My final mammoth training run this weekend. My feet, throbbing as usual. My toes, blackened with blisters. My shoulders, tender from the straps of my bag.

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..well actually I’m going to be talking about 3 (but 1001 sounded better in the title).

It’s my first post in 2 weeks and I’ve been busy!

Like all good stories, this one picks up where my last one crashed and burned.. Some friends and I went for a short trip to the English lakes (one of England’s outstanding national parks). This area is prime adventure territory.

With a short amount of time now left to the start of the race, I was naturally looking for training opportunities. I wanted to do things that had the potential to be physically demanding but at the same time minimised the chance of injury.

Surrounded by huge mountains¹ my first thought was to get in some trekking. The first of my innovative* training solutions - striding up the mountains. I did find that my previous training with ankle weights helped me massively here. I was able to ascend quickly and recover fast, just what I need for those dunes.

My next activity was on much lower ground, the lakes themselves. I hired some Canadian Kayaks and promptly challenged some friends to a race around a lake. The lake was massive and the race lasted a couple of hours. I would have won but I had a ‘steering malfunction’ as my fellow kayak buddy struggled to grasp the paddling.

The third and final innovation* was on the rocks. I decided to experience rock climbing. Having never done this sport before I was really surprised to discover how much of an all body workout it gives. I could feel the strength in my arms as well as my legs as I scraped myself up the rock. I had such a blast.

It was really over all too quickly.

Despite my innovative* training regimes, upon returning home I decided to cover all bases and get some more ‘traditional’ training in. I signed up to a 60 mile ultra-marathon which I managed to get through relatively unscathed in just over 15 hours.

So as far as everything goes, I’m really looking forward to the race. I’ve only got 2 weeks left at home, then off to Phoenix before I fly back to London and on to Cairo. I’ve given myself 6 days in the city before the race, to relax, acclimatize and perfect my haggling technique. Not long now.

Oh, and as far as testing kit goes, I’ve realised that no matter how hard I tried to imagine, the English lakes are nothing like the hot humid conditions of North Africa.

^{*When I say innovative this is by no means covering up for generally fooling around with friends
1Technically I think these are classed as 'hills' but who's counting} 

I’d love to hear from any other competitors, via email. Twitter @samlipscombe or by commenting below.

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When meeting new people I have often found myself introducing the concept of a 150-mile ultra-marathon. To most people this conversation usually elicits one of two responses

Monday morning, I awoke, bleary eyed. I made my way to my front door to place on my shoes for the start of another week

Someone once said to me that I should aim to live my life like I was writing the best, most entertaining autobiography I could. Well I