James Elson: Badwater: Into the last 4 training weeks

Well Im still in training for Badwater. Id better be. Its still 135 miles in up to 55 degrees C of heat. Uphill. If you want a good look at the race then get the DVD Running on the Sun. The overdramatic trailer is below which makes most participants seem like a loony but lets be honest this stuff isn't that normal

Much better is the video of Jamie Donaldson storming the course in 2008

I said in the last post that i would look at dropping down the running mileage and adding some other components to training ie. saunas, neverending stair machine, cycling, swimming etc. I had to do it anyway because of the 4 day cycle ride from London to Brighton via Dorset spread across the end of one training week and the start of the second. Also I haven't swum at all, or indeed ridden my bike over 4 miles since August 2009 (ok one 60 miler with Jim) and with Ironman two weeks after Badwater I should get round to doing some more.

Volume has been ok. I had a big blow out on the Saturday after the bike ride and made it back to the hotel for 4am! So Sunday was a non event but other than that Ive stayed away from heavy boozing.

29th May - 4th June: Needed to do a big run on the Sunday to get some miles in the legs but not to overdo it too much given the cycling trip. 50km in horrible weather so not too bad and the Monday run was a nice bonus. No problems with my legs after either I think now I can run up to about 35 - 40 miles without the onset of leg fatigue if I pace at 6 - 7mph. Thats a good sign. Question is can I stave off bad leg fatigue up to the 70 - 80 mile marker so i can at least break the back of the race before succumbing to inevitable pain.

Saturday: 32 miles

Sunday: 3 miles

Monday: 18 miles

Tuesday: 4 miles

Wednesday: 80 mile bike

Thursday: 104 mile bike

Friday: 80 mile bike

Totals: 57 miles running. 264 miles bike. 1 x Sauna.

Hours: About 30.

5th June - 11th June: Finished the bike ride with a time trial up Ditchling Beacon and then a 10 hour boozing session. Back to running on the Monday and felt fine, didn't want to go too mental as I was still a bit run down and had the South Downs marathon on the Sat morning.

Saturday: 80 mile bike
Sunday: Rest
Monday: 8 miles
Tuesday: 16 miles
Wednesday: 4 miles
Thursday: 16 miles

Friday: 4 miles

Totals: 48 miles running. 80 miles bike. 3 x Sauna.

Hours: About 14.

Saturday: 26.2 miles South Downs Marathon

I took this one easy and ran it with Pete (see Country to Capital post). The race is fantastically organised start fo finish. We kicked off from Slindon College near Arundel and ran up to Queen Elizabeth Country Park near Petersfield, South Downs Way all the way. Good sunshine, great aid stations, walking ups and running the downs hard. 5600ft of climb, 5200ft descent. Nice trails for 90% of the race. Felt easy but quick enough. 3 hours 44 mins.

So from here a steady week with some swimming, lots of heat acclimation in the sauna at 90 degrees C and steady running. This weekend 2 x back to back 35 mile days over the South Downs again, days 2 & 43 of the Votwo South Downs Challenge.

Next weeks intention is to put in 135 mile week. 70 at the weekend and 13 a day through the week.

Don't you just hate it when you're about to finish a good race with someone you've run the whole way with and some try hard comes barrelling through the middle, knocking you (me in the awesome looking red visor) to make up 2 places so he can go from 34th to 32nd as if anyone gives a ....