http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVDfzeBKsxo otherwise look up on you tube: eathorne_GWTM I have had a calf injury and have been sick for the last three weeks so I am behind schedule. I am back to my asics gel and am a bit worried on account of reading the Atacama blogs that the asics will not be tough enough for the gobi terrain. Back soon Ross

Hi,

I have entered a sponsorship competition that I need over 5000 watches to win. Please watch and if you like comment and share with your running friends.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvdfzebksxo

Thanks Ross Eathorne
ps there are some exercises that I would be getting Rob James to do for his return to fitness

Two years ago I spent hours in a coffee shop plotting my nutrition strategy for the Sahara 2009.
I delved into a "nutrition for the endurance athlete" talk I was examined on at my Exercise Science course (in 1993), months before my first and only half-ironman, I read Hammer nutritions little red handbook and disseminated all that I had picked up from the experience of the people who have done ultras - client Jo Eades and the people who my wife met when she was doing the Gobi 09. So picture a4 pieces of paper, mind-maps, make-shift spread sheets with days/calorie output/timing of what foods to eat and of course the best non-chemical, organic as possible, easy to assimilate food I could carry.

As a male weighing 74kg my basal metabolic rate (energy expenditure just to sit, stand and sleep) was 1700 calories, I will burn up 5000 calories per 42kms (600 calories per hour) and that Hammer Nutrition say I can only absorb up to 240 calories per hour. This is 6700 calories per day (plus the energy expended to assimilate and digest food). Now as you are begginning to see the complexity develop let me throw in a couple of crucial facts about the energy stores and where the body gets energy from when the stored glycogen is gone.

We, humans, can store about 90 minutes to 120 minutes of glycogen (readily available sugar/energy) in our muscles cells and once muscles are topped up, in our Liver. So we need to answer  "where do we get out energy from post 90 minutes?

Fat-burning becomes more and more prominent energy supplier the longer the duration of the event. It takes about 20 minutes of continuous activity for fat to be broken down by the body and transported to the working muscles. It takes oxygen to process (also known as the Krebs cycle). You may have heard about the fat burning zone popular in the 80's and 90's? This zone is at intensities of around 50-60% of maximum heart rate roughy about a 3-5km an hour pace or walking. (So if you plan to walk we just provided the first part of the answer for you.) The great thing about this pace and energy replacement is that digesting food is less likely to detract from pace - more on this later.

Now, what happens if your intensity is 60-70% or for arguments sake at around puffing level? The heart is busy pumping blood and oxygen to your legs so they can contract and relax, and its carrying heat away from your core to sweating on your peripheries. The last thing the heart wants is for you to interrupt this rhythm and divert blood to the stomach to digest food (in doing so it will force you to reduce speed). Again we ask where does the body gets its energy from post 90 minutes when the intensity determines that fat burning underwrites but does not fully deliver energy? First answer. It doesn't and you "bonk", run out of energy, feel fatigued, light headed and want to sit down. Second answer and pertains especially to those who are well trained at ignoring the signals from the body or what I say when you see runners lying in the check-point, motionless with a IV drip inserted into their arm " mental ability outweighs physical capacity". These people get their energy from as Hammer says on its packets (and this is a hint) of Perpetuem, "minimize lean muscle tissue cannibalisation". Cannabilsation! What does this mean? Well folks it means you eat yourself for fuel, it means this is how anorexics die, firstly they eat up muscles - thats' why they are so skeletal looking and then they start on their vital organs. Once you start hitting something vital then the body stops - deadstop. (portions of this text are overly dramatic to make a point). Sound like you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, between being as good as you can be and finishing the race?

I lost 1.5 kg over the 250km in Sahara where many people lost 7kgs or more. I ate most of my food, took a few meals from people who were jettisoning weight from their backpack. I found it difficult to eat beef jerky, my trail mix, anything sweet - so much so I had to dilute my Heed electrolytes and energy drink, and for some reason couldn't face consuming my much trained Perpetuem protein, electrolyte and glucose replacement powder. So much so I reckon I carried 1-2kgs of food that I did not use. Arggh! now aahh as I can reduce my start pack weight from 9.8kgs and stuffed full (natural foods take up more space as does 2500cal per day) pack that displaced my center of gravity backwards (which I had not trained for), to my goal of 7.8kgs start weight for next time - Gobi 2009.

Back to nutrition puzzle. What to eat before, during and after a 250km multistage endurance event?

Putting aside the personal trainer and wellness coach occupation and moving into a competitive athlete mode aka Spartan mentality, I am planning at five months out to take the minimum daily requirement of 2000 calories per day. (Side note the World Health Organisation define starving as a diet containing less than 2000 calories per day - starving people usually sit all day.)

What is annoying is that on the second day of calculating all nutrition eventualities back in the coffee shop 2009, expert RTP blogger Rob James wandered by and said don't worry about all that stuff (exercise science calculations) just take 2000 calories per day. I chose not to listen to him as a greenhorn I chose intellect over wisdom. So once again I tip my hat to Rob (and mate if you have got this far into this mammoth blog I tip it again).

So what am I taking before during and after now that I am going warrior not wellness style? I am giving a talk on sports nutrition for endurance events over 90 minutes at Escapade sports next week so I have been revisiting my nutrition (I'm a bit of a geek on research and stuff like this) and on revising my Hammer stuff look at their Knowledge tab and read their article on "bonking". And what I read has changed what I was going to talk about dramatically...


