Training fell back a bit during August - mostly down to my daughter's multicultural, international wedding in Brussels. An incredible event, which was also a reunion for the VSO contingent that served alongside her in Rwanda.
I had already decided that this coming RR would be for Sport Relief 2014.
One of the things about skiing for 8-12 hours per day across a beautiful but quiet landscape is that you have plenty of time for contemplation – contemplation that for me, it is a choice, and that it is hard, but when it is done, it is done. But for millions of people, not only in our own country, but especially in Africa, as I have seen at first hand, when visiting Rwanda, life is hard, and it is never done. Thus every step I take generates money that will be used by Sports Relief to make a permanent difference in the lives of others.
One year I calculated that taking uphill and downhill into account, and my lack of style and technique, I effectively take about half a million steps to get from the Russian border to the Swedish border. A good test for equipment.
Yesterday I did a 23km run in preparation for the Bristol Half Marathon in a couple of weeks time. Not sure that I am going to match last year's time, let alone better it. For anyone trying to work out what level of fitness a "once a year skier" (it rarely snows where I live) needs in order to be able to do the RR, then a time of 2h 0m 2s in a 58 year old is a reasonable marker. Yesterday's run, with someone planning a marathon in a couple of weeks was the same training load as a day's cross country skiing at my pace. The difference with the RR is that you need to do this every day for a week. It also shows that I need to improve a bit - this distance and pace should not be such a high training load.
This last RR (2013) I paced myself a bit better - from running I know that the difference in my weekly 15.9km run between 93 mins and 90 mins is 20-30% extra on the training load. Thus it pays to find the natural pace that you run/ski at for endurance and minimum effort.
As I mentioned in a previous post, I am testing various nutrition bars and gels. I have a USB temperature logger, so I put several along with this in the freezing compartment of my refrigerator, checked them periodically and when I had finished, correlated the times and temperatures. They only got down to -13C, so I need to redo the test in the freezer. At -13C, one of them was just starting to go solid. This particular one has two versions - one contains more water, but I have not tested it, as it is bound to freeze at a higher temperature.
Some contain caffeine - this is supposed to help. However, if you are not careful it would be quite easy to overload on caffeine. Having once drunk too many cups of a very strong coffee on a stressful day, and though I was having a heart attack, it is something I am wary of.
So, progress is roughly on plan. This year, for the first time, I have had injuries running, and so having to take it carefully. The real question is can I improve by more than age is taking away? I don't think of myself as particularly old, although the wedding photos tell a different story. Old Man Time is going to have to fight me all the way.
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