10 Weeks to 40m Ultra-marathon

10 Weeks to 40m Ultra-marathon

This is the summary of my third week’s training for the Brecon Beacon’s ultra-marathon. Mileage is upped, and the long runs are getting longer!

I started the week by putting an additional 1kg in my rucksack. I’ll have to run with emergency equipment on the runs, and that will weigh a few kilos, so I might as well get ready for it. Also, if I get to do the Marines’ selection run across Dartmoor I want to show them respect and run with as much weigh as I can to hopefully match their weight.

The additional weight did make a small difference – I felt a little slower up the hills, until I adjusted my running posture slightly to compensate for the weight.

My Sunday long run was a nightmare – so frustrating! I will always put my huskies first, and it was because of them I had to cut the run short. The temperature was 7 degrees when I left at first light. Yet rose quickly, and the last few miles I chose a route back that was shaded by trees so they didn’t overheat. I was hoping for 19-21 miles, yet had to settle for a little over 16.

Huskies have fur that insulates them against cold and heat. They cool through their mouths, ears, paws and anus. So when the heat comes up they can’t efficiently shed heat, and the insulation means they overheat quickly. Under 14 degrees is the optimum for working, although I know mine can do light work at 16-17 degrees. When I got back at just before 10am the thermometer was already pushing 19, and it was hotter in the sun.

Sunday was BBQ day and I fuelled up on meat and wine! Perfect for my run the next morning – commencing proper ‘back to back’ runs, getting my legs used to moving while tired. In coming weeks I’ll be looking at getting to around 26 miles on the Sunday and 14 on the Monday – getting the 40m distance in over two days.

I’ve also been hunting for the right foods to carry with me. Carbs, especially fast carbs, are NOT necessarily the right foods to be eating on an ultramarathon. I know it goes against the grain, yet it is worth looking at what happens at the hormonal level.

When you eat carbs your body produces insulin. The job of insulin is to take those carbs and store them as fat – and keep them there. Yet, I hear you say, this doesn’t matter because the carbs will first be used up to refuel – carbs are the first energy source of the body. And you’d be right.

However, you can only process around 300kcals of carbs an hour. Yet you will be burning far more energy. This energy (at the lower respiratory levels where ‘stress’ isn’t induced, such as during an ultramarathon) needs to come from your fat stores. When insulin is present glucogen doesn’t come out to play. Glucogen is the hormone which releases the fat for burning as energy.

Eat carbs and you inhibit fat burning.

And it gets worse. If you have fast carbs, like many energy gels provide, you will produce more insulin than what is actually required. This will further inhibit fat burning.

As a result I am looking towards fat and protein foods for my energy sources during runs, to ‘top up’ the depleting energy stores. And also I’m looking to allow my body to adjust to ‘fat burning’ mode as much as possible. Running an ultramarathon is just as much about correct nutrition and biological reactions as it is about running.

To keep the biological reactions at the right level I am looking at running within the ‘fat burning zone’ as much as possible. This is a lower heart rate, one where you can chat as you run. Here fat will be the primary energy source. Put your body under further stress and you will be burning protein from your muscles instead – not really a good idea!

I’ve found a great drink to use – each little plastic bottle contains around 350kcals all from fat, protein, and just a little carbs. I like the idea of taking fluid on with your food – it helps it be processed quicker in the stomach without drawing fluid from elsewhere in the body. I’ve found a product in Tesco’s that is a chocolate milkshake from full fat milk with single cream, real cocoa, and just a little sugar for sweetness. This could be perfect – I am one of the few who thrive on dairy. I’ll be giving them a go on my runs – I’ll let you know how it works out!

Interestingly, I think I have now hit ‘running fitness’. My body has adapted and now I just ‘run’, it is just a natural thing to do. My Tuesday run was supposed to be just 7 miles, yet I felt I could go on forever, so added another 2 on the end to complete 9 miles in total. I was going to do the further additional 2.5 miles to complete my 40miles for the week – yet I also know it is possible to push it too far, too quick. So I’ve allowed myself to get to the total in 4 days instead. And running the Wednesday 3.5miles, which took my running total to 41 this week, just seemed very short! The Thursday run was just bonus miles on top, and classed by me as active recovery.

I’m now pondering on what routes to run next week in order to keep things interesting on the longer runs.

