I planned it.

I am now less then two weeks away from the race and I can not eat much, and definitely not run. Well from here on it can only gets better I think… Trying to stay positive at the moment is not the easiest. I have trained harder then last year, and I am in better shape, but something like this I had not planned for. I usually feel strong and able and today when I got the tube into work I felt that even that was a struggle!

Watch this space, the race is getting close, and I am leaving on Friday!

Any tips, help or thoughts along the way are much appreciated.

I am hobbling a bit! Not good with only weeks to go to Namibia. I did a 5 hour session yesterday and in the end of it the tendence on the top of my foot hurts. Nothing bad, but not good with so little time left to the first race. 

I had this type of injury before. 12 months ago when I trained for Namibia last year I got this every time I passed 3 hours. This year I have been doing less running, but more combined running and cycling. I think yesterday when I did 65km cycling and 26 km running I pushed it a bit too far. Even though cycling is low impact, over time it does put a strain on your feet. This together with the fact that the 26km yesterday was around Box Hill in Surrey left my foot in a bad way. Box Hill is a tough 13km loop with the first half having small up and downs, and then the end of each lap is a massive climb. 

I was going to start to taper (slow down) after this weekend anyhow, so I will just have to start to do that one day early. 

It wont stop me from getting on the bike and go up to Hamstead and maybe enjoy the sun and a game of Tennis with Martin S. but I will definitely take it a bit easy.

Onwards and upwards, bring on Namibia, with a slightly injured foot or not!

Not sure how many of you have read Dean Karnazes book “Ultra marathon man – confessions of an all-night runner”? Well I did it my own style on Saturday evening when I went for a 30km walk. It was the first time for a while that I did walk with a full race pack, 10kg on my back, including a very uncomfortable to carry tripod.

I was heading for St Pauls Cathedral. I have for years been wanting to go there to take photos of the building at night time. I managed to do a couple of shots (one of them here on the right, but you can see more on my flickr account, click on the image to go there).

It was a while ago that I focused on photography and it was good to be out on the streets of London really enjoying one of my great hobbies.

What was less enjoyable was the results of the walk. Fairly early on I realised that I was going to have blisters under the soles of my feet and on my toes, just as I had have in my race in Namibia. The walk is very different on the feet than the run and it has resulted in a set of blisters.

The good thing about it is that I can once again experience the feeling of walking on bubble wrap, a real treat, especially when I had decided to do a run today. The 23km felt longer then normal, since it was not the most comfortable run I have had experienced. More walks ahead of Namibia is needed to make sure the same thing doesn’t happen there!

Off training again! I cannot believe it, after two weeks off before Christmas I am still not back in proper training. Once again I feel my lunges are aching and some kind of inflamation is holding me back from training. Once back in London I will have to get it checked by a doctor… Definitly not how I wanted to start 2009!

I have been in bed for one week off work, followed by a week without any training at all. A chest infection similar to the one I got in January struck, but this time I managed to fight it off in two weeks, rather then three… I am have had such urge to go out running and properly start to train again, hopefully I have now had my unlucky break and will stay healthy from now on!