When you eat your body has to separate fats, proteins, minerals, vitamins carbohydrates, fibre and waste product and transport it to specialised cells. Fat and protein are more dense and take longer and more energy to process. Carbohydrate break down into glucose and get sucked up into the blood stream very fast.  Insulin realises the delicate imbalance of blood sugar and draws it into the muscle and liver as glycogen. When the muscles and liver get full (remember 90-120 mins) and there is no energy demand excess glucose gets converted to fat (usually around the hips). Now this digestion process needs a window of three hours to do its business and then keep the insulin process quiet. If Not, and you take a traditional approach of a gel 5-10 mins before race start you spike the blood sugar and insulin response that makes it more efficient to tap into and use all the 90-120 min of stored glycogen in the body... dramatic pause... That means you will bonk earlier - end of competitive expectation. So what Hammer is saying when the race starts at posted 8am I need to be finished breakfast at 5am. Thankfully, they say that sleep is more important and that not eating before race start is acutally more beneficial to tap into the fat burning energy system  (1 gram of fat  = 9 cal, 1 gram of carbohydrate and protein = 4 cal).

So I am not going to take breakfast because I want to run not walk. I don't want to bonk early, I don't want to slow down to digest beef jerky, I don't want to be slowed down by a heavier than needed pack and my body's wisdom says I find it difficult to digest food when moving walking or running. This means the calories I took for breakfast and what I did not consume during Sahara can be channeled into extra calories after when the recovery is needed most to prepare for the next day.

This is my plan (and a caveat on some nice tasting snack in case of all going wrong)
Breakfast - none unless I have a 3 hour window.
During. Every 1km drink of water (infused with electrolytes) and drink of Hammer Nutrition Perpetum (to prevent gluconeogenesis or muscle canabilsation). So far a 600ml bottle of perpetuem last 3 hours (at 22C) so I will need to carry 2 sachets per 42km. at each checkpoint I will force down a Hammer Gel of 90cal of fast uptake glucose that I will absolutely use just to reduce the onset of bonking.
After. Hammer recoverite first 15 mins, then a expedition foods easily digested desert of blueberrys and custard - high carbohydrate but has some fat and protein and can double as breakfast if have three hour window and another 2 hours later a mountainhouse 540 calorie meal with more protein, fat and carbohydrate to make sure my muscle and liver glycogen stores are full.

My answer to the puzzle I am hoping works for me and I have 5 months and several events to trial it. Trialing it is the key as you can not predict how your body will react to the desert. I will sum up this science and wisdom by saying "Eat what you can digest".

Ok Peter, Sharron, Jo and Rob its official. I signed up Friday. I walked the 10 mins from my work and caught up with Ritta, the two Sams and an ever increasing team at RTP HQ, much nicer than entering online and a chance to get some inside knowledge of the distances and the course (this was met with a bog standard reply of "plan for each day being 40 and the longest day being 100"). I have already trawled last years blog to get a concensus of distances, terrain and insider knowledge. Last years female winner Denvy Lo has the best blog in this matter. I have been training since December 1 after completing a 24km outrigger canoe race. I have every session planned and am happy with progress so far having taken 25 mins off a 10km with 320 elevation since then. I am aiming to improve my training, nutrition, pack-weight, movement strategy from the 2009 Sahara adventure and in doing so better the 40 hour mark. Being highly competitive in nature I am resisting putting an outcome goal that is dependant on the quality of other entrants to realise. As a natural power athlete I need to access all my sports science and wellness thinking and nutritional background to admit to going any faster and keeping up with endurance machines like Sahara tentmate Peter Sexton and client Jo Eades. I have a spreadsheet detailing my training schedule and Hong Kong routes course notes and nutrition/weight strategy. I aim to blog regularly on these topics and welcome input from to help me refine and improve. Movement: After a slight hamstring strain last saturday doing 400 m intervals on a the Pok Fu Lam part of the HK trail I have decided: a) sprinting on unstable loose surface around tight corners with irregular surface and steps is not the best for stability and the risk of injury versus the return to running speed is not worth it. Intervals will be done on a track in future. b) Glad that my periodisation of intervals is every 3 months. c) that I will train until April using heart rate and time and hopefully reach a few time/distance markers before I abandon technology then tree hugging hippy no shoes method of training by distance and feel (ala Born to run). Mon: Deviated from speed phase tempo run to 35 min easy run to test hamstring/ Core work in gym using a mixture of TRX, DB, Cables and Kettlebells, TP Therapy to free up fascia before running and also to recover from run. Tues: 2 hour easy light smooth run - heart rate 125, 16km. Yoga class Wed: Core work in gym Thurs: 10km time trial - took 5 mins of 5 week ago time. Am happy with this Fri: Core and muscle balancing programme in gym Sat: will attempt to do 8-10 400m intervals at 85-95% hr Nutrition: Decided that after a couple of "bonks" and as time is increasing above 90 mins I need to address my hydration and fueling. Am giving a sport nutrition talk at Escapade sports mid Feburary to help enforce the science and wisdom behind this important subject. Thoughts: After getting a bit outcome focused the last month and choking the fun aspect out of training and attitude have resolved to enjoy each step. This means abandoning thinking about the end of the course or distraction by ipod. Am very positive with time trial, how programme is working and how my Indiana Jones adventure is unfolding.