This is my third week’s mileage, week commencing Sunday 9^th September:

Sunday:                16 miles

Monday:              12.5 miles

Tuesday:              9 miles

Wednesday:      3.5 miles

Thursday:            3.5 miles

Friday:                  Rest

Saturday:             Rest

Weekly Total =  44.5 miles

A Difference in Perception

A difference in perception

This blog post will be of interest to my hypnotist friends and anyone who would wonder as to the way that hypnosis works.

Hypnosis is all about changing people’s perceptions. By perceptions I am talking about how they experience the world – the way they receive and process information through their senses. As a hypnotist I guide their perceptions in such a way that they think differently. In a stage or street hypnosis context the perceptions may be guided so that I am invisible or someone has a set of horns growing out of their head. Or that their hand is stuck to a lamppost. Or that they can’t remember their name. Or that the next puff of the cigarette they are smoking will be the most disgusting thing that they have ever tasted.

In hypnotherapy perceptions are changed so that someone thinks differently – to let go of some trauma, to react differently, to have different habits. It is just another change to the way they perceive things. Perceive things differently, get a different thought process.

So hypnosis is all about changing perceptions.

The way that you perceive the world is not actually reality. Well, it is your reality, yet it is coloured by your life’s experience and may not be accurate to the original source of the information. Confused? Let’s take the eyes as an example.

The millions of rods and cones in your eyes receive reflected light. This information is coded into an electro-chemical pulse which fires through your neurology. It gets passed through the visual cortex in your brain where it is processed for depth, colour, movement, and distance and so on, and it is then crossed referenced against your life’s learning. Then on something known as the visual special sketch pad the image is formed in your mind.

What you see is not reality. It is your perception, or impression, of that reality, coloured by your life’s experience. The human mind looks to familiarise its experiences. In doing so it adjusts the information to suit. A hypnotist will change this perception to what they want it to be.

You can do this with a little demonstration to yourself. Here is the methodology I use to help people see an imaginary dog. I often do this process right at the very start of a session. The reason for this is that I get to know how I need to work with a client – how visual they can be, how to work with their imagination, the way they handle instructions, the language I must use – it is a good calibration tool. I can also then use it to springboard into pure hypnosis, using it as an induction.

If you can see then this methodology will work for you. If it doesn’t you just may need more explanation, or to have it put in a different way, or need a little bit of training. Yet it is possible for all of us to have a ‘positive hallucination’ – we do it all the time.

My ‘standard’ methodology goes like this.

“Look at the settee over there. Take in everything that you can see. As much detail as possible. Take in the information so that you can remember exactly what it looks like now.

Not now, but in a moment, I will ask you to close your eyes. As you close your eyes I want you to hold onto the image that you can see right now, so that when your eyes are closed you can still see the settee. OK, go ahead and close your eyes and hold onto the image of the settee. Make it real in your mind.

You can see the settee? Good. Your eyes are closed yet you can still see the settee. That’s because your mind creates the image. Every time our eyes are open information is received by the eyes, and then processed by your mind and the image is created. What you see is not reality – it is your perception of reality. You create the images whether your eyes are open or closed.

Now here’s the thing. Not now but in a moment I am going to say 1, 2 and then click my fingers. When I click my fingers a dog will appear in your mind on the settee. 1, 2, and what type of dog is this dog? Good. Did you tell it to be that type of dog, or did it just appear? It just appeared. That’s good. And what is it doing? OK, did you tell it to do that? That’s right, it is just doing that.

Now here’s the thing. Not now but in a moment I am going to say 1, 2, eyes open. Your eyes will open and you will look at the settee. And when you open your eyes you will hold onto the image of the dog, the same way in reverse you held onto the image of the settee. So I will say 1, 2, eyes open and you will look at the settee and see that dog there. 1, 2, eyes open and what is that dog doing now?

That’s right…”

For those of you who are familiar with Anthony Jacquin and Kev Sheldrake’s Automatic Imagination Model (AIM) you can see there are numerous opportunities within the above framework to utilise AIM. If my client cannot hold onto the image when they open their eyes I often utilise AIM as a method to ensure that they can. There are obviously many ways of working with a ‘live’ subject as every subject is different. Yet every subject can do this process – they do it every time they form an image, eyes open or shut.

From here I often have a play, the dog gets a unicorn’s horn, grows twice as big, shrinks to the size of a mouse, is wearing silly clothes, that kind of thing. Often I give the suggestion that every time they look towards the settee they will see the dog – and it can give them comfort during a hypnotherapy.

