Having done plenty of reading about the best method of training for an event like this, we discovered that unanimously there is no answer. Some athletes advocate a strength based approach to deal with the demands of the sand dunes, others say just run run run. We considered that seeing as we all have a decent strength base we better crack on and just start running, get some miles through the legs, and it was going so well...
Zac and I started running to and from work with our backpacks a few times week, a distance of about 11km, and in the scorching British summer as well. We started off doing it in abt 1:05 hrs, and got it down to about 55 mins after a couple of weeks. We were feeling fit and light on our feet, sadly my body didn't entirely agree and I started getting pain in the outside of both feet. I booked in to see the physio, the diagnosis was either a stress fracture or tendonitis. Apparently both fairly common injuries for runners who go a bit too hard too soon. So I've had the MRI scan and waiting for the results, hopefully it will be a few weeks rest and some strength exercises but we'll see.
The team was dealt another minor setback that same week as Zac managed to injure his ankle playing Rugby. Luckily that one looks like an impact injury more than anything, but he has still had to take a couple of weeks off running on the road to let it settle down. As an alternative we have both been training hard on the cross trainer and stair master in the gym, doing plenty of core exercise and making sure our glutes and calves are strong enough and flexible enough to cope with the impact of training once we're back on the road. In a way this is a bit of a blessing in disguise to pick these knocks up with eight months still to go until the race. We're taking our time getting niggly injuries sorted and make ourselves physically as well prepared as we can for the mileage that we need to put in. The quality of the mental prerpatation on the other hand is something we'll probably only discover once we're in 50c heat in the Sahara...
Books:
'Running From Shadows' by Mark Roe
'Running the Highway to Hell' by raeme Harvey