And from here the hypnotists amongst you will spot many opportunities to springboard directly into hypnosis. The moment you have ‘automatic perception changes at your suggestion’ you have hypnosis.

As all of our senses work the same way – we ‘perceive’ reality, all of our senses can be subject to perception changes. Perhaps the hypnotists amongst you can have a play with other senses too – I do!

This blog is a technical post designed to get the hypnotists thinking. Let me know how you get on, and please give me feedback! Hopefully, especially when you play with this, you hypnotists will realise (if you haven’t already) that the rituals you use aren’t necessary to create hypnotic phenomena – you can just go straight to phenomena. Use your skills to springboard from a phenomena creation and welcome to the quick world of amazing hypnosis...

11 Weeks to 40m Ultra-marathon

11 Weeks to 40m Ultra-marathon

I was pleased with my first week’s training – I really started to feel natural running with the huskies over longer distances. I am getting strict with them too – they are always maintained as being “on task” rather than diverting their focus. I’m training them to stay focused throughout the entire runs on the task at hand. They’re doing brilliantly, especially at their young age.

Running an ultra-marathon is not like running a marathon. The whole approach needs to be different. Efficiency is a key element so I’ve been really working on my running style. As a minimalist runner preferring the ‘barefoot style’ I’ve been working on my technique, looking for a gentle ‘tap-tap-tap’ with my footfall, landing on the midsole-forefoot, my foot beneath my knee and not in front of it, leaning slightly forward, arms in front of my body, and having a soft hip, knee and ankle to allow my legs to ‘roll’. This has created some style changes of running with the dogs in harness. I’ve increased my cadence (footfall rate) especially on the downhill sections. In fact, I am now even faster than before on a downhill than previously – considerably so, despite taking more steps. When your heel hits the ground it acts as a brake (and sends a shock through your body) and I now know that before I was over-striding and heel striking.

If you want to learn more about running efficiently then please stick ‘POSE running’ into Google.

My hands are now maintained as quite low, and my style looks like a loose and adapted ‘military shuffle’ of running with a pack. This is an efficient way of running for an ultra-marathon, where I need to travel distance without undue effort. I’m also running with a pack to get used to the load I will have to carry on the ultra. Currently it’s just with 2 litres of water inside, yet starting next week I will add a 0.5kg weight each week to get me used to an increased load. This is also in preparation for the potential run with the Marines – they do their 30mile Dartmoor run with weighted packs. I don’t want to let them down, and want to show them respect!

I do all my runs early in the morning where currently it is cool enough to work my huskies, and I do them on just a cup of coffee, and no breakfast. I also am not taking on any water during the runs, or any snacks along the way. I have a good reason for doing this in preparation for the ultra – I’ll be delving into nutrition and hydration in future blogs. For now the water makes a good starting weight in the pack, and just stays in the hydration bladder.

This is my second week’s mileage, week commencing Sunday 2^nd September:

Sunday:                14 miles

Monday:              7 miles

Tuesday:              6 miles

Wednesday:      10.5 miles

Thursday:            3.5 miles

Friday:                  Rest

Saturday:             Rest

Weekly Total = 41 miles

This is the weekly mileage I am aiming for each week. I’m now on target. The long run will start to get longer, as will the long run the day that follows it. In future weeks I will be aiming to get to the  40mile target as early in the week as possible, a day earlier all the time. As before, anything more will then just be the icing on the cake.

On the Wednesday I took on a ‘journey’ – I did a route that took me ‘somewhere’ albeit a circular route. It felt really, really good to be travelling somewhere. Psychologically it rocked! I actually felt like adding the final miles on to get the 40mile target completed that day – yet thought better of it! I am cautious of just doing too much too soon – I need to allow adaptation to take place to prevent injuries!

One issue I am having on longer runs is the annoyance of off lead dogs interfering with mine when they are working. Other dogs trying to play with them when they are working is a distraction and also good training to keep mine “on task”. Yet I have to let the frustration go from my own mind!

Next week the first weight will be added to my pack and the long runs increased in distance slightly. I wonder whether the light weight will make a difference? And just when will I reach the limits of my body’s hydration and energy? And will I continue to enjoy this journey more and more with every step? I’m posting this on a Friday…and looking forward to Sunday’s long run already… J

12 Weeks to 40m Ultra-marathon

12 Weeks to 40m Ultra-marathon

OK, I like a challenge. And when one as cool as this is presented, I have to take it! “Vote with your feet” is an old saying from my Ju-Jitsu coach. Perhaps I’m taking this one a little more literally. I’m signing up for a 40mile ultra-marathon across the Brecon Beacons in December. And I have just 12 weeks to go from zero to hero.

Actually, as a former professional athlete with 13 World Titles to my name, being a sports performance expert, being a personal trainer and getting miles under my feet with my crazed huskies, it isn’t too much of an ordeal. Just needs a bit of careful planning and training – and a steep learning curve. As my ultra-marathon running adventure racing friend Gary Valance said “the race you struggle with is the one you haven’t prepared for.”

I’m going to be doing the run with my two huskies – Harley and Max, who are young and will be in their first working season. You may think that having two huskies out in harness in front of you will help over the distance. Actually, there are as many disadvantages as advantages.

I need to run at my dogs’ pace, which often isn’t appropriate to my running cadence. They will veer off after deer, rabbits and squirrels. I need to use my legs to brake when going downhill as I am being dragged by 8-paw drive. Then there’s the stop starts, the pit stops, the gates to go through, roads to cross, stiles to climb over – it puts a different demand on your body. It adds on average around 1-1.5mins to my mile times. I also can’t train with them if it is 14 degrees and rising as they will over-heat. It also adds to the mental pressure – I’ll be commanding a team that needs to work together. And my team is young and inexperienced.

I will also need to carry spare kit for them on top of mine – it will add to my rucksack load. As this is a self-sufficient race, I will need to carry everything myself, including the 3-500ml of water per hour that I will require and all food. More on the nutrition and hydration in later blog posts.

Last week was my first week in training (after deciding to do the race a couple of days previously) when I just though “hey, why not?” From then until now I have learned so much, surfed the forums, spoken with doctors, spoken with soldiers and marines, networked with ultra-marathoners, and read the excellent book “Born to Run” by Christopher McDougall, which I highly recommend to anyone who wants to put one foot in front of the other. I’ll be getting across in my blog the lessons I learn as I go.

To start with, running an ultra-marathon is all about getting the miles under your feet. There are so many components to the race – physical fitness, mental condition, husky condition, team dynamics, nutrition, hydration, equipment, injury management – yet the most important thing is to get out there and run.

The key appears to be the weekly long run. To get an ever increasing distance under your feet in a single run, getting your body used to carrying out the distance. There are many schools of thought as to the correct distance to cover in training. The one that suits me, my lifestyle, my other training and fits with my knowledge base is to have a weekly average of around the final distance – 40miles per week.

This is to be broken down into a long run, followed by a second long run, and the rest of the miles coming as quickly as possible in the days afterwards, allowing for body recovery of course. Everything else on top is just icing on the cake.

This is my first week’s mileage:

Monday:              14 miles

Tuesday:              4.5 miles

Wednesday:      7 miles

Thursday:            3.5 miles

Friday:                  4 miles

Weekly Total = 33miles

33miles is under the mileage I wanted to go for, yet is still a good starting point. As the week progressed my runs became easier on my legs as they just adapted to the appropriate running style.

It is also worth noting where I am running. I am doing the run across the Brecon Beacons – not exactly flat! And it is a cross country run. So my running terrain is cross country and hilly – to prepare me for the end goal. I use the military training grounds between Aldershot and Church Crookham as my main running ground.  This is the old Para training ground known locally as ‘The Area’ and includes Beacon Hill with its sharp inclines, and every old-school Para’s friend ‘Flagstaff’ (known to civilians as ‘Caesars Camp’). I ensured that my running terrain was a complete mixture from sand, soft forest trails, tarmac, loose gravel, and mud – everything I can find.

I’m pretty pleased with my first week. It is a good base to start from. In the next few weeks, where I’m laying down the foundations of my conditioning, I will be looking to slightly increase my main long run and the run that follows it the next day. This will be built up to a long run of around 26miles with a run of 14miles the next day – getting 40miles under my feet in two days.

I also have had some very interesting texts from friends of mine in the Marines. It seems that I have an invitation to go and run the 30mile Dartmoor final selection run with recruits – how cool is that? Hopefully this will take place in late October or early November – a perfect final testing ground whilst allowing adaptation to take place before the big race. This gets me just as excited as the Brecons – the chance to run with elite soldiers on selection would be an amazing experience!

To close this post, I guess it is worth reminding myself that if you aren’t moving forward, you’re not even standing still – you’re going backwards…I want to move forward at some pace...